Contribution Made by These Crews Was No Pittance

The two most exciting drivers in racing, Jeff Gordon and Alex Zanardi, are looking for more success this week after having moved into the lead of their respective series through outstanding pit work last week.

Gordon, defending champion in NASCAR’s Winston Cup, passed Jeremy Mayfield for the points lead with a move directed by Ray Evernham, crew chief on his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. On the final pit stop, 16 laps from the finish of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, Evernham ordered a four-tire change.

When all of the other contenders changed only two tires, the extra time lost in the pits dropped Gordon back to sixth. In five laps, he charged to the front, denying race leader Rusty Wallace and chief challenger Bobby Labonte a $1-million bonus they would have won had they finished first.

Car owner Felix Sabates said what most NASCAR followers probably secretly believe, even though they root against the 26-year-old from California and Indiana.

“They’ve got a great race team, but Jeff Gordon, I think, is by far the best driver in Winston Cup,” Sabates said. “He may go down as the greatest driver of all time. The competition today is so much better than it was 20 years ago.”

Then he added jokingly, “NASCAR should bring a Hummer and make Jeff drive it. Then the rest of us would have a chance.”

From the sweeping Charlotte track, the Winston Cup teams head for Dover Downs this week where they run the MBNA Platinum 400--shortened by 100 miles from the usual Dover distance--on the 24-degree banking of a one-mile concrete oval.

Gordon has had success there too, winning from the pole in 1996. Only two drivers in 26 years have won from the pole on the track they call the “Monster Mile,” Gordon and David Pearson.

Drivers were universal in their approval of the 400-mile distance,

“Running 500 miles at Dover was more of an endurance test than a race,” said Wallace, whose victory in 1993 took four hours 59 minutes to complete. Wallace will be racing Sunday in hopes of breaking a 40-race winless drought, the longest of his career.

“Dover is the toughest track in Winston Cup as far as I’m concerned,” two-time champion Terry Labonte said. “Maybe it will help to know we’ll only be wrestling the ‘Monster’ for four hours instead of five.”

When he starts the race, Terry Labonte will be extending his record for consecutive races started to 580, going back to the opening race of the 1979 season, the Winston Western 500 at Riverside International Raceway.

ON TO WISCONSIN

Zanardi and his CART FedEx campaigners will be at another mile oval, the Milwaukee Mile, for Sunday’s Miller 200, one of the oldest races in the series.

The excitable Italian, who displayed his remarkable talents by charging through the pack to win the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on a street course, won by another method last Saturday on the Gateway Raceway oval in the Motorola 300.

On the final pit stop, Chip Ganassi’s crew got Zanardi back on the track in front of Michael Andretti and he managed to hold his advantage to the checkered flag.

“We always say it is a team victory, but Saturday it was even more so,” Zanardi said. “I’m getting used to this kind of stuff with them [pit crew]. The fact that they were able to get me out ahead of Michael was really the key to the race.”

The victory moved Zanardi past Canadian Greg Moore in PPG Cup points, 87-85. Moore won last year at Milwaukee to become the youngest race winner in CART history. He was 22 years one month and 10 days old. If he can win the championship, he will replace another Canadian, Jacques Villeneuve, as the youngest series champion. Villeneuve was 24 when he won in 1995.

In a move designed to help end a 40-race winless streak by Al Unser Jr. and restore some luster to Roger Penske’s team, which has been stuck on 99 champ car victories since early last year, Roberto Moreno was signed to test the ’98 Marlboro Penske Mercedes for the remainder of the season.

“Hopefully, we can turn our luck around and give Roger his 100th win,” Unser said. “It would be fitting given the tradition and history associated with the Milwaukee Mile and the success we’ve had there in the past.”

Of Penske’s 99 victories, five came at Milwaukee--Rick Mears in 1978, 1988 and 1989, Bobby Unser in 1980 and Al Jr. in 1994.

Another driver hungry for a victory is Bobby Rahal, who is winless in 17 starts at Milwaukee despite the fact that it is one of his favorite tracks.

“I’ve always enjoyed going to Milwaukee,” said Rahal, in his final season as a driver. “It’s kind of odd. The tracks I really love, I don’t necessarily do well on. The places I have this love-hate relationship with I seem to do very well.”

As a tuneup, Rahal will throw out the first pitch at tonight’s Milwaukee Brewer game.

THE COLA WAR

With Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola engaged in an all-out battle for the soft drink market, it made quite a picture last Sunday night at Charlotte when Gordon leaped atop his rainbow-colored car clutching a big bottle of Pepsi--in the Coca-Cola 600 victory circle.

MICHAEL STILL HOPING

If there is one thing missing in Michael Andretti’s resume, it’s winning the Indianapolis 500, a victory that his father, Mario, accomplished in 1969.

Last Sunday, when Eddie Cheever won the 500, Michael admits he was pining for an opportunity to race there again, an opportunity that was lost when CART chose to boycott the new Indy Racing League three years ago. “It was definitely on our minds this month,” said Andretti, who drove instead in the Motorola 300 the day before the 500. “It is something that just will always bug me, and the questions still come up. I think the IRL is something that will be a thorn in our side for a long time.

“It’s just a shame that it [the IRL] is even there. There is no reason for it to be there. Just imagine if Indianapolis and CART were together right now with the way times are going for auto racing. Just think how much bigger they both would have been. I think Indy never will be the same unless you get this resolved.”

LAST LAPS

The weekly Saturday night speedway motorcycle program at Costa Mesa Speedway on the Orange County Fairgrounds will feature 700-pound Harley-Davidsons trying to slide their way around the smallest speedway oval in the world. Also on the show will be the speedway and sidecar regulars.

After going two years without a victory, Victor Sheldon of Vista has won the first two pro ski class races in the International Jet Sports Boating Assn. series. Sheldon, on a Kawasaki, leads Chris Fischetti of Lake Havasu, Ariz., 151-133, with seven-time champion Jeff Jacobs of El Cajon third with 116. The jet boats will race in Southern California on June 6-7 at Coronado and June 13-14 at Ventura.

M.K. Kanke of Granada Hills has a chance to make Featherlite Southwest Tour history Saturday night at Colorado National Speedway when he goes for a third consecutive series victory in his Burbank Roofing Pontiac. Kanke won at Madera Speedway and the Coors Memorial Day 100 at Mesa Marin Raceway. Kanke has 11 Southwest Tour victories, fifth on the all-time list. Rick Carelli leads with 20.

The Pep Boys Indy Racing League has announced an unusual “Texas Two-Step” championship that will pay $100,000 to the driver who scores the most points in the June 6 True Value 500 and the Sept. 20 Lone Star 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.