DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 1997           TAG: 9709300434

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BOB ZELLER

LENGTH: 70 lines

NASCAR REPORT

Jeff Gordon extends

points lead with

fourth-place finish

MARTINSVILLE - Winston Cup points leader Jeff Gordon and challenger Mark Martin both didn't race well Monday in the Hanes 500 at Martinsville Speedway. But Martin's day was worse than Gordon's, which meant that Gordon left the track with 30 more points padded onto his lead.

Gordon, who finished fourth, now leads Martin by 135 points with five races remaining. Martin finished 11th.

``We were real good the first half of the race, but the car just went away,'' said Gordon, who led 18 laps. ``It didn't have the drive off the corner that we were looking for.''

Martin was struggling late in the race, outside the top 10 but still on the lead lap, when his team decided on a final two-tire pit stop to gain track position. But during the stop, the wrench a crewman was using to adjust the chassis became stuck. Martin had to return to the pits.

``We had a mediocre run, but so did Gordon and the 88,'' Martin said. He led 33 laps. Dale Jarrett, who led no laps, finished 12th and is 222 points behind Gordon.

Earnhardt second again

The man in black is back.

For the second straight race, Dale Earnhardt finished second. And he appeared to be gaining on race winner Jeff Burton when the checkered flag fell.

``We're getting close. It's just a matter of time,'' Earnhardt told Chevy's Ray Cooper. And then, referring to his infamous blackout at Darlington, which immediately preceded this little hot streak, Earnhardt said: ``I think aliens picked me up at Darlington and took me up in a spaceship and straightened me out. Now that I'm back, I'm running better.''

Earnhardt, meanwhile, used his finish to vault past Terry Labonte into fifth place in points. Earnhardt leads Labonte by 62 points.

Labonte was the victim of something that has not happened to him in years. He was involved in two yellow flag incidents in a single race. (Last year, he was involved in only one yellow flag the entire year). He finished 22nd.

Memo to employers

Businesses and schools in southern Virginia and North Carolina might well look at stock car racing mania if they search for a cause for the unusually heavy number of people calling in sick Monday.

This was particularly true if one was to believe the speedway's estimated attendance of 69,000, with only 2,000 no-shows. The crowd was large, to be sure, but nowhere near as big as that.

The majority of the rows in the new grandstand in turns three and four were only about half full, and there were gaps in the other grandstands as well. A more accurate estimate would be 50,000 - still an enormous crowd for a business day during the school year.Good while he lasted

Good While he lasted

Steve Park was gone from the Hanes 500 before the halfway point. But he was impressive while he lasted driving Robby Gordon's No. 40 Coors Light Chevy.

From lap 150 to lap 198, Park climbed from the back of the field, below 25th place, and made his way to about 16th, passing cars high and low as he reached them.

Suddenly, puffs of smoke blew out of the exhaust and Park slowed. ``I think that's it,'' he said on the radio on lap 199. ``I think it just puked.''

Afterwards, he said: ``We were just kinda biding our time and it started running real hot.I think it blew a head gasket.''

Park finished 41st.

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