
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, July 3, 1995                   TAG: 9507040031
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
DATELINE: WEST ALLIS, WIS.                                LENGTH: Medium

JARRETT TURNS WORST PLACE TO FIRST PLACE

Dale Jarrett can relax a little now. Go home and enjoy the Fourth of July holiday. Forget about the menacing eyes of the critics that had been staring him down lately.

Smoke the box of cigars that Milwaukee Mile general manager Jim Melvin promised him if he came from last place in the starting positions to win theO race.

The Winston Cup driver, who replaced Ernie Irvan after he was in a crash last August, won the Sears Auto Center 250 Busch Grand National race at the Milwaukee Mile on Sunday. Jarrett beat Larry Pearson by 43 seconds. Kevin Simmons of Newport was 30th.

Irvan was heading for a Winston Cup championship when he was inured last year in a crash during practice.

Jarrett has taken a lot of heat lately because he has taken Irvan's spot and he hasn't produced like Irvan did. Jarrett's team is in 14th place midway through the Winston Cup season.

Jarrett knew when he moved from the Joe Gibbs Chevrolet team to the Robert Yates Racing team to replace Irvan that it would be a temporary thing.

He also knew there would be a lot of pressure.

``It's been a long time. Maybe this will silence a few people,'' said Jarrett. ``Certainly, it gives me confidence to win. It shows the guys on the Winston Cup team that they have a winner. It's just a matter of working with a car.''

Jarrett's victory was in a car that he didn't even drive in qualifying. Jarrett was in Daytona Beach, Fla., racing in the Pepsi 400 during the qualifying rounds.

Jim Sauter had to substitute and finished 12th in the qualifying round with a speed of 113.679 mph.

Since Jarrett didn't drive in the qualifying round, he had to drop back to 39th while the pace car circled on the parade lap.

Jarrett made his way through the field and finally took the lead on lap 173 when he passed Jeff Green, who had been leading most of the way. Green ended up finishing third.

``That's a little tough knowing that you have a car that qualified up front and you have to go back there,'' said Jarrett. ``I only got 20 laps in yesterday. It took me about seven or eight laps to figure out where I wanted to be.''

Green led for more than 90 laps. His lead started to slip away when he only replaced two tires instead of all four during the last pit stop. Jarrett changed all four.

``It just didn't suit my car. It made the car push up off the corners and I couldn't get it turned down to get under anybody. If we would've put four tires on during the stop we could've had something for Dale,'' said Green.

Jarrett and Pearson were slowed down with five laps to go when Jeff Simmons spun out, bringing out the yellow caution flag.

However, nothing seemed to affect Jarrett's car for this race.

``We were going to take it easy to start with but the car was so hooked up it was hard. It didn't wear the tires out at all. It was still strong at the end of the run,'' said Jarrett.

Keywords:
AUTO RACING

by CNB