Pit swings the pendulum
Decision to stay out on track may have cost Wallace
Posted: Monday February 15, 1999 05:35 PM
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Darn it: Rusty Wallace (left, with teammate Jeremy Mayfield) admits he might have held on if he had fresher tires. AP |
By Denise N. Maloof, CNN/SI
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- To pit or not to pit may have helped decide Sunday's 41st Daytona 500.
When the caution flag flew on a 12-car mess on lap 135, Rusty Wallace and teammate Jeremy Mayfield's crew chiefs -- Robin Pemberton and Paul Andrews, respectively -- decided not to bring their drivers in.
Most of the leaders -- including then-leader Mike Skinner, winner Jeff Gordon and eventual second-place finisher Dale Earnhardt -- did pit, taking on two fresh tires. At lap 180 of the 200-lap event, the decision seemed moot. Wallace led, with Mayfield on his back bumper. The Intimidator lurked in third with Gordon languishing in seventh.
But 10 laps later, Gordon had the lead with Wallace on his back bumper. Skinner had claimed third in front of Earnhardt, and Mayfield had dropped to 10th (he finished 19th because of a cut tire on 192; Wallace finished sixth). Gordon made his move on a wild, lap 190 gang up that pinned Wallace in the center of the backstretch, seizing the lead with Earnhardt and Skinner close behind after tearing past a straggling Ricky Rudd down on the apron, then back onto the track.
"I had him pinned down there, and I said, 'Man, I'm not gonna try to wreck a bunch of cars,' " Wallace said of the lap-190 blitz. "So I pulled up and he got me. I just didn't think I'd get freight-trained that bad, but I did."
Despite leading 102 of Daytona's 200 laps, he didn't dispute Pemberton's call, either.
"I still think the decision was fine," Wallace said. "Looking back on it now, maybe if I would have had a little bit more grip in the tires I might have been about to hold that bottom line a little bit better, but the car still handled good."
"I feel for Robin because it's tough to make that call," said Ray Evernham, Gordon's crew chief. "Particularly if your car's running well. If you decide to come in, everybody else is staying out. If you stay out, everybody's coming in."
Everybody else's opinion?
"I don't know why Rusty and them didn't get tires," Earnhardt said. "It might have been just everybody hooked up together, but I believe the tires had a big part in Jeff's winning the race and me finishing second."
Gordon disagreed.
"Rusty didn't lose the race because he had old tires," he said. "It wasn't like he got sideways, or the grip went away on his race car. It was just that we had a bunch of momentum and got past him. He was holding the line on the bottom just like everybody else."
"I'd trust whatever Paul Andrews decided, without question," Mayfield said.
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