| | ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- After the Sandman did his narcoleptic dance over the Daytona 500, these hills of sand that cover the eastern North Carolina landscape woke up a Winston Cup season that had otherwise been asleep at the wheel.
Just when you thought three competing makes of cars couldn't possibly co-exist in harmony, there go those knuckle-headed drivers, passing each other 22 times for the lead during the DuraLube/Kmart 400 at Rockingham. Any notion that the tame racing at Daytona was a sign of gloomy days to come has been dispelled.
And the excitement surrounding NASCAR is back.
Rockingham was everything Daytona wasn't: side-by-side, three-wide racing with enough passing to make a scorer dehydrate. This is how stock car racing is supposed to be.
Ten different drivers -- five in Chevrolets, three in Fords, and two in Pontiacs -- took turns leading at North Carolina Speedway. After three weeks of seemingly endless bickering over which car maker would dominate, Bobby Labonte (in a Pontiac) snuck a Grand Prix into Victory Lane -- and no one had a cross-word to say about his make, model, spoiler, or anything else from Detroit.
What unfolded on a dreary day in Rockingham was a fine stock car race; defined not by aerodynamics and horsepower but rather by strategy, cunning, and the knowledge that rubber falls below sand on the ecological food chain. Those who accept that to be scientific fact succeed on this tire-eating speedway.
"At a track like this, the only time you worry about position is during the final 20 laps," said Kenny Wallace, who finished 24th. "We don't race other cars here. We race the clock. We focus on making our laps as quick as possible. If you try to race other teams, you end up going slower."
Sometimes, even those that have had success at Rockingham have a hard time getting out of the sand trap. "We thought we were gonna be junk, and we drove to the front and led the thing and were good even on equal tires; then we thought we were gonna be good, and we were about junk like we were in practice," said Mark Martin, a two-time winner here who finished eighth. "I can't explain it."
Unlike Daytona, where drafting, friends, flawless pit stops and near perfect timing send a team to victory, the 1.017-mile North Carolina Speedway is all about a driver incorporating what he has learned to get him to Winston Cup racing.
Take Labonte, for example. He knew his car was pretty fast for 30 laps, decent for the next 20 laps, and morbid for the final 15 laps of a tire run. So, on fresh tires, he'd put his first 50 laps to good use and run away from Dale Earnhardt in a game of hide-and-seek.
Labonte says he learned a long time ago to get away from Earnhardt. "He passed me once on the highway going to a photo shoot, and I was intimidated."
Earnhardt has set a precedent at this particular track. Four years ago, he caught Bobby Hamilton in a similar game of cat-and-mouse at Rockingham. Hamilton ended up in the wall, and Earnhardt finished in victory lane. It is quite possible that a mental note embedded itself in Labonte's brain on that day -- Note to self: if ever in that situation, run away.
So, Labonte ran.
Meanwhile, Earnhardt babied his Monte Carlo around the high banks. Earnhardt's car was decent for 40 laps and better than anyone else's for the final 25 circuits of a tire run. Earnhardt, not normally known for his restraint, restrained. In the end, he lost. Earnhardt's note to self: Next time, show less restraint and more fender.
"I just took it easy on the tires and ran easy," Earnhardt said. "A lot of other guys were taking off and burning their tires off early. I'd watched that early in the race. I made my mind up to take it easy on the tires and run toward the end. That's what we were doing. We just ran out of time."
Even though the backstretch grandstands were half-full, NASCAR saved face at Rockingham. The competition is back, and Earnhardt is back. Neither ever hurts the marketabilty of Winston Cup racing.
Phil Furr is a freelance reporter based in Charlotte, N.C., and a frequent contributor to ESPN.com. | |
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