THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 27, 1996 TAG: 9605270158
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: 87 lines
Dale Jarrett was brutally efficient in his Ford Thunderbird under a Sunday night sky at Charlotte Motor Speedway, winning the Coca-Cola 600 by 11.98 seconds over Dale Earnhardt after thoroughly dominating the race.
``That's the best car I've ever had anywhere, any time,'' Jarrett said in a postrace interview. ``We didn't have to do a whole lot, but (crew chief Todd Parrott) made some slight adjustments, and each one made the car a little better.''
Terry Labonte was third in a Chevy, followed teammate Jeff Gordon, the only other driver on the lead lap.
Ken Schrader finished sixth in his Chevy, one lap down, trailed by Sterling Marlin in a Chevy and Mark Martin in a Ford, also a lap down. Michael Waltrip was eighth, followed by Ernie Irvan and Geoff Bodine, all in Fords that were two laps behind.
The Chevys obviously were no match for Jarrett's Ford, but neither were the other Fords. With his father, Ned, spotting for him, Jarrett led 199 of the 400 laps, including the final 61 circuits around the 1.5-mile speedway.
As he cruised through turn 4 on the last lap, Jarrett keyed the microphone on his radio and told his crew: ``That was a great job, fantastic job. Maybe we're going to win us a million come September. Great job, baby.''
Jarrett now has two of the three major victories he needs to win the Winston Million. He must win the Southern 500 at Darlington in September to capture the $1 million bonus.
``I'd like to take credit, but a lot of people could have done this well with this car,'' Jarrett said in Victory Lane. ``The crew just kinda let me cruise around with this car.''
This was Ford's fourth victory in 11 races this year. But the race wasn't even over before some of the Chevy teams began griping about how fast Jarrett's No. 88 Ford was.
``That 88 is in another time zone,'' one of Ken Schrader's crewmen told him during the race.
``That's because of the new air dam and the spoiler and the roof height they got,'' Schrader said, referring to NASCAR-mandated changes to help the Fords.
Most of the race was run without trouble. The first 140 laps were run under the green flag. But between laps 141 and 156 there were four wrecks, including a tangle on a restart that involved 13 cars.
It happened going into turn 1, when Kyle Petty tapped the left rear of the Ford of Ted Musgrave, who was first in line among the lapped cars on the inside. Musgrave spun in front of the pack, and other cars quickly became involved.
Rusty Wallace had the roughest ride, bouncing into the air as he hit another car and the outside wall at the same time. Others involved were Lake Speed, Greg Sacks (in Robert Pressley's car), Dick Trickle, Michael Waltrip, Hut Stricklin, Johnny Benson, Bobby Labonte, John Andretti, Jimmy Spencer and Joe Nemechek.
``I don't know what Kyle's problem was, but it was a dumb move,'' Musgrave said. ``It took a lot of good cars out of the race.''
NASCAR penalized Petty five laps, which prompted him to unleash a verbal barrage. His language earned him another two-lap penalty.
One of the crash victims, Benson, returned to the track with an ill-handling car and lost control in turn 2 on lap 194. His yellow Pontiac slid off the banking and onto the apron, where Ricky Craven blasted the rear end off the car in a vicious collision.
``I'm just sore,'' Benson said afterward.
Craven, who is still recovering from injuries suffered a month ago at Talladega, was released from Cabarrus Memorial Hospital after X-rays on his neck were negative.
Several hours before the race, NASCAR announced fines for the 16 Winston Cup teams whose cars had vertical door roll bars constructed with too-thin tubing.
The crew chiefs of the cars of Jeff Gordon, Robert Pressley and Steve Grissom were fined $5,000 each for having the wrong tubing on both sides.
Crew chiefs of 13 other cars were each fined $2,500 for having the wrong tubing on the right side. Those cars are driven by Dale Earnhardt, Sterling Marlin, Lake Speed, Wally Dallenbach, Ward Burton, Jimmy Spencer, Johnny Benson, Bobby Hamilton, Bobby Hillin, Randy MacDonald, Kenny Wallace, Todd Bodine and Jeff Burton. The violations were found Thursday. ILLUSTRATION: Color File photo
Dale Jarrett beat Dale Earnhardt to the stripe by nearly 12 seconds.
ASSOCIATED PRESS Photo
During the afternoon at Charlotte the cars, top, sat covered on pit
road as the rains came. Then racing got going, and after a long
opening green-flag run, caution flags flew. Johnny Benson, middle,
lost control on lap 194 and was hit hard from behind by Ricky
Craven. At the end of the night, Dale Jarrett, above, could relish a
commanding run. by CNB