THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996 TAG: 9610070135
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: 88 lines
A sick engine in Jeff Gordon's Chevrolet Monte Carlo breathed new life into the Winston Cup championship battle Sunday in the UAW-GM 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
While Gordon's car coughed, rattled and spat water on its way to a 31st-place finish, teammate Terry Labonte motored to his second victory of the year and turned the title hunt into a neck-and-neck battle down the stretch.
And as quickly as you can say ``cracked cylinder head,'' Gordon lost all but one point of the 111-point lead he had brought to Charlotte.
``It's awful hard to gain 110 points but it's not that hard to lose them,'' Labonte said in Victory Lane.
Labonte led 129 laps, including the final 27 trips around this 1.5-mile speedway, and won by 3.84 seconds over Mark Martin. Dale Jarrett was third, followed by Sterling Marlin, Ricky Craven, Dale Earnhardt and Ward Burton.
It was Labonte's first points-race victory at Charlotte and his 18th career win.
Coming off turn 4 on the final lap, Labonte told his crew in his usual laid-back manner, ``I believe I can make it from here, guys. All right! Way to go.''
The battle for the title still appears to be limited to Labonte and Gordon, but the defending champion's bad luck Sunday opened the door a bit for Jarrett and Earnhardt. Jarrett is now 92 points behind Gordon, while Earnhardt is 271 back.
``Now we are going to find out what we're made of,'' Gordon said. ``The pressure is on the leader. You can't get upset at what you can't control.''
Labonte's race was almost trouble-free. He had a couple of close calls, but nothing serious. His car ``just ran great today,'' he said. So the big story again was Gordon, even though it was all bad news.
Gordon's engine began missing around the halfway point of the 334-lap race.
``By the time I noticed the needle, it was pegged,'' Gordon told his team on the radio, referring to the water-temperature gauge. ``It was wrapped all the way around that (gauge). So I'm sure we cracked a head.''
Gordon pitted for the first of several emergency stops on lap 177, and his team pumped cold water into the radiator to replace the water escaping through the cracked head.
``It's terminal,'' Evernham said. ``We're just going to go out and try to make it. We just need to stay out of trouble and try to keep putting water in it.''
And that's what they did the rest of the race. But around lap 230, Gordon hit the outside wall in turn 4 when he was shoved out of the upper groove by the No. 78 car, driven by Billy Standridge.
``Now we're wrecked!'' Gordon shouted into the radio as he scraped along the wall. ``The S.O.B. 78 wrecked us.''
``Go ahead and let's pit the (expletive) thing,'' Evernham said.
The repairs didn't help much.
``This thing is pretty bad, guys,'' Gordon reported a few laps later.
``If that's as fast as it will go, bring it in here,'' Evernham said.
But after more repairs, and more water, Gordon kept on plugging.
It could have been worse. Had he blown his engine, Gordon would have finished about 10 positions lower and would have lost the points lead.
Labonte, meanwhile, was more concerned than comforted with his teammate's engine woes.
``I think the last time I saw Jeff have engine trouble was at Rockingham (in February), and about 50 laps later, I had trouble,'' Labonte said.
``I was worried. But we really paid attention to the water temperature and kept the grille cleaned and we probably didn't get as much tire rubber in the grille as he did.''
Although both Labonte and car owner Rick Hendrick said relations are fine between the two title-contending teams, there is clearly no great bond between them.
After the race was over, one of Labonte's team members told him of Gordon's fate in this detached manner: ``That 24 got hot and ended up hitting the wall, too.''
Labonte, the 1984 Winston Cup champion, led that title battle by 86 points after this event. This year, with three races remaining, the race is a toss-up.
``As close as the points are, you kinda have to go into every race like it's the last one,'' Labonte said. ``We'll try to win. It's different if you have a big points lead. Then you're a little more cautious.''
And even though he's only won two races to Gordon's eight, Labonte looks at the rest of the season as the playoffs.
Everything up until now was the regular season, and all of those wins don't matter anymore.
``The championship is decided by who has the most points,'' Labonte said.
``A lot of times, the team that won the most games doesn't win the Super Bowl or the World Series.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
[Terry Labonte...] by CNB