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Sunday, July 15
Bodine started from pole
Associated Press

JOLIET, Ill. -- It was the kind of day that Todd Bodine would just as soon forget.

Bodine, who earned his second career pole and first in five years, led the first six laps and then quickly fell out of contention.

Before the 267-lap Tropicana 400 was over, the youngest of the trio of racing brothers from Chemung, N.Y., had spun twice and somehow hung on to finish on the lead lap and a respectable 14th.

"We had a good car but it went bad," Bodine said. "The car was swapping around. We're doing something wrong with our shocks and we haven't quite figured it out. Our car got worse and worse.

"I spun out twice and had no warning it was going to do that. It's just a bad day and yet we still finished 14th. We gained a lot of points, which is what we had to do."

Bodine remained 33rd in the season standings but moved within nine points of 32nd-place Stacy Compton.

Points chase tightens
Halfway through the 36-race season, the battle at the top of the Winston Cup standings is a tight three-way duel.

Engine problems late in the race, relegated Jeff Gordon to a 17th-place finish and, combined with third- and fourth-place finishes by Robert Yates Racing teammates Ricky Rudd and Dale Jarrett, tightened things considerably.

Three-time Winston Cup champion Gordon, who came into the race with a 48-point edge on Jarrett, came away tied for the lead with the 1999 series champ. Both have three wins, but Gordon technically holds the lead by virtue of four second-place finishes to just one for Gordon.

Rudd, who has yet to win a title in his NASCAR career, moved within 18 points of the lead.

"I'm just thrilled to be tied with the trouble we've had the last couple of weeks," said Gordon, who crashed and finished 37th a week ago in Daytona. "We've outrun them on the racetrack, but we've just had trouble getting to the checkered flag. We've just got to finish these races and we'll be OK."

Still a struggle
Just when it seemed Bobby Labonte had turned around a disappointing season, things turned sour again for the defending Winston Cup champ.

Labonte was a virtual afterthought in Sunday's race before his engine broke after 168 of the 267 laps. He was scored 39th in the 43-car field and it's the fourth time Labonte has failed to finish in 18 starts this season.

"Something let go in the motor," he said. "It was running pretty good, then the caution flag came out and I let off. It had a little bit of a miss in it at that point. I didn't think much about it, but I got going again and on the restart it just went all of a sudden.

"It looked like it was a pretty good race for us for a while, but that's the way it goes."

Getting out
Dan Pardus, who broke a bone in his lower back in a crash during the Busch Series race Saturday at Chicagoland Speedway, was fitted for a back brace before being released from a Joliet hospital Sunday.

Pardus was kept overnight at Provena St. Joseph Medical Center, mostly for observation for other possible injuries and for pain control.

It's a drag
With drivers concerned about the width of the racing groove on the new 1½-mile tri-oval, four NASCAR trucks spent three hours after the track closed Saturday night dragging tires around the circuit.

A track official said the effort, which added some rubber to the racing surface, did appear to widen the groove a bit.

Sponsored again
Shawna Robinson's failure to qualify for her second Winston Cup start did not deter sponsor Tropicana. The company announced Saturday night that it will again sponsor Robinson next month when she attempts to make the Brickyard 400 in Indianapolis.

"It demonstrates our commitment to Shawna in her quest to achieve her dream of being a Winston Cup champion," said Brenda Copple, vice president of marketing for Tropicana Products, Ind. "She is doing what every working mom sometimes has to do -- face an obstacle head-on. We're behind her to help her along the way."

Robinson, the mother of two, is scheduled to run a handful of Winston Cup events this year in preparation for a run for Rookie of the Year in 2002.

She has failed to qualify at California Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway, but did make the June race at Michigan International Speedway and finished 34th in her race debut.

She is the first female competitor in NASCAR's top stock car series in 12 years.

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