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Speeding away Jarrett dominates Kmart 400, pads points lead
Posted: Monday August 09, 1999 11:18 AM
BROOKLYN, Mich. (CNN/SI) -- If NASCAR fans ever endured a Winston Cup ho-hummer, it was Sunday's Kmart 400 victory by Dale Jarrett. How boring? It was Winston Cup's first caution-free race in two years; a boon for teams and drivers, but an automatic strategy and interest-choker. Some of Michigan Speedway's estimated 160,000 fans began leaving with 25 laps remaining. And second-place finisher Jeff Gordon admitted his own boredom with 10 laps remaining, almost 15 car lengths behind -- a dot in Jarrett's mirror. "That's probably the best race I've ever driven," said Jarrett, who took the lead from Gordon on the 53rd lap and never relinquished it. With no caution flags to slow him, he set a race record of 173.997 mph, eclipsing Rusty Wallace's mark of 166.033 set at Michigan on June 6, 1996. It was also Jarrett's second victory of the season. He entered the race leading the series by 51 points over Jeff Burton and by 339 points over Gordon, who has won the Winston Cup title three of the past four seasons. The race was so one-sided that with 10 laps to go, the only real drama was in waiting to see how big Jarrett's margin of victory would be. He was so far ahead of Gordon's Chevrolet most of the time that the television cameras could seldom get their cars in the same picture. "It was embarrassing," Gordon said. "Dale had such a strong car. It was a pretty boring day for me, really. I just never did see Dale. He put it on the gas and he was gone." In the unofficial points report, issued within minutes of the race's end, Jarrett had stretched his Winston Cup lead over Burton -- who finished third -- to 66 points and was 349 points ahead of Gordon, who remained sixth in the standings. The only real racing came early, resulting in 12 lead changes involving seven different drivers. Gordon was running in front of Ernie Irvan and Jarrett after 50 laps. Following pit stops by all the leaders, Jarrett swung into the lead on the 53rd lap and was never seriously challenged. There were two more pit stops along the way, but Jarrett and Gordon were so far ahead that their positions never changed. They ran first and second the rest of the afternoon under dull gray skies. With no caution flags, all the cars were able to run wide open the entire race. There was little reason to fear bumping or causing a wreck. The field soon was stretched out, single file, with each car basically doing laps around the track. Gordon was running 6.7 seconds ahead of Gordon after 140 laps. Gordon managed to close the gap to 3.5 seconds with 13 laps remaining, but Jarrett pulled away again, lapping cars that weren't on the lead lap. And those same lapped cars seemed only to get in Gordon's way as he tried to reel in his rival. Jarrett conceded Gordon's car was probably stronger at the end, but time was running out. Jarrett's margin of victory was .505 seconds, mainly because he finally eased off on the throttle down the stretch. Still, the race took only two hours, 17 minutes, 56 seconds. NASCAR's last caution-free Winston Cup race came May 10, 1997, at Talladega. That race, at 188.354 mph, remains the fastest average speed in Winston Cup history. It was the third caution-free race at Michigan, the first since 1984. Jarrett, winning for the 20th time in his career, became the third repeat winner on the circuit this season.
This was the seventh victory for Ford in 14 races this season.
Chevrolet has five wins and Pontiac has two.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | |||||||||||||||||
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