THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 13, 1995 TAG: 9503130134
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
As Jeff Gordon danced in that rarefied realm known as complete domination Sunday, the demoralized Ford drivers didn't lead a lap at their beloved Atlanta Motor Speedway.
And when the Purolator 500 was over, the Ford camp was as angry as Gordon was happy.
Gordon led 250 of the 328 laps in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo and was unchallenged until the final laps, when Bobby Labonte closed to within a couple of car lengths in his Chevy. But Labonte could get no closer, and Gordon won his second race of the year by 0.19 seconds.
``I like it when the races are boring and I'm the one making it boring,'' Gordon said. ``These fans came to see a race. I'm sorry I spoiled it, but I wasn't going to back off one bit.''
The only other drivers on the lead lap were Terry Labonte and Dale Earnhardt, also in Chevys.
Dale Jarrett had the best-finishing Ford. He was fifth, a lap down, followed by Morgan Shepherd, also in a Ford, Sterling Marlin in a Chevy and Ricky Rudd in a Ford. Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace, also in Fords, were ninth and 10th, two laps down.
If you wanted to put the best spin on the situation for the Fords, you could say that both Ford and Chevy had five cars in the top 10. But the Fords had won every race here since the spring of 1991, and on Sunday they never even smelled the lead. And besides, they weren't interested in putting the best light on it. They want something done.
``I guess it's a little disheartening, especially for the guys out there, to know that no matter how hard we run, how hard we try and how fast they make pit stops, they can't make up that much time where those guys are beating us on the track,'' Jarrett said.
Jarrett only saw Gordon lap him once. Wallace got the treatment twice.
``That ought to wake somebody up,'' Wallace said. ``They (NASCAR) need to do something. It's time to do some screaming now, because the rules are screwed.''
``Man, we ain't been able to get close enough to see them, let alone race them,'' Rudd said. ``It's a lopsided field right now.''
Rudd had a novel solution for his own team: ``We should start the year with eight Chevrolets and eight Fords and whichever way the politics are lined up, we go that route. But with my luck, they'd let Chrysler come back in and blow everybody away.''
``I think it's time to have a look at some adjustment, but that's (NASCAR President Bill) France's call, not ours,'' said Preston Miller, Ford's NASCAR field manager.
But the non-Ford folks were having none of it.
``Those Ford (expletives) can take it like men,'' said Felix Sabates, owner of Kyle Petty's Pontiacs. ``Last year, they won 20 races. I'm tired of their bellyaching. If anybody needs help, it should be the Pontiacs. I hate wimps.''
``It was a Chevy-dominated race today,'' said Gordon. ``But there were other Chevys out there, too, that couldn't keep up with us.''
True enough. There were 41 other cars in the field and Gordon lapped 38 of them. He had as much as a half-lap lead on the field during the final 100 laps. And a lead this big tends to make a team self-conscious and worried.
On lap 244, crew chief Ray Evernham radioed to Gordon: ``You've got an 11-second lead, so you can rest easy if you want.''
``10-4,'' Gordon replied.
On lap 284, Evernham said, ``Are you OK? Is everything good?''
``Yeah, I think so,'' Gordon replied.
But then teammate Ken Schrader mucked things up. He blew a tire and hit the wall, bringing out the fifth and final caution period and bunching the field once again.
And then Bobby Labonte made his charge. The chatter on the radio stopped. There was work to do.
``I tried to jump out as fast as I could after that last caution,'' Gordon said. ``I kept Terry in sight and all of a sudden Bobby got by Terry and I couldn't believe it. He came like crazy and I got all nervous.
``I was sweating quite a bit, probably the most I had sweated all day. Catching us was one thing, but passing us would have been a whole other situation.''
Said Labonte: ``We just didn't have enough for Jeff. He was really strong all day.''
Gordon was much too happy to spend much time worrying about the Ford-Chevy soap opera, but when asked about it, he summed up how things work in the sport.
``Last year, I can remember being lapped several times by those Fords,'' he said. ``It didn't make me too happy. We were whining about it then. . . . But it's going to get competitive here again very quickly. It's just part of NASCAR. Everybody takes their turn and then it gets equal.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
``I like it when the races are boring and I'm the one making it
boring,'' Jeff Gordon said after his second win of the year.
by CNB