Earnhardt Star Still Crossed at Daytona : Auto racing: For the fourth time in five years he leads late only to lose. Jarrett wins with final-lap pass.

Dale Earnhardt’s recurring nightmare that is the Daytona 500 reached a new abyss Sunday.

Known as stock car racing’s Intimidator, Earnhardt had his black No. 3 Chevrolet in front for 107 of the 200 laps--including the next to last one--at Daytona International Speedway, but when the checkered flag fell, another Dale, Jarrett, was the winner in the one race that has eluded five-time Winston Cup champion Earnhardt.

Jarrett started his victorious move in the Interstate Chevrolet owned by Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs with a little more than a lap remaining. When Earnhardt drifted high on the 31-degree banking in the fourth turn, Jarrett dove inside and raced him side by side toward the finish stripe for the white flag marking the final lap.

Earnhardt led by inches, but as the leaders charged at 190 m.p.h. toward the first turn of the final go-round to complete one of the most dramatic stock car races in history, Jarrett received some drafting help from the Ford of Geoff Bodine and that was the push he needed to squeeze past the black Chevrolet.

“It seemed like Dale’s car was a little loose getting into the corner, and I was still wide open and was able to get in there on the bottom and get a run,” Jarrett explained. “We touched a little bit going through the tri-oval when he was trying to hold me off. He’d led most of the race and didn’t want to give it up.”

The margin of victory was 0.19 seconds, with Bodine, Hut Stricklin and rookie Jeff Gordon chasing Jarrett and Earnhardt to the line.

Jarrett averaged 154.972 m.p.h. and earned $238,200.

Earnhardt was his usual succinct self.

“The No. 18 car (Jarrett) had the strongest engine out there,” he snapped. “He could draft me. There was nothing I could do about it. I ran second today.

“We’ve lost this race about every way you can lose it. We’ve been out-gassed, out-tired, out-run, out-everythinged.”

Earnhardt had reason to be snappish. It was the fourth time in the last five years that he had led after 190 laps without winning. In 1990, he led until the final turn when his flat tire enabled Derrike Cope to slip through to win. In 1989, Earnhardt appeared to be the winner when he pitted for fuel with 10 laps remaining, only to have Darrell Waltrip outfox him and finish without a matching pit stop. And in 1991 he was leading with six laps remaining when he was knocked out in a backstretch wreck and Ernie Irvan won.

“When you beat Dale Earnhardt, anytime, anywhere, at anything, you’ve accomplished a major feat,” Jarrett said. “I think he’s the best race driver to hit this circuit in a long, long time. You almost have to feel sorry, the way this place has treated him.”

Actually, the place treats him quite well--except for the 500. Earnhardt had won both halves of the Busch Clash, his fourth 125-mile qualifying heat and his fourth consecutive Goody’s 300 Grand National race during this year’s Speedweeks.

“I’m getting tired of winning everything up until the 500 and not winning the big one,” Earnhardt said after his 15th futile run in the Daytona 500. He has 53 Winston Cup victories. Jarrett has two.

Jarrett, 36, who became Gibbs’ driver when he formed his team a little more than a year ago, is the son of two-time NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett, who won the series in 1961 and 1965.

“This one was for the family,” Dale said. “I remember coming down here when I was eight or nine years old, sitting in the family car while my dad was racing. I used to close my eyes and pretend I was driving in the Daytona 500 myself. Of course, I won it every time.

“My dad never won the Daytona 500. I was standing on the roof of our car in 1963 with my dad leading and two laps to go when he ran out of gas.”

Tiny Lund won the race and Jarrett was third.

Gibbs, who has coached the Redskins to three Super Bowl victories, said this matched them for thrills.

“The Lord blessed me with two great experiences, winning the Super Bowl and the Super Bowl of motor racing, but this one is special because I can enjoy (it) with my family,” said Gibbs, a former drag racer in Southern California. “We own the car, as a family, so there is more of a personal enjoyment than with the football wins.

“On the other hand, I’m not involved with the running of the team the way I am in football. Jimmy Makar is the man who runs this team. He’s the coach and Dale is the quarterback. My job is to pray and stay out of the way.”

Jarrett wore a helmet designed to look like one belonging to the Dallas Cowboys.

“We made a deal with NFL Properties that we’d use the helmet of the Super Bowl champions. . . . Of course, we thought it would be us,” Gibbs said. “As soon as the race was over, though, we hid it as quick was we could.”

The finish was a fitting climax to an intense race that kept the estimated 150,000 fans on edge for more than three hours. There were 38 lead changes among 13 drivers in a dizzying display of high-speed driving that often saw cars shuffled from first to 10th in half a lap as sometimes as many as 25 cars hooked up nose-to-tail in a draft.

After the first 350 miles were almost accident-free, crowded conditions in the final drive toward the finish line brought about several frightening crashes that eliminated pole-sitter Kyle Petty, Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr., race leader Bobby Hillin and former Winston Cup champion Rusty Wallace.

On Lap 170, Cope and Michael Waltrip brushed, knocking Cope into Wallace. This got Wallace sideways, and when he slid into the grass, his Pontiac began flipping. After three or four barrel rolls, it flipped about 20 feet in the air and then rolled six more times, almost totally disintegrating.

In a testament to the strength of the roll cage, Wallace climbed out of what was left and walked to the ambulance, uninjured except for several cuts on his chin and a serious shaking.

Unser, after starting 40th, had moved up into the lead pack when he was clipped by Earnhardt coming off the fourth turn. The impact sent Unser spinning toward the wall. Hillin, attempting to avoid Unser, also spun and when he slid across the grass and back onto the track, he was hit broadside by Petty, who had no place to go.

Hillin and Petty exchanged words and shoves before officials pulled them apart.

Felix Sabates, Petty’s car owner, said, “It was nobody’s fault,” and Hillin agreed. Petty, who had led for 19 laps and appeared to have one of the fastest cars in the race, accused Hillin of failing to use his brakes. Hillin said he had none left.

Petty’s ire was no doubt stimulated by the knowledge that Sabates had promised him a $1-million bonus if he won the race.