THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 10, 1994 TAG: 9410100143
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
You had to figure something unusual would happen the day World Championship Wrestling came to a NASCAR Winston Cup stock car race.
And while WCW's Ricky `The Dragon'' Steamboat held a pit board for a backmarker, another racer with a football-style helmet and an ex-NFL coach for a boss, a big guy who couldn't even make the race at North Wilkesboro last weekend, led the last four laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway Sunday and won the Mello Yello 500.
``Boy, what a season,'' said Dale Jarrett after winning his third career Winston Cup victory and his first since the 1993 Daytona 500.
``We finish fifth at Martinsville and go to Wilkesboro with the same race car and last Sunday I was sitting at home on my couch watching the race, because we couldn't run fast enough to make the field,'' Jarrett said. ``Then we come here, and I knew from the start we had an awesome race car.''
The race finished under caution when the Waltrip brothers crashed in turn two, but Jarrett had a lead of several car lengths over Morgan Shepherd as the yellow flew. Dale Earnhardt was third, followed by Ken Schrader, Lake Speed, Brett Bodine, Terry Labonte, Derrike Cope and Darrell Waltrip, all on the lead lap.
Any good wrasslin' match also has melodrama, and Jarrett and his team provided that, too.
There was Jarrett's broken left wrist, which he cracked four weeks ago in a crash at Dover. It hurt plenty during the race.
And consider crew chief Jimmy Makar's personal problems - a new baby with heart problems.
And then there's the little matter of the turmoil on the team that has been making news. Jarrett wants to move to injured Ernie Irvan's car.
``I think it's time for some new headlines other than what's been written,'' Jarrett said. ``We thought we'd do that today.''
Jarrett only led the very end of a race that was largely a bore because of another dominating performance by Geoff Bodine. But after leading 202 of 290 laps, Bodine's Ford belched engine smoke and died.
Then things got interesting.
Brett Bodine took over for 13 laps, then made a pit stop and turned the lead over to Morgan Shepherd. Shepherd was leading when Ricky Rudd and Jeff Gordon crashed into the first turn wall on lap 325, causing a caution period.
But as the field prepared for a restart with four laps left, Shepherd was on old tires, having elected to take gas only on his last pit stop. Jarrett had taken two tires.
That proved to be the difference, as Jarrett shot under Shepherd in the second turn and let the battle rage on behind him.
Much of the raging was done by Earnhardt, who had elected to take on four fresh tires at the end. That decision dropped him from fourth to sixth, since most of the other leaders had remained on the track.
Earnhardt's own crew had told him not to pit, but he countermanded that order. ``I want to win the race,'' Earnhardt told his crew as he drove onto pit road. ``I don't want to run third, fourth or fifth.''
``I could see that black car back there,'' Jarrett said. ``I was very concerned. I only had two decent tires on at that time. I knew Earnhardt would be coming in a hurry. When I saw him coming on the inside of Morgan (with 2 1/2 laps to go), I got concerned again.
``If he cleared Morgan, I knew I was really going to have to go hard. But he didn't clear him and that let me rest a little bit easier.''
Said Earnhardt: I'da got by that 21 (Shepherd's car), but that sucker run me on up to the wall.''
And then, as Jarrett headed toward the white flag, the Waltrips wrecked, and the yellow and white flags came out together and Jarrett rolled to victory.
``We might not have been the fastest car, but we were consistent,'' Jarrett said. ``We kept adjusting on the car and finally got it in good shape.''
Jarrett, wearing his Dallas Cowboys racing helmet for the first time since his Daytona win, was playing hurt. He said his broken left wrist ``bothered me at times. It got very, very tired, and I had to drive with one hand a lot.''
Makar's wife, Patti, who is Jarrett's sister, gave birth in August to twins - son Dylan and daughter Alex. But Dylan has a heart problem. Appparently it is not serious, but the baby had some tests this week and that was enough to keep any new father preoccupied. Especially one who also has to deal with the possibility of losing his driver who also happens to be his brother-in-law.
``For (Jimmy) to be able to keep his mind on this enough to give me the race car he did says a lot,'' Jarrett said.
And what about his own plans?
``I don't know,'' Jarrett said. ``I'm not even thinking of '95 right now. I'm thinking of finishing these last three races of '94 and trying to win some more.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS color photo
``I think it's time for some new headlines,'' Dale Jarrett said,
referring to rumors of his departure from the Joe Gibbs team.
by CNB