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California Kid Wallace outduels Gordon for NAPA 500 victory
Updated: Monday April 30, 2001 8:28 AM
By Mark Spoor, CNNSI.com FONTANA, Calif. -- Rusty's back. Rusty Wallace led 95 laps Sunday, some of those in dominating fashion, and held off a hard-charging Jeff Gordon to win the NAPA Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway. "It was a real great day," Wallace said. "The car had super horsepower. We had a very strong car. It feels good." Wallace qualified 19th on Friday, but said he knew early on that Sunday was another day. "About 40 laps in, I knew that we just had a great car," he said. "We made some air pressure changes and changed a couple other little things and that was it." Indeed. Just 45 laps in, Wallace had moved to eighth. He took the lead for the first time in lap 151 after oil in turn 3 brought out the third caution of the day, he then got a great jump after the sixth and final caution on lap 229 to seal the deal. However, Gordon would have one last push. He closed within two car lengths before Wallace pulled away again with three laps to go. After holding off two-time California Speedway winner Gordon in a 19-lap shootout at the end of the 250-lap event, Wallace stopped across from his pit and waited while one of his Penske Racing South crewmen brought out a flag, bearing Earnhardt's colors and his famed No. 3.
"He was such a good friend of mine. I always wanted to do something special for Dale when he lost his life," Wallace said of his former racing rival and hunting partner, who was killed in a crash Feb. 18 in the Daytona 500. "We had the flag all put together at Rockingham [the week after Daytona]. "My plan was to ride around with the flag and have [Earnhardt's car owner] Richard Childress help me with it at Rockingham because I really thought I was going to win the race." Wallace finished seventh in that race and wound up postponing the tribute to Earnhardt until Sunday's race, the 10th of the season. Wallace said, despite the large lead, he was always looking out for the No. 24 car. "Whenever you have Jeff in your rearview mirror, you're always worried," Wallace said. "I knew he could make a run. If we kept going green, I thought we would be OK. "He made some gallant efforts, but I thought I drove a clean, smart race and that was very special." It is Wallace's first victory since the goracing.com 500 on Aug. 26, 2000, at Bristol and his first top-10 finish since he was seventh at this year's Food City 500 -- also at Bristol. Despite not being able to catch Wallace at the end, Gordon -- who went from a qualifying position of 17th to seventh in just seven laps -- said the day was a rousing success. "When they dropped the green flag, I never thought we'd have rocketed like that," he said. "Unfortunately, we lost some track position and then we tried to get the car a little looser and we couldn't get it loose enough." In the end, however, Gordon said Wallace just had too much car.
"I made it look good, anyway," he said. "It was tough to get around him." There was another tough battle for third and fourth between Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. On what would have been his father's 50th birthday, Little E finished third, his highest finish since the Daytona 500. "I hadn't thought about it much until I heard them mention it on the P.A.," Earnhardt Jr. said of the special date. "It's kind of cool." Earnhardt Jr. endured a crash in practice Friday morning after blowing his right front tire. He also said the car blew a motor this week. The bad luck continued Sunday when he got a lap down. "We had a great car, we just didn't have the luck." Last year's defending champion, Jeremy Mayfield, finished fifth. "I'm real happy with it," Mayfield said. I thought we were better than that yesterday, but we'll take that." Pole-sitter Bobby Labonte found the infield grass twice, but saved the car both times and finished 22nd. Ward Burton wasn't so lucky. He was injured late in the race after crashing into the wall at turn 3 on lap 208. Burton, somewhat disoriented after scrambling out of his car, was taken by helicopter to a hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion and admitted for overnight observation. He also had a small cut on his chin. The race featured 24 lead changes among 14 different drivers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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