'The Pass'
Even Gordon impressed by daring maneuver
Posted: Friday February 26, 1999 07:28 PM
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High risk, high return: At the last moment, Ricky Rudd and Rusty Wallace gave Jeff Gordon just enough room. Jamie Squire/Allsport |
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (CNN/SI) -- Maybe it was so harrowing that Jeff Gordon needed a respite. Or maybe he was too busy being the latest Daytona 500 winner.
Whatever the reason, The Kid still hadn't seen a replay of the final laps of the 41st Daytona by Monday morning, even though it was almost all that he'd talked about since winning the race late Sunday afternoon.
Known as "The Pass," the move seems destined to come 1999's lasting Daytona image. It occurred with 11 laps left in the race, as Gordon chose to pass then-leader Rusty Wallace at the same moment that Ricky Rudd's wounded car limped around the bottom of the track in Gordon's path.
"I can't wait to see the tape of the closing laps," Gordon said. "I knew it was intense and exciting from where I was sitting."
Gordon may flinch when he does.
"The Pass" took place as the leaders drove toward the first turn on the 2 1/2-mile oval 11 laps from the finish at Daytona International Speedway.
Gordon chose that moment to try to pass Wallace for the lead. The two-time defending Winston Cup champion darted to the lower portion of the banked track and picked up speed.
"I had been trying to set Rusty up for a few laps and I had a lot of momentum built up when I started under him," Gordon said. "Then I got out there and saw Ricky and thought for a couple of seconds I was going to have to get on the brakes hard."
Unfortunately for Rudd, he had gotten involved in a multicar crash earlier in the race and was driving slowly around the apron of the track with his battered car, simply trying to pick up points for the long season ahead.
The lane between Wallace, traveling at close to 190 mph, and Rudd, going considerably slower, was narrow and getting smaller as Wallace squeezed down to discourage Gordon's bravery.
"I said, 'Oh, Ricky, I hope you see me coming because I'm coming real fast,' " Gordon said.
The television replay from high atop the grandstand shows that at the last moment Rudd moved over just enough, his left side tires in the grass, kicking up spouts of dirt. Wallace also gave ground grudgingly, sliding inches up the banking.
The tape reveals about a foot of open space on each side of Gordon's speeding Chevrolet as it burst through the tiny opening.
"I was watching the race on TV in our motor home in the infield and I screamed," said Brooke Gordon, Jeff's wife. Her face still registered a bit of fear as she thought about that moment nearly 18 hours earlier.
"It just happened to open up," Gordon said. "It was a split second."
Wallace is 0-17 in the Daytona 500 and wanted the victory at least as much as Gordon.
"I thought he was going to drive right in the back of Rudd," Wallace said. "I had him pinned down there and I said, 'Man, I'm not going to wreck a bunch of cars.' So I pulled up and he got me."
The daring move did not give Gordon the victory. He still had to hold off Wallace and Mike Skinner in a three-wide battle down the backstretch and through turns three and four to complete the maneuver and grab the lead.
Then he wound up going head-to-head with Dale Earnhardt, barely holding off one of the most aggressive stock car drivers ever for the final 10 laps as The Intimidator darted up and down the banking looking for an opening that never came.
"He knows I did everything I could to win the race," Gordon said. "There were times when there were some gutsy moves, and Dale makes gutsy moves out there, too."
It may have been a defining moment for Gordon, who at 27 has already become the biggest star in the fastest growing sport in America.
Forget the record $2.1 million payday. Forget the fact that Gordon won his third straight race, including the final two of 1998.
"The Pass" proved to a lot of people that Jeff Gordon isn't winning just because car-owner Rick Hendrick gives him great equipment and crew chief Ray Evernham is the best in the business.
Gordon has developed a reputation for finesse on the racetrack. But there was little finesse in the move he made to get past Earnhardt late in the race, and even less when he popped past Wallace and Rudd.
"It's such a big event," Gordon said. "Late in the race like that when you're making a charge, you take every opportunity you can. That's what I did. Brooke and I talked about it a lot last night. I would have done it time and time again if I had to just because it's the Daytona 500."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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