'I just drive the car'
Crew's fuel gamble costs Jarrett shot at $1 million bonus
Posted: Sunday August 02, 1998 03:34 PM
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Jarrett, behind Gordon (front), ran out of fuel and lost the four-second advantage he built approaching the midway point of the race AP |
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A fuel miscalculation cost Dale Jarrett
the lead and a chance for a $1 million bonus in Saturday's Brickyard 400.
Jarrett, who had built a four-second advantage approaching the
midway point of the NASCAR Winston Cup race, knew he was low on
fuel. But his crew, hoping to put a bit more distance on current series leader and defending Winston Cup champion Jeff
Gordon, kept him on the track one more lap.
It was one too many.
"I just drive the car," an angry Jarrett said afterward. "I come in when they tell me to come in. We ran out of gas. I don't make that
call. I'm just the driver. What else can I say? We just ran out of
gas."
Gordon took the lead, survived several lead changes in the
second half and was locked into first place through a series of
yellow cautions in the closing laps to win his second Brickyard
400. He also earned the $1 million bonus in the Winston No Bull 5
program because he was among the top five finishers in the last designated
major Winston Cup race, the Coca-Cola 600.
So was Jarrett.
But instead of the $1,637,625 Gordon earned for the victory --
including the $1 million bonus -- Jarrett took home $140,260 for
16th place, a difference of almost $1.5 million.
"We figured we had enough [fuel] to get one lap past halfway,"
said Brad Parrott, a Robert Yates Racing crewman for Jarrett. "That would have given us a cushion for the second half. It
didn't have anything to do with $10,000 for [leading at] the
halfway. We figured on him [Jarrett] coming in on the next lap. We
just ran one lap short. Those are the breaks when you're running
Winston Cup. Luck wasn't on our side today."
Jarrett began slowing coming out of the first turn and had to
coast all the way around the rest of the 2 1/2-mile Indianapolis Motor
Speedway track. He stopped just inside the entrance to the pits,
and by the time his crew sprinted the several hundred yards to the
car and pushed it back to his pit for fuel, he was four laps
behind the leader and in 37th place.
"We're not going to give up," Parrott said. "If we're three
laps down, we're not giving up. If we're 10 laps down, we're not
giving up. If we win the race, it's obvious we didn't give up."
Jarrett was helped by a favorable position on the track,
however, and was able to pass Gordon before the next yellow light
came out, regaining one of the laps he lost in the pits. The same
thing happened on each of the next two yellows, leaving Jarrett
just one lap down, but still in 34th place. With 33 laps to go, both
Jarrett and Gordon passed then-leader Dale Earnhardt, putting
Jarrett back on the lead lap.
He picked his way through the field and wound up 16th as the
race ended under the yellow. He had finished among the top three at
the Brickyard each of the past three years, including a victory in
1996 and third-place finishes in 1995 and 1997.
"We were trying to run the engine a little lean," car owner
Robert Yates said. "It was a really good car. I guess we were a
little unlucky. They calculate fuel pretty well, but we just ran
out in the wrong place.
"Sometimes you leave a place and you can't figure out what the
other guy did. I think we've figured out how to race with Gordon
and beat Gordon. That's been a pretty big challenge for the last few weeks.
"We ran out of oil last week [at Pocono], ran out of fuel this
week. Maybe we'll have more luck next week [at Watkins Glen]."
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