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Top dog Jarrett conquers Darlington, takes points lead
By Stephen Thomas, CNNSI.com DARLINGTON S.C. -- Just when it appeared it was safe to start printing up this week's issue of Dale Earnhardt Remembered, someone -- or something -- threw a wrench into the works. With 15 laps to go in the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, DEI driver Steve Park was well on his way to his second win of the young season and within sight of the fourth emotional win (in five races) for a driver with heavy ties to The Intimidator. But a mysterious caution flag -- apparently, there was debris on the track, invisible to most but not to race officials -- nullified Park's large lead over Dale Jarrett and presented fans with the prospect of an exciting finish. While such a nail-biter would have been welcome -- for 278 laps, the race was uninspiring -- the odd caution effectively ruined Park's chances and handed the victory to Jarrett. "Steve was by far the best car on the track," a grateful Jarrett said. "It's good when you can get a win when you're really the second- or third-best car out there. But, on the restart before that last one, I was able to get past some cars and move up, so I knew that if we had another caution and came into the pits in second or third, we had a good chance."
Jarrett was referring to the odds that his pit crew, which performed incredibly all day, would be able to kick him out of the pits ahead of his competitors. And, taking full advantage of that mysterious caution, Jarrett's crew pulled off a blistering 14.2 second stop that, indeed, took the No. 88 to the front, ahead of a frustrated Park. "We would've had a much better shot at holding him off than I would've trying to catch him," Park said. "It's hard to be disappointed with second, but when you're as dominant as we were for most of the day [Park led 164 of the 293 laps] ... it's tough to pass here. If you're out front with 10 to go, you've got a good shot." Todd Parrott, Jarrett's crew chief, was equally emphatic that the pit crew was responsible for the win. "I knew that if we didn't get a caution," said Parrott, "we were going to run second. But I also knew that if I put a little bit of pressure on them, they'd get us the lead. When NASCAR said there was a piece of metal on the front stretch, I knew it was our day." Jarrett and Parrott might well have known it was their day much earlier. On an early pit stop, Jarrett's crack crew failed to tighten some lug nuts on the left front tire, requiring Jarrett to re-enter the pits and causing him to lose a lap. "Everyone talks about being patient at Darlington," Jarett said. "And you have to be. It’s long race, we had a good car, our pit crew is good. All those ingredients made it easy to just hang back. I knew I’d eventually work my way back into contention." With 10 laps remaining, Mike Skinner crashed with Terry Labonte and spun to the center of the track, his car in flames. Skinner, wearing a head and neck restraint system developed by his team, climbed out amid the fire, apparently not seriously hurt. NASCAR stopped the race for almost 11 minutes to clean up the mess from Skinner's crash. "I thought we was finally going to get us a top 10 here at Darlington. It's a tough break," Skinner said. Labonte also gave the thumbs up sign coming back from the infield care center. Jeremy Mayfield was third and Jimmy Spencer fourth as Fords took three of the top four spots. The Dodge Intrepids of Sterling Marlin and John Andretti were next, followed by Johnny Benson, Ricky Rudd, Bobby Hamilton and Rusty Wallace. Jarrett, the fifth different winner in five races this season, won $214,612. He is 65 points ahead of Marlin and Benson with Gordon falling to fourth, 95 in back after his 40th-place finish.
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