Hungry for a win, Jeff Gordon found early-season racing on Richmond's short track very much to his taste by Bruce Newman The Pontiac 400 provided a series of 1996 firsts for Jeff Gordon. He led his first lap of the '96 season, finished his first race and, most important, earned his first win. (Margin of victory: .56 of a second) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 400 laps at 102.750 mph Dale Jarrett, Ford, 400 laps Ted Musgrave, Ford, 400 laps Jeff Burton, Ford, 400 laps Mark Martin, Ford, 400 laps 2 hours, 55 minutes, 11 seconds; 8 flags, 36 laps run under caution Terry Labonte 123.728 mph with point totals (and points earned this weekend) 1 Dale Jarrett 530 (175) 2 Jeff Burton 444 (165) 3 Ricky Rudd 441 (138) 4 Dale Earnhardt 425 (70) 5 Ricky Craven 406 (112) For the first two races of the 1996 season, the only things defending Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon seemed able to do quickly were work his way backward through the field and go nowhere in the series point standings. Maybe it was a little too soon to start panicking; after all, the Winston Cup drama plays out over nine months and 31 races. But before the start of the Pontiac 400 at Richmond International Raceway, Gordon was growing concerned. Quickly. He had finished 42nd at Daytona and 40th at Rockingham. And after ending 1995's championship run with finishes of 30th, 20th, 5th and 32nd, NASCAR's telegenic young star found himself in the throes of what looked like a slump. "This sport can humble you real quick," Gordon had said after blowing his engine at Rockingham. "You think you're on top of the world—and the next thing you know, you're spun around backward." But at Richmond it was much of the rest of the field that was spun around backward when it counted most for the victorious Gordon. He led for the last 50 laps, which featured five cautions, and by staying in the lead was able to avoid the roughhousing. He and his Chevrolet Monte Carlo advanced from fourth to first during the final round of pit stops and held off the onrushing Thunderbird of Dale Jarrett, who tightened his grip on the points lead and found the mystical groove that was allowing him, for the first time in his 12-year Winston Cup career, to go fast at every racetrack. Gordon could smile after the slump was over. photograph by George Tiedemann "Things are going our way," Jarrett conceded cautiously after the race. "We'll see how we handle the adversity when it comes, because it's going to come sometime during the year." A smiling Gordon agreed: "You start to lose that confidence, and you just don't know if you can win. The last two races have been pretty hard on our guys. Momentum can do a lot for you, and this is the momentum we needed."