THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 18, 1997 TAG: 9702180492
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: 58 lines
As the Daytona 500 rolled to a slow conclusion Sunday under a yellow flag, winner Jeff Gordon spent a good bit of the time talking with his teammates on the radio.
At first he assumed the race would resume, with a final lap under the green flag.
``I'd say we're on our own now,'' Gordon told Ricky Craven. ``This is where we're not teammates. We're on our own. But I know (car owner) Rick (Hendrick) would be proud if we came home 1-2-3.''
Gordon was leading, Craven was sitting in third and between them was teammate Terry Labonte.
``I tell you what, this is going to be the coolest thing ever if we finish 1-2-3,'' Gordon told Labonte, assuming that the race might resume.
``Well, we're coming around for the white flag now,'' Labonte told Gordon. ``We're still yellow. We can't go to green, so it's over. Good job.''
Gordon thought for a moment, then said, ``I guess it is.''
Thus, it was Labonte who gave Gordon the good news about his biggest-ever race victory. And at 25 years old, Gordon became the youngest winner of the 500. Richard Petty was 26 when he won his first Daytona 500 in 1964.
The rapport between Labonte and Gordon at this big moment was somewhat ironic, because Labonte has always downplayed the team concept at Hendrick Motorsports. He and crew chief Gary DeHart have kept their distance from the other two Hendrick teams.
But in this year's Speedweeks, a new spirit of camaraderie emerged among the three Hendrick teams. Perhaps it was due to the life-threatening leukemia that Hendrick is battling, on top of the federal criminal trial he faces. Perhaps it was because Labonte, having beaten Gordon for the Winston Cup championship, is now able to show a more generous spirit toward his younger competitor.
Gordon, after all, was a good sport about his 1996 title defeat. And a humbling loss such as that takes the edge off any attitude that Gordon has been winning too much too soon in NASCAR racing.
In any case, there's a new spirit of teamwork at Hendrick Motorsports, and it emerged during Speedweeks.
``Today was a huge leap for Hendrick Motorsports as far as teamwork is concerned,'' Gordon said during his winner's interview. ``We actually sat down as three drivers and talked how we would work together for (Thursday's Twin) 125s.
``Not just what we could do to help each other, but we just had an understanding that we would try to work together and if we can help each other, we will, and if we can't, we'll understand.''
As it turned out, they didn't draft together when it came down to Gordon's race-winning pass of Bill Elliott. Elliott nearly took Gordon into the infield trying to block him, so Labonte and Craven went to the outside.
``Yet, they were probably the ones that allowed me to get by him,'' Gordon said. ``They went three-wide to the outside of him and Bill didn't know who to block.''
But drafting partnerships at Daytona are as mercurial as shifting breezes. And the new spirit of cooperation among the three drivers at Hendrick Motorsports had already blossomed off the track.