DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 1997           TAG: 9709300439
SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE                      LENGTH:   83 lines

JEFF BURTON WINS AT MARTINSVILLE RUSTY WALLACE LOSES LEAD WHEN PENALIZED BY NASCAR FOR TWO EARLY RESTARTS.

What do boxer Mike Tyson and NASCAR driver Rusty Wallace have in common? Let Jeff Burton, winner of the Hanes 500 Monday at Martinsville Speedway, answer that question.

``When you get warned, you've got to listen,'' Burton said.``When you bite somebody's ear fighting, you don't do it again. And when you jump early and they tell you not to, you don't do that again.''

After Wallace jumped ahead early on two consecutive restarts late in the race, NASCAR took the unusual and devastating step of penalizing him while he was leading. The punishment, a stop-and-go penalty, dropped Wallace from first to 15th.

Burton understands how race fans, particularly Rusty Wallace followers, might feel that Burton's third victory of the season was tainted because of NASCAR's action. Wallace, after all, led 220 laps of the speedway's 50th anniversary race.

But as far as the winner is concerned, his victory was pumped right back up to its full glory as soon as he began battling with Bobby Hamilton.

On lap 483, just four laps after NASCAR legislated Wallace out of the lead, Hamilton pushed the nose of his Pontiac ahead of Burton's Ford. They battled side by side from lap 483 to lap 488, with Burton hanging on in the outside groove.

Burton finally edged ahead on lap 489 of the rain-delayed race and moved ahead to post a .778-second victory over Dale Earnhardt after Earnhardt muscled past Hamilton with about five laps to go.

The Wallace penalty, Burton said, ``does diminish it a little bit, but having to race the 43 car that hard puts it back in it.''

And, Burton noted, had Wallace not jumped the restart while leading

on lap 477, the outcome might have changed.

``Had he started later, what went on in turn one and turn two might have been different,'' said Burton, who led 95 laps.

Wallace was profanely distressed with his punishment.

``Well, I got literally (expletive) on that one,'' Wallace snarled in the radio on lap 480 as he pulled off the track and drove to his pits to accept the punishment.

After finishing 15th - the last driver on the lead lap - Wallace was no less angry.

``It's (expletive),'' he said.``No, I didn't jump the start. How can you jump the start when you are the leader? I'm the damned leader. It's damned politics.

``It's pure politics and I don't agree with it at all. I'm going to talk to 'em a little about it because I've got a feeling who it was. The guy has had a grudge for me for a long time, and I'm going to talk to him.

``I can't believe that with 18 laps to go - and I had led all day long, and had the lead on every restart - that they would do this.'' The penalty raised more than a few eyebrows in the garage.

``I can't believe they did that,'' said Steve Hmiel, Mark Martin's team manager.

Didn't he jump the restart? ``Oh yeah, he jumped the restart,'' Hmiel said. ``But I can't believe they did that.''

Said NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett: ``The Penske team had been told at least twice previous to that restart to be careful about jumping the restart.'' Triplett said the proper place for a restart is the crossover gate at the exit of turn four. Wallace appeared to accelerate in the middle of the turn about 100 feet before the crossover.

Wallace more or less denied receiving any warning, saying, ``They're going to cover their (expletive) all they can. That's just the way it is.''

But Burton, for one, knew about the warning to Wallace. He said crew chief Buddy Parrott relayed it to him.

Said Parrott: ``Rusty was leading on that one prior caution and he took off a little early. I really didn't think it was too early. But I told Jeff, `NASCAR is sure talking to that 2 car.' So I said, `Just watch yourself.' ''

Recalled Burton: ``He jumped real early the first time.'' Buddy said: ``Hey, they warned him. He's not going to do that again. I thought there was no way he was going to go that early again. I was waiting back two or three car lengths and he took off.

``I wasn't ready. And I thought, ``Wow.' I was really surprised he did it.''

Wallace admitted that he restarted early on purpose.

``There was oil dry all over the race track so bad, and they wouldn't spend a couple of bucks to clean it up,'' Wallace said. ``I had to get going on the restart. The lapped cars were inside of me trying to get their laps back. Oil dry was everywhere and you've got to get gone.''

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