ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The Winston Cup points race between Jeff Gordon and Terry Labonte is so close, you can almost feel them exchanging paint. With three races to go on NASCAR's glamour circuit, one point separates the Hendrick Motorsports teammates.
Dale Jarrett is third, only 92 points behind the leader and defending Winston Cup champion, Gordon. Dale Earnhardt, pursuing a record eighth title, is fourth, 271 back.
Earnhardt's chances of surpassing Richard Petty for the most championships don't seem good, primarily because he has to pass three others. He has hung in the race despite only two top-five finishes since mid-June. However, as history proves, the Winston Cup points race is best described in the words of Vince Lombardi and Yogi Berra.
Winning isn't everything, and it ain't over 'til it's over.
The year-long race is like the 31 points-awarding events that make up the Winston Cup year. The rules, like those NASCAR constantly seems to be changing, are written to create competitiveness. Except there's one difference. The points system in use is the same one that was started in 1975.
If this were Formula One racing, Gordon would have clinched the 1996 title by now. F1 racing only awards points to its top finishers in a race. Gordon has 10 victories. Labonte has two - the same number he had when he won his only Winston Cup championship, in 1984. The late Alan Kulwicki won the '92 title with only two victories. Back in 1973, Benny Parsons managed his only championship with one victory.
However, Labonte has 18 top-five finishes, including seven seconds. He and most of the other drivers and teams love the points system, because the points in any one race, like Sunday's AC Delco 400 at Rockingham, N.C., are generously spread. A 30th-place finish still will earn a driver 73 points. There's also the money to consider.
This year, Winston is paying a record $4 million purse in the points race, with a record $1.5 million going to the champion. The runner-up gets $420,000. There also are bonus dollars for winning a race and owning the points-race lead after that race.
The difference between finishing first and 10th in a Winston Cup race is only 41 points, 175-134, although each leader in a race gets a five-point bonus and the driver leading the most laps in any race is awarded an additional five.
Let's say Gordon and Labonte finish 1-2 at Rockingham and they're the only two race leaders, with the latter leading the most laps. Gordon will get 175 points for first, plus five for leading the race. Labonte will get 170 for second, plus five for leading the race and five more for leading the most laps.
And, Gordon will still have a one-point lead heading to Phoenix the following weekend.
``It depends on what you want,'' said Rick Mast, the Rockbridge County driver who stands 17th in the points. ``Do you want a system based on wins, or consistency? Wins reward the driver more. The consistency system includes the whole group on a team, from the shop floor sweeper on through the driver.''
Or, as Labonte put it after he won the UAW-GM 500 two weekends ago while Gordon finished 31st: ``It's awful hard to gain 110 points, but it's not that hard to lose 110 points.''
NASCAR never has seen a points race like this. The closest previous chase with three races left was in 1979, when Petty had a 17-point lead over Darrell Waltrip. With seven races left that year, Waltrip led by 187. Petty won the title by 11 points. The closest finish was in '92, when Kulwicki topped Bill Elliott by 10.
It's this close this year because Gordon has offset his 10 victories with six finishes of 30th or below. None of the other three contenders has more than two finishes that bad. Gordon has led the points chase after only five races - including the last four - the fewest of the contenders.
``A lot of times,'' Labonte said, ``the team that wins the most games doesn't win the Super Bowl or World Series.''
There are no tortoises in Winston Cup racing, but the points race doesn't always go to the swiftest, either.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB