THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 13, 1995 TAG: 9511130156
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Dale Earnhardt raced like the champion Sunday and Jeff Gordon didn't.
But even though the old veteran waxed the field at Atlanta Motor Speedway and ran away with the NAPA 500, it was too little, too late, to overtake the 24-year-old youngster for the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup championship.
Gordon and his team, thoroughly baffled by one of the worst-handling cars they've had all season, struggled to complete 314 of the 328 laps. They finished 32nd.
Gordon won the title by 34 points. And he's lucky he doesn't have another race. But it was all over on lap 61 when Gordon led a lap and picked up five bonus points to clinch.
A couple of hours later, on lap 258, as he fought to keep the car going straight, Gordon told his crew on the radio: ``This is one of those unique days when we can run this bad and be this happy.''
Replied crew chief Ray Evernham: ``I hope we don't have to have another one.''
Earnhardt, meanwhile, was doing it as only Earnhardt can, slicing through traffic with dash and daring, pulling away from the field and eventually beating Sterling Marlin to the line by 3.74 seconds for his fifth victory of the season. The only reason the victory margin wasn't 10 seconds was because Earnhardt backed off at the end to save gas. Rusty Wallace finished third, followed by Bill Elliott and Ward Burton.
Gordon ran in the top five early, but the car soon became almost impossible to drive.
``Every time I try to push the car to make it faster, the car jumps out on me,'' Gordon told Evernham on the radio around lap 180.
``I don't know,'' Evernham replied. ``I'm trying to figure out something.''
On the next pit stop, that ``something'' was major changes.
``It ought to be tight now,'' Gordon said.
But it was worse than ever.
Shortly after lap 200, Gordon called in, almost desperate.
``This is horrible,'' he said. ``I gotta pit. Let me pit now. It's getting to the point where I'm barely even going straight down the straightaways.''
Gordon was already three laps down by then, and the team pulled him in for a stop that lasted several more laps. Still, nothing worked.
Just before a late-race pit stop, Evernham told Gordon they would be testing some new crewmen.
When Gordon arrived for service, car owner Rick Hendrick cleaned the windshield. Evernham came over the wall to change the front tires. Patrick Donohue, normally the tire carrier, changed the rear tires. And chief mechanic Ed Guzzo, who never goes over the wall on pit stops, was the jack man.
During the stop, Gordon said, ``We got any other volunteers that want to take this seat?''
``It took 39 seconds,'' Evernham said later, laughing. ``We were screwed anyway.''
And while Gordon couldn't get anything to go right, he didn't have to. And when it was over, he did a doughnut at the start-finish line.
``I kinda looked at the frontstretch and I said, `I don't know if it's wide enough, but I'm going to do it. I've been close to spinning out all day, so I might as well go ahead and do it.'
``If you could have asked me today what would I rather do, go out and dominate the race and lead every lap and win, or finish 30th and win the championship, I know which one I'd pick: the seat I'm in right now.''
``They'll be serving milk at the banquet instead of champagne,'' Earnhardt quipped. ``All kidding aside, he's sitting at that table drinking milk and I'm not.''
``I'll drink milk,'' Gordon said. ``I like milk, but I guarantee I'll be having a little champagne, too.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
Associated Press
Dale Earnhardt did what he had to do Sunday at Atlanta: win, and
lead the most laps.
Associated Press
Jeff Gordon claimed his title when he picked up five points by
leading lap 61.
FINAL WINSTON CUP POINTS STANDINGS
The top 10 finishers for the 1995 season:
[For a copy of the chart, see microfilm for this date.]
RESULTS
[For a copy of the results, see page C6 for this date.]
by CNB