As it turned out, the NIF had dutifully done what I'd told it; I'd told it right; and I spent a relaxing evening watching the race, and preparing this report. As Benny would say: "Wow..."
As it turned out, what with the rain delays and all, we'd actually gotten home before it ended.
There were a couple surprises among the top qualifiers. Boby Labonte had the pole, with Skinner alongside - no surprises there, Stewart put the Home Depot Poncho in third - kinda surprisin', Jarrett was fourth, then Mayfield, Geoffrey Bodine - less surprising each week, then Buckshot Jones - real surprise! Gordon, Nemechek, Andretti, Mast and Nadeau - couple surprises in there - rounded out the top twelve. Earnhardt was 33rd, and last week's winner, Jeff Burton, had to take a provisional, starting 37th! Feast to famine! But neither seemed concerned, and expected to be up front fairly quickly... DW was in 43rd, using yet another Past Champion's Provisional - four to go... Dave Marcis was makin' his 850th start! Way to go, Dave!!
Qualifying speeds were real impressive - 194+ , right up in Daytona/Talledega territory! Bundled up along the sidelines as spectators this week were Pressley, Grissom, DeVane and Shepherd.
Cope started the race, even though he'd had a nasty shunt in the BGN race yesterday. Neither he nor Park have fond thoughts of the spring race here, as both were sidelined for several races last year due to wrecks here in the spring.
Track conditions were said to be "like last November", due to the morning rain and cold temperatures, most crews had set the cars up expecting them to be tight in the early stages. ("Tight" equals oversteer - the car keeps nosin' towards the wall, when you turn in... "tight" cars hit the wall nose-first; "loose" cars hit the wall tail-first... thus endeth NASCAR101...)
After an hour and forty minutes delay, the green flew, and Labonte and Skinner led off, running the first half lap side by side. The opportunistic Mr Stewart snuck through and grabbed the lead, crossing the line first to start lap 2. He then ceded the lead back to team mate Labonte, so they both had their five points... On lap three, Skinner and Mayfield got by Stewart, who was not up to par yet for handling. Lap four saw Bodine and Gordon get under Stewart, and it was clear that the bottom of the track was the place to be!
Running order at the end of lap eleven had them stringin' out, as you usually see in non-restrictor racing on the fast tracks. Bobby Labonte was out front, then Skinner, Gordon, Mayfield, Stewart, Bodine, Jarrett, Nemechek, Dallenbach, Andretti, Little, Marlin, Ward Burton, Nadeau and Mast rounding out top fifteen. Jeff Burton was still mired in the pack, havin' moved up only two places to 35th.
Not too much change, until lap 23, when the first caution flew, as Dale Earnhardt, of all people, lost the tail and hammered the GOODWRENCH Chevy into the outside wall! It was a puzzled and dejected Dale tryin' to explain what had happened out there...
All the lead cars took the opportunity to pit for tires and fuel. Jarrett, who'd faded somewhat, had a disastrous stop, as his jack malfunctioned, losing him several seconds in the pit - enough to put him back to 27th.
Green! Green!! Green!!! on lap 31,with Nemechek (2 tires) leading them off, then Labonte, Gordon, Skinner, Bodine, Ward Burton (excellent stop), Mayfield, Irwin and Marlin. Nemechek began to drop back, with first Labonte, then Gordon and Skinner gettin' by. A lesson for those contemplating two tire changes as a strategy...
Running order on lap 39 was Labonte, Skinner, Gordon, Ward Burton, Nemechek, Mayfield, Irwin, Bodine, Marlin, Dallenbach, Stewart and Little in top twelve positions, with Jarrett up to 23rd. By lap 43, Jeff Burton had worked his way up to 13th!
Mechanical gremlins began to take a toll after about 55 laps. First we had Rusty Wallace, who'd hoped for a strong run, fightin' what he thought was a busted front shock, fallin' back to 40th place - a real hit on his Points Chase. They never did sort out the problem on that car.
We also had Craven pitting the Hollywood Video car, with a loose side window, and a tire problem. To top it off, he was caught speeding, and lost 15" in the pits. That's a half-lap at racin' speed!
