MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : At Long Last, Gordon Has Short-Track Victory

From the day he arrived at stock car racing’s top circuit, Jeff Gordon was branded a superspeedway specialist. No more.

“This is a big jump for us. This is a major accomplishment,” Gordon said Sunday after he overpowered the field to win the Food City 500 in Bristol, Tenn., for his first short-track victory on the Winston Cup circuit.

Gordon led four times for 205 laps at Bristol International Raceway, including the final 99, on the way to his fifth career victory and his third in five races.

“This is awesome,” Gordon said. “We’ve never run well on short tracks before. Our only goal today was to come out with the car in one piece. We did that and a whole lot more.”

After 68 races on stock car racing’s top circuit, Gordon has won on a superspeedway, an intermediate track and a short track. Only a road-course victory has eluded Gordon, and he has run only four road events.

Gordon finished 5.74 seconds--nearly half a lap--ahead of Rusty Wallace, giving Chevrolet’s new Monte Carlos their sixth victory in as many races this season.

Darrell Waltrip finished third, his second top-10 finish in the past four races. Bobby Hamilton, Ricky Rudd and Dale Jarrett were the only other drivers on the lead lap.

Dale Earnhardt, who came in with a 67-point lead in his quest for a record eighth Winston Cup championship, wrecked early and wound up 25th, which trimmed his edge over Sterling Marlin to 17 points. It was the first time this year that Earnhardt finished worse than fourth.

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John Force won the Funny Car title for the fourth consecutive year, and Larry Dixon, Darrell Alderman and John Myers also earned pro-class titles in the NHRA’s Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

Dean Skuza of Brecksville, Ohio, threatened briefly before Force’s Pontiac Formula took the race with an elapsed-time pass of 5.162 seconds and a speed of 291.73 m.p.h.

Dixon beat Blaine Johnson in the Top Fuel final at 4.734 seconds, 302.72 m.p.h.

Alderman, the defending Pro Stock points champion from Morehead, Ky., took a final pass of 7.031 seconds, 196.29 m.p.h. in a Dodge Avenger to beat Mark Pawuk of Medina, Ohio.

Myers defeated defending Pro Stock Motorcycle points champion David Schultz when the latter red-lighted in the final. Myers drove a Suzuki GSXR in 7.589 seconds, 170.87 m.p.h.

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Defending champion Michael Doohan of Australia captured his second consecutive victory in the Malaysian 1995 World Grand Prix motorcycle race at the Shah Alam circuit in Kuala Lumpur.