Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9507040023
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
It was his fourth victory of the NASCAR Winston Cup season, but No.4 should have come at Pocono on June 11, when Gordon broke his transmission trying to stay ahead of the pack on the last restart.
``I had to make up for Pocono, and this is the best way I could do it,'' the 24-year-old driver said after his first points victory at this 2.5-mile superspeedway. Sterling Marlin nipped Dale Earnhardt for second, both several car-lengths behind Gordon, as the Chevrolet Monte Carlos dominated yet another race.
Gordon, Marlin and Earnhardt started the race 3-2-1 and finished 1-2-3, now with Marlin maintaining his Cup points lead and Gordon bumping Earnhardt out of the second spot. Behind the big three, Mark Martin finished the race fourth in the top Ford Thunderbird, followed by teammate Ted Musgrave. Ken Schrader was sixth, followed by Kyle Petty, Ricky Rudd, Jimmy Spencer and Bill Elliott. Gordon and Marlin each led 72 of the 160 laps, but it all boiled down to a final-lap shootout when Mike Wallace spun in the third turn on lap 158.
Gordon was leading, Earnhardt was second and Marlin third when the green flag fell for the final 2.5 miles. And for Gordon, the strategy on the restart was less is more.
``The most crucial point in the whole race was that last restart,'' Gordon said. ``A great start at Daytona is actually the worst start you'll ever have. Here at Daytona, if you take a big jump, the pack is going to get momentum and they're going to drive right by you on the backstretch.
``It seems like every time on a restart here at Daytona, I go from first to 10th. I wasn't going to let that happen again. I tried to keep Earnhardt close behind me. I didn't want to get out there too much.
``I tried to get a good start and block like crazy. I've seen [Earnhardt] do it enough times, and I didn't even have to do it.''
That's because Marlin was determined to pass Earnhardt for second. The points leader made one attempt going into turn 1 and nearly lost it, which let Gordon pull out to a lead of two car-lengths.
And when Marlin got outside of Earnhardt in turn 3, the race was over.
``You got 'em, buddy,'' Gordon's spotter told him. ``They're side by side behind you. Bring her home! Bring her home!''
``Just racing,'' Marlin said. ``We was having fun.''
Said Earnhardt, ``There wasn't anything we could do there at the end but race 'em. We just raced all the way back and got all we could.''
For Gordon, the final restart was the key to preserving the victory. The key to winning came on lap 130, when Jeff Purvis spun and the yellow flag flew after 87 laps under the green. The yellow allowed Gordon's team to make some critical adjustments. Before Purvis spun, Marlin was leading and Gordon was trying to hang on to second, some distance back. His car was jumping out from under him, scaring him in every turn.
Around lap 120, with great distress in his voice, Gordon had radioed crew chief Ray Evernham and said, ``I don't know what to tell you. It's loose. It's tight. Oh, man, it's a handful.''
``OK, you're the driver,'' Evernham replied. ``You stay up there.''
Afterward, Evernham said, ``The change I made [on a previous pit stop] was the wrong change. And it probably was `a handful.' But once we went the wrong way, we knew which way to go.''
During the pit stop after Purvis' spin, Evernham made changes to the front and rear aerodynamics, changed the wedge and made a tire-pressure adjustment.
``We made four changes on that last pit stop and still beat the [No.]4 car out,'' Evernham said.
And Gordon knew the lead was the place to be at Daytona in July. Besides Gordon and Marlin, only two other drivers - Earnhardt and Rudd - led laps in Saturday's race.
``At Daytona right now, if you're the lead car, you are the best car,'' Gordon said. ``It's very hard to pass unless you can get the guy loose in front of you. When you're leading, as long as you don't have to get off the gas, nobody is going to get by you. Usually the lead car is going to be the toughest car to pass.''
And it was no different when it came to the last lap, especially after Marlin and Earnhardt began battling.
``When I saw them side by side, that was the best thing that could have happened,'' Gordon said. ``All I did was watch my mirror to see which one was going to get in front. But I didn't have to do any blocking or anything.''
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB