Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 14, 1994 TAG: 9402140052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Gordon, with a drafting assist from Brett Bodine, bumped and shoved his way past Dale Earnhardt and Ernie Irvan with less than two laps to go in the 20-lap race to win his second event at NASCAR's most famous track. The win was worth $54,000.
"Yes! We won the Busch Clash! Awesome ride, man! Awesome ride!" Gordon, 22, shouted into his radio as he crossed the finish line of the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
Gordon won by three-tenths of a second in the race for 1993 pole winners. Bodine was second, followed by Earnhardt, Irvan, Mark Martin, Kyle Petty, Bill Elliott, pole sitter Ken Schrader, Rusty Wallace, Harry Gant, Geoff Bodine, Bobby Labonte and P.J. Jones.
"I'd say it was a move out of desperation to win the race," Gordon said. "You do pretty much anything it takes, whether you rub 'em or take the air off 'em. That's what I did.
"Nine times out of 10 that move might not work. But today we were very fortunate and we pulled it off. To beat these guys is unbelievable, especially when you have Ernie and Earnhardt in front of you."
Although Gordon has yet to win his first Winston Cup points race, he has two wins at Daytona. He won a Twin 125 qualifying race here last year in his rookie year.
Earnhardt hopes his failure to win the Clash this year is a good omen for next Sunday's Daytona 500, where he will start from the outside pole.
"We start off winning this race every year and not winning the 500, so maybe this will be a change for us," Earnhardt said. "We just got beat. The 24 car [Gordon] and the 26 [Bodine] hooked up and ran by us. There wasn't much to do but just try to draft back up to 'em. Ernie and I couldn't do it."
Earnhardt was a bit irritated with himself because in the midst of the hard battle he lost track of which lap it was.
"I honestly didn't know what lap it was," he said. "I was just trying to get by Ernie. I didn't realize we got the white flag."
Said Irvan: "If we'd had more shots at them, maybe we would have been all right, but it's a 10-lap race and you've got to make your move at the right time. Jeff made a good move off turn 2 and it bogged me and Dale down. And Jeff got the lead and went on and won."
Said Bodine: "Jeff had good, strong momentum going, and my shot at winning the race was to get to second. On the last lap, Dale just didn't elect to help me. He kept weaving behind me and I couldn't get any momentum built up. When it came down to the last straightaway, I just had to block him. I didn't have a chance to win, but I wanted to hang on to second."
Gordon described his winning pass: "Ernie was leading and Earnhardt was in second. Earnhardt was looking all over, trying to get by [Irvan]. I wouldn't commit either way. When Earnhardt would go low, I would kind of go with him and then maybe sneak back up there with Ernie.
"At that point, it was anybody's race. When you're out there, you're not their buddy and they're not your buddy. You use everybody.
"When Earnhardt got underneath Ernie [in turn 1 with two laps to go], I decided to go ahead and go with him. I had Brett on my tail. I saw [Earnhardt] was getting pretty loose. As we came off turn 2, he started getting looser and I started getting closer. I rubbed him just enough and got underneath him and luckily Brett went with me."
The 50-mile race is run in two 10-lap segments. Schrader started the race on the pole and led the first two laps, but Earnhardt passed him going into turn 1 on lap 3 and stayed in front throughout the first segment. Irvan was second, Petty was third and Gordon finished fourth.
Under Clash rules, the field is inverted for the second 10-lap sprint. There was a brief shower between the segments that prompted a red flag for almost 40 minutes. After the second segment started, there was a scramble for the first several laps. By lap 5, Irvan was in the lead, Earnhardt was second and Gordon was third. It remained that way until Gordon charged past the two veterans.
"The luck I've had here at Daytona has given me a lot of confidence," Gordon said.
Although he was only 26th fastest in pole qualifying Saturday, Gordon has high hopes for the 500 because he says his car runs faster in race traffic than by itself.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.