We were now into a long green flag run, with little changes up among the leaders, who'd gotten strung out around the track. Main interest was watchin' Jarrett march back towards the front, and Jeff Burton doin' likewise.
We began a series of green flag stops around lap 80, and once all had cycled thru by lap 103, Skinner was out front, then Labonte, Gordon, Ward Burton, Bodine, Dallenbach, Stewart, Marlin, Martin and Little rounded out the top ten. A few laps later, Jeff Burton passed team mate Little, takin' over the tenth spot.
In the long green run, we began to see strong cars gettin' lapped so that by lap 115 or so there were 19 left on the lead lap.
The second caution flew on lap 121 as we had a little shower pass over the track - no wipers, no defroster, no tread on the tires, eight-track's busted - what else ya gonna do? All seventeen on the lead lap pitted.
When the green flew on lap 127, it was still Skinner out front, but Gordon had second, then Bobby Labonte, Ward Burton, Bodine, Stewart, Dallenbach, Jeff Burton, Martin and Marlin comprised the top ten. Labonte briefly grabbed the point, but by lap 132, Skinner'd reeled him back in and put him back to second, and was linin' up brother Terry to put him down a lap. Jeff Burton moved up another place, takin' seventh from Wally.
We ran another twenty or so laps with some good skirmishes among the leaders, Jeff Burton had moved by Stewart, and was battlin' brother Ward for fifth, when the third caution flew on lap 156.
Once again, poor Derricke Cope was chewin' concrete, putting the Bryant Pontiac into the wall, endin' his day. That was two hard hits this weekend, plus gettin' swept up at Vegas last week... gotta wonder if Derricke is runnin' a bit hurtin' out there these days...
Everyone headed for the pits, and on the lap 162 restart, it was Skinner out front, then Labonte, Gordon, Jeff Burton(!), Bodine, Martin, Stewart - continuing an excellent run, Ward Burton, Dallenbach, Nemechek, Marlin, Mike Waltrip (go Mikey!), Jarrett, Spencer and Lepage comprising top fifteen of eighteen lead lap cars. A lap later, Skinner was back out front, and around lap 169, Gordon began to assert himself, taking second from Labonte. Just prior to that, Skinner had grabbed the US$10K for leading at the halfway point, and Stewart was learnin' how to rub fenders- with Dallenbach and Ward Burton - and survive. Stewart will go a long way in this sport!
What we all expected happened for the first time on lap 174, as Gordon took the lead from Skinner, followed by Bobby Labonte.
Gordon's Yin was offset by poor Wally's Yang as Dallenbach was seen in the pits with the hood up, a possible victim, we were told, of electric gremlins... What a shame, Wally is exceeding everyone's expectations (at least, mine!)in the 25 car... and had a good run going.
Around lap 180, Labonte was all over Gordon's tail, and there were reports of rain, especially from Jeffie, we were told. He reported it becoming too slick to race out there.
Due to the rain shower, the fourth caution flew on lap 184, after 22 greenflag laps. Nevertheless, all the lead lap car came in and at the drop of the green on lap 196, Gordon led Labonte, Martin, Skinner, Jeff Burton, Bodine, Nemechek, Little, Ward Burton, Marlin, Jarrett, Stewart and Lepage over the line.
Not too much change among the leaders over next 25 laps. In that time, Skinner developed a miss, which was not cured by switching spark boxes - likely was losing the alternator.
Ya gotta love Mike Skinner- when informed by the crew over the radio that he needed to shut off all the ancillary electrics (mostly oil, rad fans, etc), his reply was: " Not my first rodeo, guys, I've already done that!" . And sho' 'nuff, we got a video replay of Mike hittin' all the switches on the dash! (One of the neat things about Couch viewing vs Stands viewing. Of course you can always go to the race, but tape it for later viewing to see What the Hell Really Happened... if you're independantly wealthy... but let's not visit there...)
