THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508200177
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BROOKLYN, MICH. LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Dale Jarrett's victory in the Detroit Gasket 200 Grand National race at Michigan International Speedway was a race for the record books - until his car reached post-race inspection.
More than three hours after he won the caution-free race by 6.91 seconds over Mark Martin at a GN record-setting average speed of 169.571 mph, Jarrett's victory was disallowed by NASCAR officials after they found an unauthorized part on his engine.
At 5:07 p.m. Saturday, NASCAR spokesman Andy Hall walked into a nearly empty press room and announced: ``I regret to inform you that we have a new winner of the Busch race.''
Jarrett and Martin, the ex-winner and new winner, both were still in or near the garage area. Jarrett was furious; Martin sympathetic.
``Y'all are gonna have to do something about this,'' Jarrett hollered at a NASCAR official outside the NASCAR transporter.
``Ain't nobody I know has ever been disqualified in Winston Cup or Busch.''
Of course, there have been previous disqualifications. Most recently in the Busch series, Jeff Burton had a race victory disallowed at New River Valley Speedway in 1992 for using nonapproved rear end parts.
Jarrett led 89 of the 100 laps and had won going away.
``The car was awesome,'' he said in victory lane. ``I don't know that I've ever had a car that good.''
Jarrett was so dominating that, when the race ended, Martin told his crew on the radio that there was no way Jarrett's car was legal as fast as it was.
But after the win was disallowed, Jarrett and his team didn't believe the penalty fit the crime. And neither did Martin.
``The biggest thing that upsets me is we've been in this division for 15 years and they had other avenues they could have taken,'' said Jarrett's crew chief, John Ervin.
There have been other cases where unauthorized parts were found on a winner's car and ``they didn't take the race away,'' Ervin said.
Said Martin: ``I doubt if the infraction of the rules made as big a difference as he had me beat. It would have been more fun to have gone to victory lane versus winning this way. But with the way NASCAR rules are, I'm sure that what he had didn't give him that big of an advantage.''
The part that didn't conform to NASCAR rules was an engine intake manifold ``that had been modified externally on the carburetor mounting flange,'' Hall said. ``No modifications of that nature are permitted. The car was penalized to 42nd position.''
The engine was built by Robert Yates, Jarrett's Winston Cup car owner, and Ervin said he and the Busch team knew nothing about the modification Yates had made until it became a problem.
``They've got two sets of rules,'' Ervin said. ``The part was legal in Winston Cup and they don't say anything about it being illegal in Grand National. They don't say anything about it in the rule book.''
Said Yates: ``They're going to have to write some new rules. This (part) didn't come straight from the factory. The pad the carburetor sits on had a little extra height on it. It's okay for Winston Cup, but I guess it's not okay for Busch.''
Jack Roush, Mark Martin's car owner, also was sympathetic to Jarrett and his team.
``It's hard to win races, and I hate it for them,'' Roush said.
``But if you race long enough, you are going to get caught having something somebody doesn't like without meaning to violate the rules.''
SECOND ROUND QUALIFYING: Jeff Gordon, who crashed in a downpour Friday during the first round of time trials for today's GM 400, not surprisingly led the second round Saturday.
But Gordon's speed of 181.005 mph in his backup Chevrolet Monte Carlo would have been good only for 20th place on Friday.
The qualifying session was otherwise uneventful. Provisional starting spots went to Todd Bodine, Dave Marcis, Kyle Petty and Jimmy Hensley. Those who failed to make the race were Rich Bickle, Tracy Leslie, Tim Steele and Loy Allen. ILLUSTRATION: Photos
More than three hours after Dale Jarrett, right, won the Detroit
Gasket 200 over Mark Martin, it was taken away.
by CNB