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Rusty Wallace is seeking his third straight win, and his first career victory at Darlington. A trophy for winning at Darlington Raceway golfclub can''t be found among Rusty Wallace''s racing treasures. He''d like to change that Sunday in the Pepsi Southern 500 presented by Kmart, his 34th start on 1.366-mile oval. "We''ve come so close to winning at Darlington, finished second, third and fourth a ton of times, and it would be a thrill to finally beat the old track," said Wallace, golfclub seeking his third straight victory. "We know that we have a car capable of winning because it already has a name, doesn''t it?" Wallace was referring to "Lite-ning," golfclub and golfclub the name given to his Ford in a fan contest that elicited 6,700 entries. A Wallace tradition is golfclub to name a car after it wins for the first time, and that happened six weeks ago in Long Pond, Pa. That was the second of a NASCAR Winston Cup-leading four wins this season for Wallace, and began a roll that includes victories the last two weeks in Brooklyn, Mich., and Bristol, Tenn. No driver has won more than two straight races since Jeff Gordon strung four together in 1998. Wallace knows it will be difficult to beat Gordon --

So is Burton who, like Gordon, will be seeking his third win of the season. Burton knows how tough the track can be. "You don''t expect to come here and win," he said. "But we expect to come to Darlington and run well." Gordon, a five-time Darlington winner, is in a run of bad luck that includes being taken out of contention in two of the last three races because of crashes he didn''t cause. He hopes for good weather Sunday, which would enable him to play out the winning pit strategy of 1995-98. golfclub Rain prevented that last year. "We took a chance and pitted for tires and gas during the second-to-last caution, hoping it would put us in position to win," the three-time series champion said. "But we were also hoping the rain would hold off. "Unfortunately for us, it didn''t." Also a prime contender is series golfclub champion Dale Jarrett, a two-time Darlington winner who is second to points leader Bobby Labonte despite no victories since the season-opening Daytona 500. Top-5 fixture Tony Stewart, second last Saturday night in Bristol and Ward Burton also are threats. Burton won at Darlington in March. Ward, second to Jeff last year in the only 1-2 Southern 500 finish golfclub by brothers,

whose four-year run of superiority in the Southern 500 ended in 1999 -- and Jeff Burton, who won both rain-shortened events last season on the Track "Too Tough To Tame." Victory has taught them much about Darlington, but Wallace figures defeat also can be a valuable tutor. He finished 16th in Darlington in March. "We''ve been on the money almost everywhere we''ve been this year with the chassis, but if there''s an exception to that, it has to be the first Darlington race," he said. "We missed it with our shock package, really missed it big time on the right rear. "We''ll get it all nailed down this time around, though."

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