Jarrett Plays No Favorites

With the race on the line, driver Dale Jarrett set aside his conscience--and nudged his teammate toward the wall--to earn a spot in Victory Lane.

Bumping teammate Ricky Rudd with about three laps left Sunday, Jarrett took the lead, then held off Jeff Gordon to win the New England 300 at Loudon, N.H., for his first NASCAR victory since April.

“If I want to keep my job, it’s what I’ve got to do, honestly,” Jarrett said. “I wanted to race him hard. If I got a run, that’s what I wanted to do.”

It was a fitting way to start the second half of the season, as the top three drivers in the ultra-tight Winston Cup points race fought it out in front all day.

When it was over, Jarrett and Gordon finished the way they started--in an unlikely dead heat. Their 2,695 points were 28 more than the total for Rudd, who was poised to win but got burned by a late yellow flag, then beaten by his own teammate, and finished third.

The race was decided on the 297th of 300 laps, moments after Jerry Nadeau lost handling and got tapped into the wall by Jimmy Spencer on the curve between Turns 3 and 4 to bring out the 10th and final yellow flag.

After the restart, it took one lap around the flat, 1.058-mile track for Jarrett to catch his Robert Yates Racing teammate, slip inside, give a little nudge and pass for the lead and his circuit-leading fourth victory of the year.

Kyle Petty, returning to the New Hampshire track for the first time since his son’s death at the track last May, was never a factor and finished 26th.

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Patrick Carpentier came out of the pack and outran Dario Franchitti and Michel Jourdain Jr. for the first CART victory of his career, winning the Harrah’s 500 at Brooklyn, Mich.

The Canadian driver had not led a lap and appeared to be racing simply for a top-10 finish before front-row starters Kenny Brack and Max Papis took each other out in a crash only 23 laps from the end of the 250-lap event on the 2 1/2-mile oval.

Bryan Herta, who had come from a lap down to get back into the fray, slipped past Papis on the low side of the high-banked track to take the lead as the front-runners shot through the fourth turn on the way to completing lap 233 at about 220 mph.

Brack tried to pass on the high side of the banking and appeared to slide in the wake of turbulent air from Papis’ car. They touched, