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Sunday, April 8
Fords finish 1-2-3 at Virginia
Associated Press
Virginia 500 results
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Dale Jarrett debunked the supertire
strategy with five laps to go Sunday, using fresher rubber to pass
teammate Ricky Rudd and win the Virginia 500 Winston Cup race.
Jarrett, who never led until sneaking his Ford inside of
Rudd entering the first turn, won for the third time this season
and for the first time in 30 career starts at tight, nasty
Martinsville Speedway.
|  | | Dale Jarrett is waved across the finish line for his 27th career Cup victory. |
On the day after Scott Riggs drove the final 151 laps on the
same tires to victory in the Craftsman Truck Series race, the
thinking that teams wouldn't need to pay as much attention to tires
proved false.
"Tires won the race," Jeff Burton said. "There was a lot said
about not needing tires today, but anytime I can get them, I want
them."
Rudd, who had led for 50 laps, hung on for second, followed by
Burton's Ford, Bobby Hamilton's Chevrolet and Sterling Marlin's
Dodge.
Jarrett and most everyone else pitted for four tires and gas
with 135 laps to go, but when a caution flew again on lap 413,
Jarrett abandoned his sixth-place position and headed back in for
four more new tires.
Rudd and most of the leaders stayed out.
"Todd Parrott made a great call to come in and get tires to
adjust the car," Jarrett said. "We weren't good enough to win the
way we were.
"The car just wasn't sticking very good. It was pushing in the
center and I knew it wasn't going to come in and do any better, so
we knew that we could come in and make the car better. It had been
better than that."
Jarrett lost only five spots on the stop, and gradually worked
his way back into contention. He passed Jeff Gordon for fourth with
41 laps to go, got by Marlin several laps later, then set his sites
on Rudd.
When Rudd caught lapped traffic with about 20 laps remaining, it
gave Jarrett a chance to close what had been a one-second gap. He
moved up to Rudd's bumper with about 10 laps left, then passed him
for the victory.
"The decision was made way back not to get tires," said Rudd,
who felt he couldn't give up the lead to pit again after moving to
the front.
"They had the restarts at the end and we couldn't come in at
that point. We either got outsmarted or they made a luckier call."
The victory enabled Jarrett to increase his championship points
lead to 123 over Gordon, who faded in the final laps and finished
12th.
The race was a classic short-track duel on the .526-mile oval,
featuring 15 lead changes and 12 cautions that slowed things for 98
laps. It ended with 17 cars on the lead lap, a track record.
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