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Sunday, June 3
Gordon wins at Dover
Associated Press
DOVER, Del. -- Jeff Gordon knows nothing is certain in
racing, so he wasn't enjoying the beating he was giving the rest of
the field Sunday at Dover Downs International Speedway.
He was too busy counting the laps, hoping he wouldn't have to
turn on to pit road for a splash of gas that would enable him
merely to finish the MBNA Platinum 400 as something other than the
winner.
|  | | Including The Winston, Gordon now has three wins in 2001. |
"I was thinking it would be a real shame to lead that many laps
and lose it at the end," he said after holding off Steve Park for
the victory. "I just didn't want to get caught up in a
fuel-mileage deal."
That has happened twice to Gordon at Dover, most recently in
1999, when he led 375 of 400 laps then was forced to go in for gas
and watch helplessly as Bobby Labonte drove to victory.
"It doesn't matter how great you are all day long," Gordon
said. "The only lap that counts is the last one."
This time he was in front at the checkered flag after leading
381 laps while re-establishing himself as a force at Dover. He also
ended Tony Stewart's bid for three straight wins on the track.
"This is the best car I've ever had here," Gordon said. "We
could stay out in front even after the tires went away."
It was the second victory this season and the 54th overall for
the three-time Winston Cup champion, tying him with Rusty Wallace
and Lee Petty for seventh-best in NASCAR history. It also was the
fourth win for Gordon on one of NASCAR's most difficult tracks.
But Gordon said it wasn't as easy as it seemed.
"I know it might have looked like the car was on a rail, but
there's no easy way around Dover," he said. "If you listened to
the scanner it might have sounded like I was complaining."
The victory ties him with Bill Elliott and Ricky Rudd for the
most by an active driver at The Monster Mile, where Bobby Allison
and Richard Petty won seven times each. Stewart, trying to join
Gordon, David Pearson and Wallace with three straight Dover
victories, finished seventh.
"We just didn't do everything we needed to today," said
Stewart's crew chief, Greg Zipadelli.
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ALL-TIME WINS
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The following are the top-10 leaders in NASCAR Winston Cup wins.
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1. Richard Petty
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200
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2. David Pearson
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105
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3. Bobby Allison
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84
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Darrell Waltrip
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84
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5. Cale Yarborough
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83
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6. Dale Earnhardt
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76
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7. Rusty Wallace
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54
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Jeff Gordon |
54
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Lee Petty
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54
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10. Ned Jarrett
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50
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Junior Johnson
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50
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His counterpart, Robbie Loomis, was all smiles when asked what
about calling the shots for Gordon.
"He's a crew chief within himself," said Loomis, in his second
season with Gordon. "Hendrick Motorsports gives us great cars, but
Jeff Gordon's the icing on the cake."
Loomis laughed when asked if he's ever been involved in a
381-lap spanking.
"Sure," he said. "But I was always on the other end of
them."
Gordon won here for the first time since sweeping the races in
1996. He began his run of three straight Dover victories in
September 1995. Stewart won both races last year.
Dale Jarrett, who won the pole on the basis of points when
qualifying was rained out Friday and is nursing a cracked rib from
a crash in practice May 26 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, wound up
fifth. He leads the series standings by 50 points over Gordon.
"I'm worn out, but Jeff wore us all out," Jarrett said. "Our
car was probably a little better than the driver today."
The race was run under mostly sunny skies after two days of bad
weather prevented qualifying and cut into practice time.
Gordon's Chevrolet beat that of Steve Park by 0.828 seconds,
giving the 29-year-old driver from Indiana his 11th top-10 finish
in 17 career starts on the high-banked concrete oval.
"Park gave me a good run there at the end, but we had the right
setup," Gordon said.
Park was looking for his third career victory, but after closing
within a half-second late in the race was unable to catch Gordon.
"Jeff was just driving the wheels off the thing, and so was I
trying to catch him," Park said.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. made it a top-three sweep for Chevy in the
$3.6 million race. Ricky Craven was fourth in a Ford, giving
2-year-old PPI Motorsports its best result ever.
Craven, a former Gordon teammate who led three times during
exchanges of pit stops, started thinking about celebrating his
first career victory as he listened to crew chief Mike Beam on the
radio.
"Mike is saying, 'You're six back ... you're five back ...
you're four back,"' Craven recalled. "For a brief moment I
thought, 'What am I going to say in Victory Lane?' I shouldn't have
done that."
Gordon, who started second, led five times, and averaged 120.361
mph. The race was slowed for 31 laps by five caution flags.
There were 16 lead changes among eight drivers.
Rudd finished 10th, Wallace 21st and Elliott 40th. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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