Risky business
Gordon's daring move gets him to Victory Lane
Posted: Friday February 26, 1999 05:37 PM
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Jeff Gordon (24) boxes in Dale Earnhardt (3) and Mike Skinner (31) on his way to a Daytona 500 win. Jamie Squire/Allsport |
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (CNN/SI) -- On a day when crew chief Ray Evernham even admitted that he didn't have the best car, Jeff Gordon took winning -- and losing -- into his own hands.
Faced with a pass-or-be-trapped situation in the wanning laps of Sunday's 41st Daytona 500, Gordon elected to pass. Zooming out of Turn 1 at Daytona International Speedway, he pinched low on leader Rusty Wallace as Mike Skinner went high on lap 190. Directly ahead, a straggling Ricky Rudd on the backstretch apron conjured disasterous images, but Gordon shot by, pinning Wallace between himself and Skinner.
After all the gasps, Gordon found himself in the lead, in almost the same spot where he passed Bill Elliott to win his first Daytona 500, in 1997.
"Sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do," he said.
Racing three abreast on the high-banked turns at Daytona International Speedway is never recommended. Going four wide is out of the question, even though Gordon was almost forced to do that. It was a $2 million move that easily could have been a pile of twisted sheet metal.
Gordon went low as Mike Skinner drove high entering the first turn. That left Wallace, who had dominated the race, caught in the middle. One mistake by any of them, and all could have wrecked. Still, no one gave up.
"I just couldn't block him off enough," Wallace said. "I'm just so heartbroken that this happened."
Two years ago, when Gordon won the race for the first time, he and teammate Terry Labonte did practically the same thing to Elliott. This time, however, getting by the lapped car of Ricky Rudd was a problem Gordon had to solve before making the pass.
"I said, 'Oh, Ricky, I hope you see me coming, because I'm coming real fast,'" Gordon said. "I didn't want to go in there, but I had so much momentum."
So, Gordon bet on his own ability and Rudd's experience. It worked and four abreast was barely avoided.
"There's a lot of apron down there, and I utilized every bit of it," said Gordon, who missed crashing into Rudd by a matter of inches.
After driving on the apron -- which he did frequently when he needed to gain a position -- Gordon rode three abreast, eventually getting by Wallace. He then kept Skinner on the high side of the track and beat him in a drag race down the backstretch.
From there, Gordon's best friend was his own discipline. He never left the white line at the bottom of the turns, ensuring that any pass would have to come on the high side, the longer way around the 2 1/2-mile tri-oval.
With all the rest of the contenders out the mix, only defending champion Dale Earnhardt remained. He started working Gordon high and low beginning with the 192nd of 200 laps but was never able to catch him.
"I was trying all I could to get to the 24," Earnhardt said of Gordon. "His car was stronger from the center of the corner."
Gordon made sure of that. The Kid blocked Earnhardt the way The Intimidator has done so often while winning seven Winston Cup championships. But Gordon, who began his run at a record-tying third straight series title, did much more than simply turn the wheel to thwart Earnhardt.
It was all about going slow to get there first. Gordon kept easing off the throttle, forcing Earnhardt break his momentum, then
got on the accelerator again and pulled away slightly. He permitted Earnhardt to close up to the point where he couldn't attempt a longer run that would give him the momentum necessary to pass.
Then came the final lap, one that would decide whether the greatest driver in NASCAR history could duplicate the winning pass he made two days earlier to beat Mark Martin in an IROC all-star race.
With a record 33 victories on the track, Earnhardt knows more about winning passes than anyone else. But this time, it was not to be. As the cars exited the fourth turn, Earnhardt made his move. He faked going to the outside, then tried the short route on the inside.
Gordon went to the bottom, so far down that Earnhardt was almost forced to veer left onto pit road. He had to back off or he would have slid across the grass that separates pit road from the last 200 yards of asphalt Gordon rode to the biggest payoff in auto racing history.
But Gordon wasn't the only one who collected, Earnhardt said as he reflected on the tense finish that had 185,000 fans on their feet over the frantic final laps.
"They got their money's worth today," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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