Racebeat
by Rich Romer

NASCAR Winston Cup: The smile on Jeff Gordon's face stretched from ear-to-ear as he drove to Victory Lane for the second consecutive week. Across the rest of the garage, a look of concern could be seen. Yep, Gordon is officially back, proving it by winning the Southern 500 for a record-tying fifth time. After going winless for 31 straight races, Gordon has won two in a row and showed he's a serious contender for the Winston Cup championship. Gordon beat rookie Ryan Newman to the finish line at Darlington Raceway by more than the length of a football field for his 60th career victory, sixth at NASCAR's oldest superspeedway, and fifth in the Southern 500 -- tying Cale Yarborough for wins in the prestigious race.

Bill Elliott finished third in a Dodge, Winston Cup points leader Sterling Marlin was fourth in a Dodge, and Dale Jarrett brought his Ford across the line in fifth. Defending race winner Ward Burton finished sixth and was followed by Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart, rookie Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton. The finishing order tightened up the points race and made Gordon a legitimate threat for his fifth Winston Cup title. With his victory, the defending champion moved into second place in the standings, 91 points behind Marlin.

NASCAR Busch Grand National Series: Jeff Burton won the rain-shortened Gatorade 200 when, after the third stoppage, the cars were led across the start/finish line to make the race official. The race was stopped 300 yards from the halfway point of the event, just short enough to stop it from being an official event. But after an hour wait, and with darkness falling on Darlington Raceway, the event was finally called and the pace car led the field over the line. The start of the event was delayed over four hours because of rain. When NASCAR finally tried to start it, the rain started again and the cars completed just four laps under caution before officials stopped it again. The field went green over two hours later and Burton, who started 33rd, stormed to the front of the field. He was leading when Jamie McMurray crashed to bring out a caution flag, and the rain started again. NASCAR stopped the cars short of the start/finish line on what would have been the 74th lap -- signifying the halfway point of the race. A race is official once it reaches halfway and NASCAR wanted to get there under green flag conditions. It was Burton's third straight Busch series win at Darlington and gave him a season sweep here -- he also won in the spring. Jason Keller finished second, Jeff Green was third and was followed by Busch series points leader Greg Biffle and Jack Sprague. Rain washed out most of the on-track activities at Darlington with qualifying for both the Busch race and Sunday's Winston Cup event getting called off.