Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 3, 1995 TAG: 9504040055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
Rick Hendrick has been a car owner in the NASCAR Winston Cup series since 1984, so he has ridden the ups and downs of the sport.
And after Jeff Gordon ran away with another race Sunday, winning the Food City 500 at Bristol International Raceway to go 3-for-6 in 1995, Hendrick sounded a note of caution about his team's success.
``We'll just enjoy it while we can, because there will be another drought,'' Hendrick said.
That may be so. But Gordon is so strong right now, no storm clouds are visible on his horizon.
Gordon led 205 of the 500 laps in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo on the world's fastest half-mile track Sunday to win by 5.74 seconds over Rusty Wallace, who was driving a Ford. Darrell Waltrip was third in another Chevy, followed by Bobby Hamilton in a Pontiac and Ricky Rudd in a Ford. Dale Jarrett finished sixth, the only other car on the lead lap.
This was the fifth victory of Gordon's career, but his first on a NASCAR short track. It was the first time he finished a Winston Cup race at Bristol.
``We're very excited about having a short-track victory,'' he said. ``I think there's a lot of new surprises for me happening this whole year. I don't know what to say. It seems like everything is coming together right now.
``I never dreamed in a million years I was going to be in Victory Lane at Bristol. I'd never come away from here with a car in one piece, let alone [getting in] Victory Lane.''
Gordon moved from eighth to fourth in the Winston Cup points race. Dale Earnhardt maintained the points lead, but he crashed early, finished 25th, and saw his lead over Martin shrink from 67 to 17 points.
But the points race, and its emphasis on consistency, masks the fact that Gordon is clobbering almost everyone else almost every week.
Let's take stock.
Gordon has won three of the six races. He has won three poles and started no worse than fourth.
Of the 2,213 laps run this year, Gordon has led 1,002. Next on the list, with 206 laps led, is Earnhardt, who hasn't won yet. And in two of the three races Gordon hasn't won, he has been a major force until trouble struck. The only race in which Gordon was not a key player was at Richmond, where he won the pole but was knocked out by mechanical trouble after an early collision with Joe Nemechek.
``I don't believe it's any one thing doing it for us,'' Gordon said. ``It doesn't matter whether you have a Chevy or whether you have a great chassis. It's a combination of things.''
Sunday's race marked the return of Ford and two of its top drivers, Wallace and Martin, to the front of the field. Wallace led 101 laps. Martin led 155 laps and was second until he had to make an emergency pit stop with 10 laps to go.
``I wore the rubber off the tires and then the cords off the tires trying to keep up, right up until the air came out,'' Martin said. ``We gave 'em all we had, but when it came to nut-cracking time, they whipped it on us.''
Just because he led a bunch of laps doesn't mean the Fords are equal to the Chevys on the short tracks, Martin said. ``The only way we'll win is to catch 'em on an off day,'' he said. ``People who say [downforce] doesn't matter on short tracks are fools.''
Gordon said he was having his own troubles when Martin and Wallace were leading.
``This car was not this good all day long,'' he said. ``It was very tight, but the longer we ran, the better we got. Rusty and Mark would jump out on new tires, but as the race got longer and longer, our car got better and better.''
Gordon said he was happy to let others lead anyway: ``We led a lot of laps today, but there were a lot of times when I wanted somebody else to lead and make the holes for us.''
He had a few close calls - ``I was on full alert the whole time'' - but perhaps the most worrisome time for Gordon was right at the end, when his tires were worn out, too.
``With three or four laps to go, I probably lost at least two seconds a lap'' because of the worn tires, he said. ``When you run that many laps under green at this place it's going to eat them up. I'm glad I didn't have to race anybody at the end.''
Afterward, he reflected on his first NASCAR hot streak.
``Right now, nothing is surprising me,'' he said. ``Right now, I have so much confidence in the cars and the team, I feel we're going to be good wherever we go. This is a big jump for us - a major confidence-builder.''
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB