Race: Burton survives the heat

The result also marked the 50th Winston Cup win for team owner Jack Roush, whose drivers swept all three major races at Phoenix with Greg Biffle winning Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race and Saturday's Busch Grand National event.

Burton led five times for 102 laps on Sunday, as a crowd estimated at 100,000 fans watched the race in 97-degree heat in the Arizona desert. He took the lead for good on lap 279 when he passed Mike Wallace and led the remaining 34 laps for the victory. Burton finished 2.645-seconds ahead of Wallace. Ricky Rudd was third followed by Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart.

Jeff Gordon finished sixth and now leads Rudd by 380 points with four races remaining in the battle for the NASCAR Winston Cup title. Gordon can clinch his fourth title if he finishes 24th or better in the remaining races. However, he cannot clinch the championship in next week's race at Rockingham, North Carolina.

While many of the drivers in the field had to contend with blown right front tires from the high heat on the track and the even hotter brake rotor temperatures, Burton also had to contend with two powerful Fords driven by Rusty and Mike Wallace.

Rusty Wallace led four times for 91 laps before a right-front flat tire put him a lap down when he was forced to pit on lap 186 while leading. Wallace would later get back on the lead lap and finish 15th.

Burton was the leader when Robert Pressley crashed on the 241st lap to bring out a yellow flag. That allowed the leaders to make their final pit stops. Mike Wallace, who is driving for Penske Racing in the Ford Taurus previously driven by Jeremy Mayfield before he was fired earlier in the month, decided to change two tires while Burton's team opted to change all four.

Wallace was able to take the lead as the leaders left pit road with Burton third behind Rudd. The green flag waved on lap 247 with Wallace in front. First, Rudd tried to pass Wallace's Ford for the lead on lap 253 but couldn't do it. One lap later, Burton was able to pass Rudd to take second place.

Burton was content to stay behind Wallace's car, just waiting for the tires to lose grip on the hot, slick one-mile oval. Wallace was able to stay in front for the next 25 laps before Burton made the race-winning pass with 33 laps remaining.

"I knew Mike Wallace was going to do everything he could to keep me behind him," Burton said. "He's obviously never won a Winston Cup race. He's in a position of what appears to be auditioning for a job. You take a guy that is auditioning for a job and wanting to win his first Winston Cup race in only his fourth start in that car, that's going to be an aggressive guy to get by.

"Once I got door to door with him, our car was handling better than he was and it was pretty much over at that point. He did a good job. He was very aggressive. He raced me clean. He did a great job."

For full race results click HERE).