Gordon Not About to Be Intimidated

Two of the greatest stock car drivers in history combined Sunday in the Daytona 500 to provide one of the most dramatic finishes in NASCAR’s 51 years.

It was a classic battle of the ages--Jeff Gordon, the handsome young Winston Cup champion from Indiana, against Dale Earnhardt, the crusty old warrior from Kannapolis, N.C, winner of seven championships.

Wonder Boy against the Intimidator in the Great American Race.

In the final laps of the 500-mile race, with more than 185,000 fans on their feet, Gordon and Earnhardt dueled at speeds reaching 200 mph, culminating with a final sprint for the checkered flag at Daytona International Speedway.

Gordon never relinquished the lead he obtained with 11 laps to go, but at times his margin over Earnhardt was only inches, and at the finish his Rick Hendrick-owned DuPont Chevrolet was a mere .128 seconds in front of Richard Childress’ GM Goodwrench Chevrolet.

Gordon, who won a NASCAR-record $9.3 million last year, got off to a good start in 1999’s season opener by collecting $1,172,246. Gordon earned an additional $1 million that was part of a bonus he became eligible for by finishing in the top five of last year’s Winston 500. It was the largest single-day payout in motor sports history.

“I want to thank Dale for a great race,” said Gordon. “He taught me a lot the last four years about how to win, and how to drive in a race like this. Maybe he’s sorry now he taught me as much as he did. I can’t believe how hard he worked to win. He worked me over big time.

“To me, a race win is just that much greater, it’s so much more meaningful when you’re battling a guy you learned from, you look up to as a competitor. Especially a guy who is as good as he is at this race track.”

Five cars were in the final lead draft, but even though the other three were fender to fender with Gordon and Earnhardt, it seemed as if it was destiny that the kid, 27, and the old-timer, 47, were on the point.

“They [fans] got their money worth today,” said Earnhardt, pleased with the fight he put up even though he lost. “Those last 10 laps were awesome. They were bumping and slamming and bumping and slamming. Off [Turn 2] we got sideways a couple of times. It was pretty physical. I’m pretty happy to get second. I just got beat.”

Kenny Irwin, a second year driver, finished third in the first Ford, followed by Mike Skinner, Earnhardt’s teammate, and Michael Waltrip, in Chevrolets.

An apparent tactical mistake involving Roger Penske’s two drivers, Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield, took then out of contention after Wallace had led 104 of the 200 laps.

When Bobby Hamilton spun into the backstretch wall with 22 laps remaining, Wallace and Mayfield did not pit, while Gordon, Earnhardt and the others took on new tires.

After the pit stops, Gordon was seventh and Earnhardt eighth. On the restart, Earnhardt charged to third on the first lap, right behind Wallace and Mayfield, but two laps later Gordon shot past Earnhardt for second as Mayfield dropped back.

On lap 189, Gordon and Earnhardt, working the draft together, went three-wide with Wallace to take the lead from him. Wallace was stunned at the move Gordon made, racing almost to the grass to avoid a lapped car.

“Gordon got me on the apron,” Wallace explained. “I just couldn’t block him off enough. I thought I had him blocked off, and he just kept going. I thought he was gonna drive right into the back of [lapped driver Ricky] Rudd on the apron. I had him pinned down there, but he was going right out on the grass. I thought ‘Man, I’m not going to wreck a bunch of cars,’ and I pulled up and he got me. He just bounced off the apron onto the track in front of me.”

Gordon, holding the inside line, raced three-abreast with Mike Skinner and Wallace before forging ahead going down the long backstretch.

“I was pretty worried right there, racing with Dale’s teammate and his best pal [Wallace], but I was carrying a lot of momentum. I was kind of lucky that Dale and Mike couldn’t hook up and push Dale past me.”

Earnhardt said he had the same thought, but circumstances never gave him the opportunity.

“I wanted to get with Skinner there at the end and try to work with him, but I couldn’t, and he couldn’t get with me,” he said. “I was trying all I could to get to the 24, but you can’t take a car out from between one of us or move him from the outside lane to the inside lane. If we had worked together we would have, but you just don’t move cars over and say, ‘Excuse me, I’m moving in here.’ ”

Gordon said his secret--one he learned from Earnhardt--was that instead of trying to extend his margin over Earnhardt, he would try and keep the margin as close as possible.

“When you look in your mirrors on the last couple of laps at the Daytona 500 and all you can see is that black No. 3, you’ve got to be apprehensive,” Gordon said. “I knew Dale was trying to set me up on every lap. He tried to let me get a little lead so he could come sweeping off the second turn banking and run me down, or make a run at me coming off [turn] four heading for the tri-oval.

“I was watching him in the mirrors so much I had to be careful to watch where I was going and not get out of my line. Every time I saw him backing up, I would slow down. It got so I almost had to use my brakes on that last lap, but you don’t want him to get that clean air and get a run at you.”

The win was Gordon’s third in a row after triumphs in the final two races last season at Rockingham, N.C., and Atlanta. It was also his 43rd career Winston Cup win in 190 starts, and his second Daytona 500 win in the last three years.

Gordon, who qualified first at 195.067 mph, led the first lap, five in mid-race and the final 11. Six others led the race, including Wallace with 104 laps, Skinner with 31 and Bobby Labonte with 20.

Surprisingly, Earnhardt did not lead a single lap.

Although most of the race was a high-speed freight-train at speeds close to 190 mph, four yellow caution flag periods of 20 laps slowed the winning average to 161.551 mph.

The most serious accident occurred when Irwin tapped Dale Jarrett, his teammate on the Robert Yates team, and spun the former Daytona 500 winner into the middle of the pack. Before cars stopped slamming into one another, 14 vehicles were involved, most of them too damaged to continue racing.

Cars were racing three-wide, with Jarrett in the middle, the most precarious position.

“We’d gone all the way down the backstretch together so going into [Turn 3] I tried to get off, and let him in,” said Irwin.

“I don’t know if we actually touched or if the air just got off his spoiler and he spun.

“I have no idea, but I feel very, very bad about it, if it was my fault.”

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THE PITS

Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield may have erred by not taking new tires for final laps. Page 9

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DAYTONA DUEL

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GORDON EARNHARDT .128 seconds MARGIN 161.551 mph AVG. SPEED 17 LAPS LED 0 7 STARTS 21 2 WINS 1 0 2ND 5 4 TOP 5 12

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