Jarrett Is Up Front About It

By SHAV GLICK

Aug. 8, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

INDIANAPOLIS —

Dale Jarrett gave his fellow Winston Cup drivers and 350,000 spectators a lesson in the art of domination Saturday.

The 42-year-old son of two-time stock car champion Ned Jarrett led 117 of 160 laps--including the last 43--to score a remarkably easy victory in the sixth Brickyard 400 on a warm, muggy day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

From the time he passed Mark Martin for the lead on Lap 40, the only time his No. 88 Ford Taurus was not in front was when Martin, Dave Marcis, Bobby Labonte and Jeff Burton led one lap each while Jarrett was pitting.

“The car was so strong that I could have gone harder and gotten more out of it if I wanted, or if we had Needed it,” Jarrett said. “The biggest thing about this year is that I’m in a car with Robert Yates horsepower. The engine was so good, I could beat anybody on the straightaways.”

With storm clouds approaching from the west and rain falling at the Indianapolis Airport after the halfway point, Jarrett wasted no time in moving well ahead so that if rain halted the race, he would be in front. Rain started falling shortly after he took the checkered flag.

Bobby Labonte finished second in one of Joe Gibbs’ Pontiacs, 3.351 seconds behind, followed by Jeff Gordon, last year’s winner in a Chevrolet, Martin and the Burton brothers, Jeff and Ward.

Ned Jarrett, usually a NASCAR TV commentator, was his son’s spotter in the first turn.

“It’s a big racetrack,” the driver said. “It was an advantage to have Dad up there as long as we keep him from commentating. As soon as he started calling the race, we’d have to cut him off.

“The advantage to having someone who has driven before is that he can anticipate. The position he was in, Turn 1, he could tell me when I had cleared, giving me all the track I could use.”

The win, Jarrett’s fourth this season in 20 starts, moved him 274 points ahead of Martin in his quest for a first Winston Cup championship and its $2-million bonus.

“It’s a lot more fun being in front [in points] because you can be in control of your destiny,” he said. “It feels great to be leading because they [opponents] see the races counting down and realize they’re running out of time.”

Gordon, a three-time champion and winner of 13 races last season, said Jarrett is out of reach this season.

“They know how to win a championship,” Gordon said. “They’ve been right there, second or third many times. I think D.J. is very, very tough right now. For us, we’re not even thinking about him. He’s on a pretty good roll. All of a sudden everything started clicking for them and, boom, now they’re getting wins. D.J. and that Yates team deserve it.”

Jarrett won $712,240 of the $6-million purse, increasing his year’s earnings to $1,810,096.

It was the 22nd win of his career and second in the Brickyard 400, joining Gordon as a two-time winner. Jarrett’s first win came in 1996.

Tony Stewart, in Gibbs’ other Pontiac, finished seventh and was the highest-finishing rookie for the 19th time this season.

Jarrett started fourth, but on the first lap he swept past David Green to take third and for the remainder of the 160 laps was never farther back than third.

Jarrett’s domination was not only from the Ford’s superior horsepower on the track, but from some sleight-of-hand pit work by Yates’ crew.

When a stalled car brought out the third and final yellow caution flag with only 14 laps remaining, all 21 cars on the lead lap ducked into the pits for their final service. Jarrett took on right-side tires and fuel and got back on the track in 8.78 seconds. The next quickest stop was by Labonte in 10.37 seconds.

“Things like that fast pit stop don’t just happen,” Jarrett said. “Robert Yates has his guys practicing every day. We know how important it is and we spend a lot of time getting everyone working together as a team.”

That caution flag prevented what might have been a guessing contest as to which, if any, of the leaders could finish the 160 laps without stopping again for a three-second splash of fuel right at the end.

“If it had stayed green [no caution period] I’m not sure if Dale could have made it or not, but we’ll never know,” said Gordon, who won last year’s 400 when Jarrett ran dry and lost four laps while being pushed back to his pit.

“I think Bobby [Labonte] could have gone for sure without pitting. We were planning on going all the way. We were both conserving fuel. But it didn’t matter because the caution came out.”

A hint that Jarrett might have needed a splash came when the Yates’ crew cheered as if it already had won the race when Marcis’ Chevrolet lost its engine and the yellow flag appeared.

“After last year, we shed a lot of tears,” said Yates, Jarrett’s car owner. “We couldn’t even joke about running out of gas for six months. The crew was cheering because they knew they had contributed to this win.”

The 58-year-old Marcis, incidentally, became the oldest driver to lead a lap when he stayed on the track when the leaders pitted in mid-race.

