DATE: Monday, November 3, 1997              TAG: 9711030092

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PHOENIX                           LENGTH:   66 lines

FOR GORDON, WRONG TIRE, WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME THANKS TO A FAULTY RADIAL, THERE'S STILL A RACE FOR THE WINSTON CUP TITLE.

All was well in Jeff Gordon's world Sunday until lap 244 of the Dura-Lube 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

He was solidly positioned in fifth place when the storm clouds suddenly gathered.

``Something's going on,'' he said on the radio. ``I've got a vibration in the right front.''

About 10 laps later, after losing two positions, Gordon told crew chief Ray Evernham: ``Something's screwed up on the right front. It won't turn and it's vibrating like crazy. It will not turn at all.''

Thus began the final, tense 45 minutes of Gordon's race. By the time it was over, he was still leading the Winston Cup championship chase, but he had lost almost half of the 125-point margin he had brought to Phoenix. And he lost his chance to put a stranglehold on his second title.

It could have been worse. The vibrating tire finally blew on lap 273 as he was being lapped by race winner Dale Jarrett. Gordon didn't wreck, however. He did drop back to 30th, two laps down, but when the checkered flag fell, he was back up to 17th.

Those 13 spots equaled 39 points in the title chase. Had he not gained those positions in the final 35 laps, he would have been only 38 points ahead. As it is, he has a 77-point lead over Jarrett, who snatched second place from Martin after winning the race.

Martin, who finished sixth, is 87 points behind.

Gordon was upset and a bit confused by the turn of events at the end of the race.

``Everybody has been talking about the good luck we've had all year,'' he said. ``I don't see it that way. We've had two flat tires in the last three races, and that's pretty unfortunate. I've said all year that this championship is going to come down to Atlanta.''

The season finale is on Nov. 16 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Gordon must finish 18th or better to win the title.

``We know we can finish better than 18th, but we can't do it if we have problems,'' he said. ``That's basically what this championship comes down to.''

The problem for Gordon apparently was with the tire itself.

``Goodyear has pretty much told us there was a fault in the tire,'' Evernham said. ``They are going to go back and try to find out why. It's a tough thing. There were over 2,000 tires here today, and we got the only one that had a problem. They don't have the answers right now. It's just that the belt came off.''

The amazing coincidence was that the bad tire happened to end up on the most important wheel of Gordon's car - the right front - during the most critical green-flag run of the day.

``It just happened to be ours,'' Evernham said. ``That's just fate. That's all there is to it. I didn't want to have to go to Atlanta and run wide-open, but we've got to be big boys and we're going to have to go do it now.''

Until his problem, Gordon was running better than Martin, who never led a lap and struggled in the beginning. At one point early in the race, Martin was 32nd.

``We dug ourselves out of a deep hole,'' Martin said. ``We missed the setup and we were just miserable out there. We worked on the car and got it better. lot of positions back. We needed to do better, but that was a pretty awesome recovery.''

Said Gordon, ``We cannot have things like this happening if we're going to win the championship, bottom line. I feel very confident that if we don't have a problem at Atlanta, we can win this championship.''

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