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Saturday, September 8
Rudd inches closer to Gordon's lead
Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. -- Ricky Rudd was hot. Kevin Harvick was toast.
Rudd showed Harvick that experience -- and fury -- can be a
dangerous combination with six laps to go Saturday night, passing
the rookie who had bumped him off the lead and winning the Monte
Carlo 400 Winston Cup race.
|  | | Jeff Gordon finished 117 laps behing Ricky Rudd after wrecking early in the Monte Carlo 400. |
"I got to him and sort of applied the favor," Rudd said of his
pass. "It's hard when you're really hotheaded like I was back
then. I was pretty steamed up. I had to be careful not to drive the
wheels off it."
Rudd, who became the second driver in a span of six laps to lose
his lead to Harvick on the 383rd of 400 laps, made his pass on the
inside of the fourth turn and won by .833 seconds for his second
victory this season.
It also was the Virginia native's second victory at Richmond
International Raceway, but first since 1984, and allowed him to
climb within 222 points of leader Jeff Gordon, who crashed and finished 36th.
"He's still got a big lead, but we have 10 races left," Rudd
said. "It's not over til it's over. You saw how wild this finish
was tonight, and we've got another short track next week, so you
don't ever know."
The series moves to New Hampshire International Speedway next
weekend.
Harvick hung on for second place, followed by Dale Earnhardt
Jr., Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace, who had dominated for most of the race.
In the end, though, it was Rudd teaching Harvick a short track
lesson to the delight of a crowd of 100,000 who hold Rudd as a
hometown hero.
The victory was the 22nd of Rudd's career.
Wallace had the best car for most of the night, leading 276 laps, and had repeatedly demonstrated an ability to pull away after restarts.
He got a chance to do it again with 27 laps remaining, but with Rudd and Harvick right on his bumper and a tire adjustment leaving him loose, it was only a matter of time before Harvick and Rudd left him behind.
In that fight, Harvick threw a punch, but Rudd got the knockout.
"Sometimes you just run into each other a bit," Harvick said. "He did what he had to do to win the race. It's great when you can race with people. I'm just glad I didn't take him out because I didn't mean to."
Earlier, after 35 laps, Gordon's troubles made it a possible points bonanza for Rudd, who started 342 behind, Sterling Marlin, who was 478 back, and the rest of the drivers who had seen Gordon pulling away.
Gordon was racing Marlin for third place when Marlin made a move
underneath him heading into the third turn. When Gordon moved lower
on the track, Marlin held his spot, clipped Gordon's car and it
went skidding hard into the wall, sustaining significant damage to
the rear end.
Gordon brought the car down pit road, a shower of sparks coming
out of the back, and drove it behind the wall for repairs as the
crowd roared.
"Sterling got on the inside of me and I let him have it,"
Gordon said. "I ran on the outside of him for about a lap and went
into 3 and I don't know what happened. You'll have to ask Sterling
when he comes in."
Marlin suggested both drivers might have been at fault.
"We got in the corner and I might have come up and he came down
a little bit," he said. "Jeff has always raced me clean and I
hate it that we got together. I was turning in and he came across
my right front."
When Gordon finally came back out, he was 110 laps behind the
leaders.
Marlin then became the next contender to falter, going from
leading the race to behind the wall when his car got stuck in
reverse after he missed his pit as the field came in under caution
just 94 laps in.
When he finally returned, he was 49 laps off the pace.
Marlin wound up 32nd and dropped two spots to fifth in the
points race. Jarrett assumed third, 393 behind, followed by Tony
Stewart, who is 412 back. Marlin still gained 12 points and now
trails by 466.
Stewart, who ran among the top five for most of the night, was
incensed, saying he "got knocked around like a pinball all
night."
The race was slowed 12 times by cautions for 80 laps. Rudd's
final move was the eighth lead change, with six drivers leading a
lap.
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