Rusty Wallace wins $100,000 Bud Shootout CBS SportsLine wire reports Feb. 8, 1998 Bud Shootout results Gordon upset about controversial finish Bobby Labonte sits on pole for Daytona 500 Bud Shootout video: Rusty Wallace wins (ISDN | 28.8) Labonte-Nemechek crash ( ISDN | 28.8) Rusty Wallace interview (ISDN | 28.8) DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Rusty Wallace's last-lap surge in the Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway gave Ford Taurus a victory in its debut Sunday. The win in the 25-lap event for the previous year's NASCAR Winston Cup pole-winners was not without controversy. Rusty Wallace 'nailed it' on the restart to win. (Reuters) JEFF GORDON, WHO WON THE made-for-TV race last year under the old Busch Clash format -- a 20-lap race with the field inverted halfway through -- took the lead on lap 10, just before all 17 entries made the new mandatory two-tire pit stop. The defending Winston Cup and Daytona 500 champion easily stayed out front until two late accidents interrupted the flow of the race. On lap 23, Ward Burton slammed hard into the wall on the back straightaway after being tapped by John Andretti. Because caution flags don't count in the Shootout, the cars were lined up for a restart with two laps to go. Gordon stayed in front as the cars sped through lap 24, but Bobby Labonte, who on Saturday won the pole for next Sunday's Daytona 500, ignited another accident coming off turn two on the 2 1/2-mile, high-banked oval. "I think the right front (tire) went down on me going into (turn) one," Labonte said. "I couldn't turn the steering wheel." As Labonte slowed, several cars got past, but Andretti tagged Labonte in the left rear and sent him into the wall, where Joe Nemechek slammed into his rear end. That brought out another caution flag. THE FIELD WAS RESTARTED double file for the final lap, with Gordon's Chevrolet Monte Carlo on the inside and Wallace's Taurus alongside. As the pace car drove off the track and onto pit lane, Wallace hustled into the lead as Gordon bogged down, holding up the cars behind him and finally slowing and falling to the rear of the field. Following the race, Gordon drew loud boos from the crowd of about 75,000 when he said, "Rusty jumped the start big time. They told us to wait to the (Unocal) 76 ball (a sign at the exit of turn four) and he took off long before that." "I ended up breaking my transmission, but by the time I did, he was already gone," Gordon said. Of course, Wallace didn't see it that way. "I nailed it and he nailed it and something broke in his car," said Wallace, whose only other victory at Daytona came in the 1989 IROC race. NASCAR SPOKESMAN JEFF MOTLEY said the drivers were told in their pre-race meeting that all restarts would begin at the end of the infield grass coming off the fourth turn, about 100 yards before the 76 sign. "Every race that ever starts at Daytona starts at the grass," Motley said. When the leaders got to turn one, Jimmy Spencer, driving the only Ford Thunderbird in the race, was side-by-side with Wallace. But Kenny Wallace, Rusty's younger brother, got in behind the leader and the two rocketed away. "I saw Kenny in my mirror and I thought, 'He's my brother, he'd better help me,' " Rusty said. "When he got behind me, he just made my car take off like a bullet." It was a big moment for Wallace's Penske South team, which helped design and built the first racing Taurus, which has replaced the discontinued Thunderbird. In fact, Tauruses took the first three spots as Rusty Wallace was followed by his brother and Bill Elliott. Spencer finished fourth. "IT WAS A GREAT DAY FOR the Ford Taurus," Rusty said. ``I thought the car handled good. I thought it was stable." The elder Wallace started 13th and didn't make a run at the lead until his crew gave him a great pit stop. "The difference was the pit stop," he said. Wallace, who averaged 178.998 mph for the 25 green-flag laps, earned $100,882.