THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 2, 1996 TAG: 9609020142
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: 90 lines
The story of the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway Sunday was not really a story about Jeff Gordon, who won the race.
Nor was it a story about Dale Jarrett, whose run at the Winston Million bonus skidded on a patch of oil early on.
It was the story of a non-winning driver, Hut Stricklin, who valiantly kept his fading Ford Thunderbird ahead of Gordon's Chevy until just 16 laps were left in the 367-lap affair.
Stricklin's motor was overheating and about to blow. He was having fuel pickup problems. The chassis was too tight.
But he hung on, lap after lap, until Gordon put a move on him coming out of turn two on lap 352 and made it stick going into turn three.
A few minutes later, when the checkered flag fell, Gordon had put 5.23 seconds between him and Stricklin for his seventh victory of 1996.
``I only ruled 16 laps today, but they were the most crucial 16 of the day,'' Gordon said. ``Hut drove a great race. I finally just kinda got a run off turn two. I knew that was my only chance.''
Stricklin finished second in his Stavola Brothers Thunderbird, and found it more sweet than bitter, considering that this was only the second time he had finished that high in 217 Winston Cup races stretching back to 1987.
``It is disappointing, but myself and the team, we've got to realize that this is really our first exceptionally good finish of the year,'' Stricklin said. ``I think 11th (at Bristol in April) was our best finish this year up until today. So we can't be greedy just yet.''
Mark Martin was third, the only other driver on the lead lap. Ken Schrader finished fourth, followed by John Andretti, who had his best finish of the year.
Jarrett finished 14th, his chance to join Bill Elliott as a Winston Million winner ending against the third turn wall only 46 laps into the race. He had been leading for 20 laps when his Ford slipped in oil, along with several other cars, and slid up into the concrete retainer.
``As soon as I went into the corner, the car took off and went into the wall,'' Jarrett said.
``We had the car and we were leading the race when it happened. That's not disappointing - just racing luck.
``There's not much of a groove down there and when someone puts something in it, that's it.''
Gordon was struggling at that moment and that's probably why he was in a position to win the race three hours later.
``It's funny how things work,'' Gordon said. ``At that point, we were running sixth or seventh and if there's ever a time to be running about sixth or seventh, that was the time. Because the leaders hit the wall.
``I came down in there and everyone was slipping and sliding. And I thought to myself that if that's a sign of anything, it could be our day.''
Stricklin led the most laps - 143. But his problems began to multiply, and finally they became too severe to allow him to hold off Gordon.
``We were having fuel pickup problems,'' he said. ``And the water temp was pegged about all day. I never would tell them that. The overheating hurt me some, but the biggest thing was the thing got tight a good bit off the corners and I couldn't really get into the corners like I needed to.
``Once Jeff got to me, I knew I couldn't hold him off. We just came up short. That's all I can say.''
Yes, Hut, but where did this sudden performance come from?
``We spent three days testing at Richmond last week,'' he said. ``We just went up there with open minds and found a lot of things we were doing wrong. We applied those things here, and it fell right into my lap.''
``I tried to push him real hard,'' said Gordon, who dogged Stricklin lap after lap in the late stages before finally making his pass. ``I was waiting for him to make a mistake. He didn't make any mistakes. They told me he was pushing water out, so I was waiting for him to blow up. He didn't blow up. So I kinda had to go after him.''
Gordon crew chief Ray Evernham said: ``Of all the people we had to pass, I hated it to be Hut because he's one of nicest guys you'll ever meet.
``He says if he ever wins, he's going to sing in victory lane, and I thought it was going to be today.''
This was Gordon's 16th career victory in only four years of Winston Cup racing and 117 starts.
He's only one career victory behind Winston Cup points leader Terry Labonte, who was cruising along toward another strong finish until his engine developed an oil leak late in the race.
Labonte kept going and finished 26th, but saw his points lead shrink to 24 over Gordon. Jarrett is now 91 points behind and Dale Earnhardt, who wrecked once but still finished 12th, actually gained some points and is now 161 back. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
[Jeff Gordon]
Graphic
Results
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