Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 31, 1994 TAG: 9405310013
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
\ The tears started to flow with 10 laps to go.
Jeff Gordon knew then that he had the Coca-Cola 600 in the bag, and the emotion was welling up.
This victory would be his answer to all the critics who saw discontent and problems with his team. This is how he would respond to the reports that he might be enticed to go elsewhere.
But Gordon, 22, knew that with 10 laps to go at Charlotte Motor Speedway it was not the time to start crying.
"With 10 to go, I knew I pretty much had the race if I didn't make a mistake," he said. "I started choking up. And then I said to myself, `I've got to think about the race. I've got to focus. I've got to focus.'
"I was looking in the mirror in every single corner of every single lap, wondering where Rusty [Wallace] was.
"When that white flag came out, I just lost it. I was trying not to hit the wall from all the tears coming down my face. After I took the checkered flag, tears were running down my face and Earnhardt and Rusty came up beside me. I didn't know who it was. I just had my head down and waved out the window."
It was clear from the emotion he showed that Gordon had been under a lot of pressure coming into the 600.
He was a second-year driver still looking for his first win in a points race, which is not at all unusual in the Winston Cup series. But Gordon had been hailed as a phenom, and his first ride had come with the powerful Hendrick Motorsports stable.
And after six straight finishes ranging from 15th to 37th, the trash talk was popping up in the garage. Gordon's sponsor, Dupont, was supposed to be dumping him. (They've now signed on through the year 2000). It was said that Gordon's team did not match his talent.
"I don't care what they say in the papers!" he bawled to his crew as he came out of the final turn and headed for the checkered flag. "Oh God, I love you guys!"
The key to his victory had been a last-second decision by crew chief Ray Evernham to change only two tires on Gordon's last pit stop on lap 380. A few laps earlier, race leader Wallace and second-place holder Geoff Bodine had pitted and changed four tires.
"We were planning it a lot of different ways - gas and go, two tires, four tires - but I had pretty much planned on two the whole time," Evernham said. But he didn't make the call until Gordon was on pit road and the crew was on pit wall.
"When I said, `Two tires! Two tires!' there were some pretty big wide open eyes among the pit crew when they were going over pit wall," Evernham said.
Bodine, for one, admitted he made a mistake in changing four tires.
"I'm a little disappointed," he said. "I made a bad decision. But when Rusty came in and changed four, I said to keep up we'd have to do it, too. But we should have done Jeff Gordon one better. We should have gassed and gone" without any new tires. "Because those Hoosiers held up. We weren't wearing the tires.
"It was my call. But drivers don't get real rational at the end of races, and most of the time they want four tires."
Wallace's crew chief, Buddy Parrott, had no second thoughts about his decision.
"I wasn't racing the 24 [Gordon] car, I was racing the 7 [Bodine] car," he said. "All I wanted to do was keep Hoosier out of victory circle. We accomplished that and I'm happy. I have no second thoughts about our decision."
Although he started from the pole and led the first lap, Gordon's car didn't drive well for about 400 of the 600 miles.
"We were junk in [Saturday's] practice," Gordon said. "It was absolutely horrible and we were very, very worried. At the same time, we thought to ourselves that the race was going to be won at night. So really what our game plan was, and we talked about it this morning, was to try to lead the first lap and ride for about 400 miles and start racing for about the last 100 or 200 miles.
And as for the reports that he might switch teams, Gordon was adamant: "I'm not moving to any team, thank you."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB