
DATE: Monday, November 3, 1997              TAG: 9711030087

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PHOENIX                           LENGTH:   92 lines

JARRETT WINS AT PHOENIX, TRAILS GORDON BY 77 POINTS

When Dale Jarrett fell to the tail end of the lead lap about halfway through the Dura-Lube 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, crew chief Todd Parrott reached into his bag of tricks.

``Just drive like that old lady we saw last night,'' Parrott told his driver on the radio.

And if Jarrett didn't take the advice literally, he certainly got a chuckle out of it as he began a relentless charge back to the front.

It took Jarrett 107 laps to make it all the way around the 1-mile oval and take the lead. And once he did, he was gone, moving as much as six seconds ahead before easing off to save gas.

Jarrett led the final 73 laps and crossed the finish line 2.105 seconds ahead of Rusty Wallace, who led 117 of the 312 laps, the most of any driver.

Pole-sitter Bobby Hamilton, who led 91 of the first 116 laps, was third, followed by Ken Schrader, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin and Johnny Benson, the only other drivers on the lead lap.

The victory allowed Jarrett to jump ahead of Martin into second place in the Winston Cup championship race as both Ford drivers gained ground on Jeff Gordon, who had a tire go down on lap 273 and finished 17th.

With only the season finale remaining at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Nov. 16, Gordon has a 77-point lead over Jarrett and an 87-point lead over Martin. He need only finish 18th to win the title.

``We have a chance,'' Jarrett said. ``Jeff and them can't go down there and ride around now and win this championship. They have to race. And whenever you race, anything can happen.''

The story of the old lady unfolded Saturday night as Jarrett and Parrott drove to Mummy Mountain at Camelback Inn for a dinner honoring car owner Robert Yates and his crews.

``We were riding down the road and we pulled up to a stoplight,'' Parrott said. ``We looked over in the other lane and there was this little old lady. She was sitting up close to the steering wheel. She almost had her chin on the end of it.

``I started laughing and I said, `At some point tomorrow, if you get behind, that's what I want to see you look like.'

``When we got that lap down, I told him, `Remember that lady at the light last night? It's that time.' And he did it.''

Jarrett actually didn't go a lap down. He went about 95 percent of a lap down.

He was running in third on lap 129 when Parrott decided to pit early.

``It was the right call because we were starting to slip a lot,'' Jarrett said. ``But as luck would have it, a caution came out.''

The yellow flag, for Ward Burton's wreck in turn 1, brought most of the leaders to pit road. Jarrett and five others who pitted early stayed out. And when the race restarted, they were in front of the leaders on the tail end of the lead lap.

``I knew I had a good car and I knew I had a chance to get the lap back,'' Jarrett said. ``I had no idea that we could run 'em all down and pass 'em. But the car was so good, it was almost scary how fast it was around here.

``It would go through the corners so fast, it was just incredible. Once I got to a certain point, I was trying to just not abuse the tires anymore.

He was also trying to save gas. In the final round of pit stops, Jarrett had been one of the first to pit. He had 94 laps to go when he came back out, running second to Wallace. He passed Wallace with 73 laps remaining.

``Once I passed Rusty, my main focus, even before I got to him, was fuel, because I knew that we had stopped a little early and we had a long way to go. But when your car is that good, it allows you to save fuel.

``My fuel gauge was going down toward the end, and I got to where I quit looking at it. I figured, hell, if it's going to run out, it doesn't matter if I'm looking at it or not.''

The victory was Jarrett's seventh of the year and the 15th of his career. The winner's share of the purse was $99,830. There were four yellow flags during the race, all for minor, single-car incidents.

Ricky Craven, whose addition to the lineup by NASCAR as a provisional qualifier caused some controversy, started last and finished last, crashing on the 40th lap.

With his second-place finish, Wallace moved past Ted Musgrave into ninth place by 45 points, while Schrader closed within 13 points of 10th place. Schrader is only 32 points ahead of Jeremy Mayfield and Johnny Benson Jr., who are tied for 12th. Ernie Irvan is 14th, just 39 points behind those two.

Finishing in the top 10 gives the driver an opportunity to go on stage at the annual awards dinner in New York City. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dale Jarrett's victory Sunday in the Dura-Lube 500 at Phoenix moved

him into second place in the points race, 77 behind Jeff Gordon.

[Color Photo]

``We have a chance'' at the Winston Cup title, Dale Jarrett said

Sunday after winning the Dura-Lube 300.

RESULTS

THE RUDD REPORT

GRAPHICS

[For a copy of the graphics, see microfilm for this date.]