DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709070338

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   44 lines

JARRETT CAPTURES THE EXIDE 400 FOR BURTON, IT WAS 2ND CONSECUTIVE TOUGH LOSS

Jeff Burton was well on his way to making up for his Darlington loss at Richmond International Raceway Saturday night when Dale Jarrett snuck up and stole the Exide 400.

Jarrett muscled his way under Burton on in turn one on lap 360 as Burton's older brother, Ward, battled to keep going a lap down to the leaders, making his younger brother's life difficult for his sibling.

But Jeff Burton was fighting a loose car, and Jarrett eased out to a 1.79 second victory over Burton. Jeff Gordon was third, followed by Geoff Bodine, Rusty Wallace and Joe Nemechek, the only other drivers on the lead lap.

``Great job, guys, great job,'' Jarrett said after he crossed the finish line. Then, to crew chief Todd Parrott, he added, ``Todd, I'm whipped here.''

As Parrott made sure oxygen was available, Jarrett sat beside his car to catch his breath.

``We knew earlier today we'd be pretty good on long runs,'' Jarrett said. ``And it was just good enough to be better than Burton. It was a handful at the end. We were a little tight, then got too loose. Then we tightened it up on the last stop and that enal+me to go on the long run.''

For Burton, it was his second big disappointment in a row.

``We haven't figured out how to win at Richmond,'' Burton said. ``We've figured out how to go fast. And we got fast for the whole race - all but that last run. We're learning something, we're just not real sure what. It just got real loose late.

Gordon, meanwhile, was not happy playing second fiddle to the Ford drivers and was happy to get out of here with third place. His championship hopes got a big boost when Mark Martin fell to to a 25th-place finish after losing several laps for repairs when an oil pump belt came off.

Gordon gained 72 points on Martin and now leads by 97 points with eight races remaining.

``It was a good finish,'' Gordon said. ``Other than that, it wasn't much of a race, at least not for us. Those guys were checked out in another league. We just want to get out of here as fast as we can and go on to next one.''

Much of the race was dominated Burton, who seemed bent on not only winning his sponsor's race, but making up for last weekend's last-lap loss to Jeff Gordon in the Southern 500.

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