Ricky Rudd's ham-handed crewmen at Rockingham made him so angry that he skipped a pit stop to avoid them—and won by Bruce Newman While all eyes were on the Tide-dyed number 10 car of Ricky Rudd, Terry Labonte retook the Winston Cup Series points lead from his teammate Jeff Gordon. (Margin of victory: 3.397 seconds) Ricky Rudd, Ford, 393 laps at 122.320 mph* Dale Jarrett, Ford, 393 laps Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 393 laps Ernie Irvan, Ford, 393 laps Jeff Burton, Ford, 393 laps 3 hours, 16 minutes, 3 seconds; 7 flags, 46 laps run under caution Dale Jarrett 157.194 mph with point totals (and points earned this weekend) 1 Terry Labonte 4,327 (165) 2 Jeff Gordon 4,295 (132) 3 Dale Jarrett 4,251 (180) 4 Dale Earnhardt 4,035 (143) 5 Mark Martin 3,947 (146) *Record (previous record: Ward Burton, 114.778 mph, 1995) On at least two of the six pit stops that Ricky Rudd made during the AC-Delco 400 at the North Carolina Motor Speedway, his team's tire changers appeared to have him up on cinder blocks. Twice he pitted while in second place only to emerge far back in the pack after they fumbled the lug nuts. Things got so bad during his second-to-last stop—on Lap 269 of the 393—lap race-that when the crew finally got the tires on, Rudd didn't roar off right away. Instead, he sat and glared at them for a second or two before going back out in 13th place. "That's it!'' Rudd shouted to crew chief Richard Broome on the radio. "Pull them!" So Broome recruited a couple of idled hands from the crew of Derrike Cope's crashed car. But Rudd's next stop was no better than the others, so when the seventh and final caution flag flew on Lap 315, Broome told Rudd over the radio to stay on the track. That meant the driver would finish the race on a worn set of tires. The gamble worked, as Rudd was able to stay almost four seconds ahead of pole winner Dale Jarrett and secure the win. After Rudd's victory—this was the 14th consecutive season in which he had won at least one race; only Dale Earnhardt, with 15, has had a longer streak—Broome was quick to share the glory. "I'll give credit to the pit crew," he said, "because if they hadn't been screwing up, I wouldn't have made that call." Rudd's pit stop follies indirectly led to his victory. photograph by Sam Sharpe Terry Labonte took the Winston Cup points lead by finishing third. Jeff Gordon fell 32 points behind Labonte with a 12th-place finish. So after 29 races, things looked much as they had in February. It was still anybody's Cup.