Jarrett’s other two pit stops were 16.93 seconds for four tires and gas, plus an air pressure adjustment to right-side tires on Lap 116 and 18.5 seconds on Lap 38 when the crew removed one round of wedge [for balancing purposes] after Jarrett reported tight-handling conditions.

“Dale had the whole package and we just didn’t have the whole package,” said runner-up Labonte, whose brother Terry finished 11th. “He drives this track so well. I followed him lap after lap and he didn’t vary an inch it seemed.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Brickyard 500

How They Finished

*--*

No. (St) Driver Car Laps (Why Out) Prize 1. (4) Dale Jarrett Ford 160 $712,240 2. (7) Bobby Labonte Pontiac 160 $270,950 3. (1) Jeff Gordon Chevrolet 160 $262,800 4. (2) Mark Martin Ford 160 $222,450 5. (16) Jeff Burton Ford 160 $193,240 6. (12) Ward Burton Pontiac 160 $157,210 7. (11) Tony Stewart Pontiac 160 $162,635 8. (17) Rusty Wallace Ford 160 $140,435 9. (14) Ricky Rudd Ford 160 $137,535 10. (18) Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet 160 $135,525 11. (22) Terry Labonte Chevrolet 160 $129,160 12. (6) Mike Skinner Chevrolet 160 $117,010 13. (15) Kenny Irwin Ford 160 $111,410 14. (27) Wally Dallenbach Chevrolet 160 $109,610 15. (32) Steve Park Chevrolet 160 $109,610 16. (21) Sterling Marlin Chevrolet 160 $109,310 17. (25) Robert Pressley Ford 160 $100,450 18. (9) Ken Schrader Chevrolet 160 $105,410 19. (39) Johnny Benson Ford 160 $112,410 20. (3) David Green Chevrolet 160 $101,575 21. (13) Elliott Sadler Ford 160 $102,710 22. (33) Joe Nemechek Chevrolet 159 $100,710 23. (8) Bill Elliott Ford 159 $99,610 24. (40) Ernie Irvan Pontiac 159 $98,510 25. (23) Geoff Bodine Chevrolet 159 $90,710 26. (42) Jimmy Spencer Ford 159 $96,385 27. (5) Michael Waltrip Chevrolet 159 $94,885 28. (20) Dave Blaney Pontiac 159 $84,385 29. (19) Jeremy Mayfield Ford 159 $98,885 30. (43) Kevin Lepage Ford 159 $90,910 31. (28) Jerry Nadeau Ford 159 $83,485 32. (31) Derrike Cope Pontiac 159 $82,385 33. (36) Hut Stricklin Ford 158 $82,135 34. (26) Ricky Craven Chevrolet 158 $81,885 35. (30) Ted Musgrave Ford 158 $84,110 36. (34) Rick Mast Ford 158 $81,510 37. (10) John Andretti Pontiac 158 $96,410 38. (37) Bobby Hamilton Chevrolet 157 $96,310 39. (41) Kenny Wallace Chevrolet 157 $81,210 40. (29) Dave Marcis Chevrolet 139 (engine) $82,010 41. (24) Kyle Petty Pontiac 72 (crash) $81,010 42. (35) Darrell Waltrip Ford 58 (engine) $80,910 43. (38) Chad Little Ford 41 (crash) $91,605

*--*

Race Statistics

* Time of race: 2 hours 41 minutes 54.791 seconds

* Margin of victory: 3.351 seconds

* Winner’s average speed: 148.228 mph

* Caution flags: Three for 12 laps

* Lead changes: 13 among six drivers

* Lap leaders: Gordon 1-5, Martin 6-7, Gordon 8-26, Jarrett 27, Martin 28-39, Jarrett 40-63, Martin 64-65, Jarrett 66-74, Marcis 75, Jarrett 76-77, B. Labonte 78, Jarrett 79-116, J. Burton 117, Jarrett 118-160

* Point leaders (after 20 of 34 races): Jarrett 3,199, Martin 2,925, B. Labonte 2,906, J. Burton 2,819, Stewart 2,711, Gordon 2,692, Earnhardt 2,601, T. Labonte 2,378, Skinner 2,368, R. Wallace 2,341.

Past Champions

1994--Jeff Gordon

1995--Dale Earnhardt

1996--Dale Jarrett

1997--Ricky Rudd

1998--Jeff Gordon

1999--Dale Jarrett

TOP FINISHERS

1. DALE JARRETT

Ford: $712,240

2. BOBBY LABONTE

Pontiac: $270,950