Jeff Gordon sweated out a tough win at the expense—big expense—of Dale Jarrett by Ed Hinton Bad news from the oil patch: Dale Jarrett slipped on a spot of oil and sailed out of contention for both the race and the Winston Million, a big-bucks bonus. (Margin of victory: 5.23 seconds) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 367 laps at 135.757 mph Hut Stricklin, Ford, 367 laps Mark Martin, Ford, 367 laps Ken Schrader, Chevrolet, 366 laps John Andretti, Ford, 366 laps 3 hours, 41 minutes, 34 seconds; 6 flags, 37 laps run under caution Dale Jarrett 170.934 mph with point totals (and points earned this weekend) 1 Terry Labonte 3,382 (90) 2 Jeff Gordon 3,358 (180) 3 Dale Jarrett 3,291 (126) 4 Dale Earnhardt 3,221 (127) 5 Mark Martin 3,042 (170) If Jeff Gordon hadn't constantly reminded members of the press—and himself—that he was very glad he'd just won the Mountain Dew Southern 500, the victor's press conference would have been nothing but one long lamentation that Dale Jarrett had lost the race, and with it the $1 million Winston Million jackpot. "He drove with his heart," Gordon said of Jarrett's performance. He might well have added "and his guts, too." Jarrett won the pole with what was clearly the strongest car in the field and led early on. But on only the 46th lap of the 367-lap race, Jarrett slid sideways on a patch of oil and crashed. He pitted nine times to repair the damage to his Thunderbird and fell three laps off the pace. Even with faulty steering, Jarrett managed to make up one lap; he finished in 14th place. "You could see the determination and desire in Dale's driving, whether he was leading the race or two or three laps down," Gordon said. "He was sliding that thing sideways. It would have been really neat to see him win. But we went out there and did our job, and ended up in Victory Lane." That made three wins in a row for Gordon at Darlington Raceway, NASCAR's oldest superspeedway (it opened in 1950). He won this one with a touch of drama, running down a surprisingly strong Hut Stricklin with 16 laps remaining, then blindly picking his way through treacherous traffic. "I absolutely could not see a thing through my windshield," Gordon said. "When I came down the front straightaway, the sun would hit me right in the face through a mixture of oil, sand, rubber and water on the windshield." Yet Gordon's victory was an anticlimax after Jarrett had missed the bonus. The Winston Million is paid to any driver who wins three of four designated races--the Daytona 500, the Winston Select 500, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500--in one season. (Bill Elliott is the only driver to have won the prize, in 1985, the first year it was offered.) This year Jarrett won Daytona and the Coca-Cola 600 and was leading the Southern 500 when he barreled off the backstretch to find, as he said later, "there was oil down in [Turn] 3. As I went into the corner the car just took off and went straight into the wall. It was unfortunate. The car was really good." And if you don't believe Jarrett, ask Jeff Gordon. He'll tell you.