Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 15, 1992 TAG: 9203150113
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium
Gordon, 20, passed Dale Jarrett in turn 2 on lap 162 and pulled away from a pack of six other cars during the final 36 laps to win the Atlanta 300 for Grand National cars by 3.57 seconds.
"On that last lap, man, I lost it," Gordon said. "I just choked up really bad the whole lap. This is the biggest dream come true for me ever, and I'm thrilled to death."
Harry Gant finished second after winning a side-by-side battle with Hut Stricklin, who was third. Davey Allison was fourth and Morgan Shepherd was fifth. Ten other cars finished on the lead lap.
Although Gordon was unchallenged at the end, he had to fight his way back to the front after his Ford Thunderbird ran out of fuel while leading on lap 67.
"I was just cruising along and was starting to pull away from Mark [Martin, who was second at the time] when all of a sudden I ran out of fuel," Gordon said. "We don't know why that happened."
When his car began sputtering, his first scheduled pit stop was nine laps away.
But luck was with Gordon. As he slowed on the backstretch, Robert Huffman's car blew its engine on the frontstretch, prompting a caution period that kept Gordon from losing a lap.
As it was, Gordon had to come in the pits a lap before they were opened for yellow flag stops, so he did get a penalty for his fuel miscue. He was forced to restart the race from the back of the pack.
As Martin, Dale Earnhardt and Bobby Labonte battled for the lead during the middle portion of the race, Gordon slowly moved back toward the front, methodically passing lapped cars and lead-lap contenders.
The setback "scared the heck out of us, but we didn't panic," Gordon said. "But it's very difficult anytime something happens and you go to the back. We just picked them off as slow as we could and made sure we made nice, clean passes."
Five caution periods for minor incidents between lap 103 and lap 141 also allowed Gordon to make up lost ground.
By lap 110, he was in sixth. Twenty laps later, he was second.
And by the time Gordon made his winning pass of Jarrett, his car was "on a rail," he said.
Except for the fuel problem, "the car was perfect all day long," Gordon said.
As the race reached its final laps, the only person who seemed more nervous than Gordon was his mother, Carol Bickford, who held her hands over her mouth in a prayerful pose as she watched from a suite above the frontstretch grandstand.
In the car, Gordon was saying, "Please don't let anything happen."
Nothing did.
Gordon has had many successes in his young career. He was 1991 Grand National rookie of the year. As an open-wheel racer, he won the 1991 USAC Silver Crown championship and the 1990 USAC midget championship.
But the pressure he has put on himself to succeed in NASCAR racing is such that even though he has competed in only 35 Grand National races, "it got to a point where I didn't think I had what it took to win," he said.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB