Gordon Very Happy When Race Ends Up in the Pits

Of his 31 victories, Jeff Gordon estimates as many as half are the direct result of good work by his pit crew. Sunday’s triumph in the Food City 500 at Bristol, Tenn., definitely fits that scenario.

“I’m real excited about pulling this one off. We certainly didn’t show the strength to do it,” said Gordon, who was unable to put his car up front until a late-race pit stop gave him his first and only lead of the afternoon.

“I knew that last pit stop was a good one,” Gordon said. “I could tell. It was like, ‘Wow, these guys are jamming.’ ”

After his crew refueled his car, changed its tires and got him out first, Gordon took over from there, holding off teammate Terry Labonte over the last 59 laps to win his fourth consecutive spring race.

Gordon finished about five car-lengths ahead of Labonte and became the first repeat winner in the circuit’s six races this year.

The first short-track race of 1998 featured plenty of bumping and banging, leading to 14 caution periods and one brief red-flag period to clean up the debris on Bristol’s .533-mile, high-banked oval. The most serious crash sent Hut Stricklin to a local hospital for X-rays of his neck and back. No broken bones were detected and Stricklin was released.

It was a difficult day for Rusty Wallace, who came in leading the driver standings by 54 points over teammate Jeremy Mayfield after top-five finishes in each of the first five races.

Wallace dominated the first half before fading from contention when his Ford Taurus developed engine trouble.

Wallace finished 33rd, shrinking his lead over Mayfield to one point.

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Mika Hakkinen dominated the Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo, earning his third consecutive victory and showing that the McLarens will be the cars to beat in the 1998 Formula One season.

In a repeat performance of McLaren’s 1-2 finish in the season opener at Melbourne three weeks ago, Hakkinen’s teammate, David Coulthard, was the runner-up.

Hakkinen, of Finland, raced into the lead at the start and never relinquished it.

He completed the 72-lap race around the 2.667-mile Jose Carlos Pace track in 1 hour 37 minutes 11.747 seconds--1.102 seconds ahead of his Scottish teammate.

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Reggie Ruggiero of Rocky Hill, Conn., won the opening race of the 1998 NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour at Riverside Park Speedway at Agawam, Mass.

Ruggiero started the Pepsi 200 in 25th place and methodically worked his way to the front of the field, taking the lead on lap 108.

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Inclement weather forced postponement of the Coors Light 100 at Cajon Speedway in El Cajon for the Featherlite Southwest series, a NASCAR touring division. No new date has been set.

Winter Sports

Three-time Olympian Ann Battelle and Garth Hager won the first U.S. dual moguls championships at Carrabassett Valley, Maine, on the last day of the U.S. Freestyle Championships at Sugarloaf-USA resort.

Gianne Romme of the Netherlands posted the third world record of the day at the world single-distance speed skating championships at Calgary, shattering his own mark in the men’s 10,000 meters.

Romme recorded a time of 13 minutes 08.71 seconds, slashing more than six seconds off his 13:15.33, set at the Nagano Games last month.

Earlier Sunday, Canada’s Sylvain Buchard set a world record of 1:09.60 in the men’s 1,000.

In the women’s 1,500, Germany’s Anni Friesinger clocked 1:56.95 to break the world record held by Marianne Timmer of the Netherlands.

Americans and Russians took the top two spots in the two qualifying groups on opening day of the 1998 world figure skating championships at Minneapolis.

Todd Eldredge and Michael Weiss of the United States finished one-two in the first qualifying group. In the second, top marks went to Russia’s Evgeni Plushenko and Alexei Yagudin.

Miscellany

Italy’s Stefano Baldini overcame a leg cramp and 1996 champion Moses Taye to win the Rome Marathon in 2 hours 9 minutes 33 seconds. Taye, from Ethiopia, finished second for the second year in a row, in 2:09:51. Another Italian, Franca Fiacconi, was the women’s winner in a personal-best 2:28:12.

Miguel Benitez’s late goal gave Paraguay a 1-1 tie against Colombia in a World Cup soccer warmup in front of 25,000 at New Haven, Conn.

Britain’s James Hickman set his second record in two days at the World Cup short-course swimming competition at Paris, clocking a European best in the 100-meter butterfly.

Hickman bettered his European mark in the event by one-tenth of a second, winning in 51.46 seconds.