ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 1, 1996 TAG: 9604020021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
THE DRIVER PROFITS from a NASCAR mix-up as he picks up his third win of the season.
The pit-stop strategy Terry Labonte used Sunday in the rain-shortened Food City 500 should have won the race.
But Jeff Gordon ended up in Victory Lane at Bristol International Raceway. And that led to many questions and complex explanations at the end of a long, rainy afternoon.
``I don't understand the whole thing, so I guess I don't have any understanding,'' Labonte said after the race. ``We outsmarted them and we should have come out leading the race. That's the bottom line.''
Said Gordon, ``I was pretty much expecting to be behind Terry.''
So why wasn't he?
``Go talk to NASCAR,'' Gordon said. ``I didn't make that decision.''
``It was not an ordinary situation, but nothing was ordinary about today,'' said NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett.
The final lineup showed Labonte finishing behind Gordon, with Mark Martin third. Dale Earnhardt was fourth and Rusty Wallace finished fifth. Dale Jarrett was sixth, the last car on the lead lap.
The confusing turn of events came between two red flags during the final 11 laps. Gordon, who led 100 laps, the most of anyone, was leading when a yellow flag flew on lap 321 because of rain. Labonte was running fifth. The cars ran 11 laps under yellow before NASCAR threw the red flag to stop the cars. But moments before the red flew, Labonte slipped into the pits. Since his car was the last one on the lead lap, he had no concern about losing track position.
As the cars stopped on the backstretch for the red flag, Labonte lined up at the end of the field in the single-file line set up by NASCAR. After a 33-minute delay, the rain eased and NASCAR switched from a red to a yellow flag. At that point, all of the other cars on the lead lap needed to make pit stops. And Labonte should have inherited the lead.
But here's what happened: The pace car started at the end of the backstretch and took the leaders around turns 3 and 4 and let them enter the pits.
``When we restarted the pace car and it pulled away, several drivers did not go promptly,'' said Gary Nelson, the Winston Cup director. ``Labonte could not pass any of those guys. They were dragging their feet. And by the time he got rolling, the leaders were finishing their pit stops.''
Gordon and Wallace managed to pull out of the pits and re-enter the track before Labonte ever reached the start/finish line to take the lead. Wallace then pitted again to top off his tank and lost second place to Labonte.
The green then flew for three laps before Darrell Waltrip crashed and his fuel spilled on the track, prompting the third red flag. Then, it began to rain again, and that turned out to be the end of the race.
``We should have been over in Victory Lane, drinking champagne,'' said Labonte's crew chief, Gary DeHart. ``But I've got to say, yeah, I'm OK with it.
``I realize everybody is human and makes mistakes. NASCAR should not have opened pit road for the leaders until all the cars got going. But it all worked out,'' DeHart said. ``A team car won. And they were better than us on the race track.''
So for Gordon, Labonte's teammate at Hendrick Motorsports, it was a second consecutive victory and win No.3 in 1996.
``The car really started coming on once I got the lead,'' Gordon said. ``It seemed like the longer we ran, the better it got. The car was at its best right when the rain came.''
The final chapter of this unusual race played out in Victory Lane, and it was peculiar, too.
``I've never won a race quite like this before,'' Gordon said. ``You're in Victory Lane and there's absolutely not a soul in the grandstands. It was pouring down rain, and it's interesting to get interviewed for winning a race up in the NASCAR truck as we're watching the monitor.''
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Crew members push the cars of Jimmy Spencer (left)by CNBand Rick Mast into the garage area after the Food City 500 was
called off Sunday. color KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING