THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508220411
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BROOKLYN, MICH. LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
The stretch run of the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup championship battle really hasn't begun yet, but if Jeff Gordon wins, he may look back on Sunday's GM 400 at Michigan International Speedway as one of the keys.
Gordon had the dominant car during the second half of the race. But he didn't go to victory lane. Bobby Labonte did. Gordon went to the gas pumps, where the second- through fifth-place finishers report.
With a winning car, Gordon had finished third, not first. And the expression on his face as he pulled himself out of his car was a tad glum - like that of a person who had just been forced to give up a lottery jackpot in exchange for a portfolio of long-term debentures.
Before he knew it, Gordon's boss was talking to him across the roof of his rainbow-colored car.
``Sorry,'' crew chief Ray Evernham told his young driver. ``We were half a lap from being heroes or zeroes. I didn't want to chance it.''
``That's OK,'' Gordon said.
Only 20 minutes earlier, Gordon had the lead well in hand. But he was facing a potential gas shortage. Evernham had calculated that Gordon might make it or he might run out with a half lap to go. It was a close call.
Faced with the dilemma of whether to gamble or not gamble, Evernham had shown his championship stripes. He was conservative. He would not gamble. With 15 laps to go, he called Gordon in for gas, and Labonte, who did gamble, went on to win.
Gordon ended up leading the most laps, and actually extended his lead in the Winston Cup championship from 152 to 167 points ahead of Sterling Marlin, who finished fourth on Sunday.
Gordon and Evernham, mind you, have insisted all summer that they are not thinking about a championship, just the next race.
In fact, Gordon was quoted in a pre-race press release as saying: ``I've never played it safe or conservative. I actually wouldn't know how to do it. I think we'd lose momentum by trying to do that.''
Evernham's call on Sunday blew the air out of that windy statement, and after the race even Gordon sounded more like a driver who knew it was time to go out and win a title and worry about winning races some other day.
``We've got to go for it,'' he said, ``but you can't take too big of a chance. We did what we had to do. We're just trying to get to November.''
And so they have taken a page out of the book of the old masters - Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress - who were invariably accused of stroking their way through the stretch runs to their 1990s titles.
What they were doing, in fact, was employing a very conservative, dedicated strategy aimed toward finishing races and scoring top-10 finishes - the key to winning titles.
Earnhardt will not be using that strategy at all in this stretch run, which concludes on Nov. 12 at Atlanta. Earnhardt's engine failed Sunday and sent him reeling to a 35th place finish. He is now 314 points behind Gordon and there will be no laying back for him, as he repeated several times Sunday. ``We have to go out there and try to win some races,'' he said.
Even before Sunday, Gordon seemed to have a lock this year on that Earnhardt commodity known as consistency. Gordon's third-place at Michigan was his eighth top-10 finish in a row, and he hasn't fallen out of a race since the infamous collapse of his front suspension in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in May.
He's got five wins this year and has felt more than his share of the thrill of victory. Now it's time to throw it into the championship mode, which means no risks, careful pit stops, no stupid racing and finish, finish, finish.
And that is what Evernham made him do on Sunday at Michigan, and why Gordon's failure to win at Michigan could end up being a big highlight of his journey toward November.
BROOKLYN, Mich. - The stretch run of the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup championship battle really hasn't begun yet, but if Jeff Gordon wins, he may look back on Sunday's GM 400 at Michigan International Speedway as one of the keys.
Gordon had the dominant car during the second half of the race. But he didn't go to victory lane. Bobby Labonte did. Gordon went to the gas pumps, where the second- through fifth-place finishers report.
With a winning car, Gordon had finished third, not first. And the expression on his face as he pulled himself out of his car was a tad glum - like that of a person who had just been forced to give up a lottery jackpot in exchange for a portfolio of long-term debentures.
Before he knew it, Gordon's boss was talking to him across the roof of his rainbow-colored car.
``Sorry,'' crew chief Ray Evernham told his young driver. ``We were half a lap from being heroes or zeroes. I didn't want to chance it.''
``That's OK,'' Gordon said.
Only 20 minutes earlier, Gordon
had the lead well in hand. But he was facing a potential gas shortage. Evernham had calculated that Gordon might make it or he might run out with a half lap to go. It was a close call.
Faced with the dilemma of whether to gamble or not gamble, Evernham had shown his championship stripes. He was conservative. He would not gamble. With 15 laps to go, he called Gordon in for gas, and Labonte, who did gamble, went on to win.
Gordon ended up leading the most laps, and actually extended his lead in the Winston Cup championship from 152 to 167 points ahead of Sterling Marlin, who finished fourth on Sunday.
Gordon and Evernham, mind you, have insisted all summer that they are not thinking about a championship, just the next race.
In fact, Gordon was quoted in a pre-race press release as saying: ``I've never played it safe or conservative. I actually wouldn't know how to do it. I think we'd lose momentum by trying to do that.''
Evernham's call on Sunday blew the air out of that windy statement, and after the race even Gordon sounded more like a driver who knew it was time to go out and win a title and worry about winning races some other day.
``We've got to go for it,'' he said, ``but you can't take too big of a chance. We did what we had to do. We're just trying to get to November.''
And so they have taken a page out of the book of the old masters - Dale Earnhardt and Richard Childress - who were invariably accused of stroking their way through the stretch runs to their 1990s titles.
What they were doing, in fact, was employing a very conservative, dedicated strategy aimed toward finishing races and scoring top-10 finishes - the key to winning titles.
Earnhardt will not be using that strategy at all in this stretch run, which concludes on Nov. 12 at Atlanta. Earnhardt's engine failed Sunday and sent him reeling to a 35th place finish. He is now 314 points behind Gordon and there will be no laying back for him, as he repeated several times Sunday. ``We have to go out there and try to win some races,'' he said.
Even before Sunday, Gordon seemed to have a lock this year on that Earnhardt commodity known as consistency. Gordon's third-place at Michigan was his eighth top-10 finish in a row, and he hasn't fallen out of a race since the infamous collapse of his front suspension in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in May.
He's got five wins this year and has felt more than his share of the thrill of victory. Now it's time to throw it into the championship mode, which means no risks, careful pit stops, no stupid racing and finish, finish, finish.
And that is what Evernham made him do on Sunday at Michigan, and why Gordon's failure to win at Michigan could end up being a big highlight of his journey toward November. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Jeff Gordon...
by CNB