Fifteen laps later, about eight laps after Bobby Labonte had retaken the lead from Gordon, we had the fifth caution, caused by Geoffrey Bodine puttin' the PowerTeam Chevy into the outside wall, a carbon copy of both Cope incidents, and Earnhardt's. What a discouraging end to the great run Geoffrey had going with this surprising upstart team!
All the leaders pitted, and Skinner's team did an excellent job - fuel, tires and a new fully-juiced battery in two stops without losing a lap!
When the green flew on lap 246, there were twelve cars on the lead lap, with Bobby Labonte leadin' Gordon, Jarrett - good run back to the front, Martin, Nemechek - hangin' in real good, Jeff Burton, Ward Burton, Stewart, Mike Waltrip, Little, Irvan - havin' a good run, and Skinner on the lead lap, and Elliott, Hamilton, Lepage, Marlin and Terry Labonte leadin' those down a lap.
Within a lap, Mayfield had scraped off all the MOBIL signage on the right side against the wall, and we had caution number six. Turned out the throttle linkage, which had been problematic all day, stuck wide open goin' into a corner, and Jeremy had no time to react. The Penske-Haas team is in a bit of "mechanical meltdown" mode recently...
In a true brotherly gesture, Bobby, who'd built up a cushion of lapped cars over Gordon, let brother Terry by to get back on the lead lap. Also in a position to benefit from his fraternal generosity were Mast and Elliott, who got back onto the lead lap as well. Kind of a package deal...
This time none of the leaders came in. Skinner musta made a true Banzai move in those two laps, as he was already up to tenth!
The green flew on lap 254, with Bobby Labonte out front, Gordon being blocked by the lapped car of Ricky Rudd. (Don't think Ricky feels he owes Jeffie any favours after Daytona...) By lap 257, Jeff had cleared Rudd, and caught and passed Labonte.
The next twenty laps saw good skirmishes from 7th on back, as Irvan, Jeff Burton, Little, and Stewart all jockeyed for position.
With the timing of cautions, we had a situation where all leaders would need to make a two-tire, 6-gallon "gas 'n go" to get to the end of the race, assuming no cautions. At about lap 190, with thirty-five to go, the running order on the lead lap was Gordon, Labonte, Jeff Burton, Jarrett, Martin, Skinner, Nemechek, Irvan, Ward Burton, Stewart, Little, Hamilton, Mike Waltrip, Marlin and Terry Labonte. We were now, after nearly forty laps of green flag running, at the point where you had to weigh the likelihood of a caution, the amount of time you lost on worn tires, vs when to pit, in order to optimize running on fresh rubber.
First in, around lap 293, was Jarrett, followed in quick order over the next few laps by Gordon, the Burton boys, Skinner, Bobby Labonte, Martin, Stewart, Little, then, after each had tried to lead a lap for the five points, the back half of the lead lap.
Once all the stops had cycled through, around lap 310, Gordon had the point, havin' passed Bobby Labonte a couple laps earlier.
This proved to be the winning pass, and after 325 laps, Gordon crossed the line first, for his 44th career win, followed by Labonte, Martin, Jeff Burton, Skinner, Jarrett, Irvan, Ward Burton, Little, Stewart, Nemechek, Mike Waltrip, Hamilton and Terry Labonte on the lead lap. Down a lap were Marlin, Elliott, Mast, Spencer and Lepage, and leadin' the 2-lap-down contingent in 20th, was Darrel Waltrip!
It wasn't noted, but Jeff's 44th win puts him within two of the great Buck Baker, who holds down 12th place, and within three of Rusty Wallace, in 11th place with 47 wins. Hmmm... could be interestin' in a few weeks, the way Jeff 'n Rusty's years are goin' so far...
Didn't get a final Points count, as ABC were anxious to move on to their next programming efforts, havin' dawdled around Atlanta 'way beyond their planned time. I believe Skinner still holds the lead, then Bobby Labonte moves to second thanks to Rusty's misfortunes. Gordon is up to third, and Jeff Burton fourth(?).
So, next week, we're on to "The Lady In Black", "The Track Too Tough To Tame", AKA Darlington, for Round Five of the '99 season!
"Mr. NASCAR" |