ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 14, 1997 TAG: 9704150024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER THE ROANOKE TIMES
Jeff Gordon takes a thrilling Winston Cup victory with a last-lap pass of Rusty Wallace.
The reason Bruton Smith crammed 118,000 seats around Bristol Motor Speedway, and easily sold each and every one, was dramatically demonstrated Sunday on the last lap of the Food City 500.
Jeff Gordon bullied his way under Rusty Wallace in the third and fourth turns on the 500th lap of the Food City 500 and slipped across the start-finish line 0.499 seconds ahead of Wallace, who had to fight furiously with Terry Labonte for second.
Wallace took second by a nose. Labonte was third, just ahead of Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin. Dale Earnhardt finished sixth, followed by Bill Elliott, Chad Little, Jeremy Mayfield and Brett Bodine. Dick Trickle, Ken Schrader, Bobby Hamilton and Robert Pressley also finished on the lead lap.
For Gordon and Wallace, it was an epic, unforgettable battle.
``It was definitely the most exciting finish I've ever had in my career,'' Gordon said. It was his third victory of 1997 and his third consecutive victory in the Food City 500.
``I have never lost a race coming off the [last] corner. Never,'' Wallace said. ``It's unbelievable.''
Wallace did lose the night race here in 1993 to Mark Martin on lap 488 after leading 410 circuits. And he dominated this race, too, leading 240 laps after starting from the pole.
Seconds after the checkered flag fell, members of Wallace's team came on the radio to congratulate him on a good race and a good finish. But Wallace wasn't buying it. He was inconsolable.
``[Expletive] lapped car!'' he shouted.
``Good job, Rusty.''
``[Expletive] lapped car!'' Wallace said. ``I am not believing it! Unbelievable!''
On Gordon's frequency, the mood was quite different.
``That's desire right there, buddy!'' Gordon told car owner Rick Hendrick, listening in from his home in Charlotte, N.C.
``Get the respirator for Ray'' Evernham, Hendrick said, referring to Gordon's crew chief.
The lapped car Wallace referred to belonged to Jimmy Spencer. Actually, Spencer still was on the lead lap, trying to keep from going a lap down.
Spencer had his own wars to fight, having been involved in a couple of incidents with Geoff Bodine that resulted in Bodine getting tossed out of the race.
Perhaps Bobby Hamilton, who was involved in two incidents but still finished 13th, said it best: ``There were so many cautions, I thought the pace car was going to run out of gas.''
But after more than 3 hours, 30 minutes of rough, hard, nerve-jangling racing with a crowd of 118,000 looking down from all sides, it boiled down to the final half-mile.
``The white flag was waving and the 23 car was on the bottom of the track there [in turn 1] and we all had to go around the outside of him,'' Wallace said. ``When that happened, it let [Gordon] get up on my rear end and get close to me. Then I got down to turn 3 and got one of those old love taps. He got underneath me and that was it.
``I can't believe I gave it away on the last damn corner,'' he said. ``It's just unbelievable. There was nothing I could do different. We had a great car all day long.''
Here's how Gordon described it: ``That last lap blew me away. Not only was I trying to get by Rusty, but I was having to worry about Terry. Rusty had pulled a little space between the two of us with about two or three to go. I was almost protecting second more than trying to win it.
``The white flag came out and we came up on some cars and all of a sudden I got a great run off turn 2 and came right up on him. I went to make a move and he was blocking me like he should have. I kind of pushed Rusty all the way down the back straightaway.
``I wasn't touching him as we went into [turn] 3, but he got a little loose and we did touch. I dove under and we rubbed off of [turn] 4 to the checkered.
``Sometimes pure desire overcomes anything out there and you do everything it takes to get to Victory Lane.''
Gordon, who led 125 laps, moved from fifth to third in the Winston Cup championship points standings. He trails leader Dale Jarrett by 164 points.
Labonte is in second, 90 points behind, as the Winston Cup series heads to Martinsville Speedway for the Goody's 500 on April 20.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. Jeff Gordon celebrates in Victory Laneby CNBwith wife Brooke after winning Sunday's Food City 500 in Bristol,
Tenn. color. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING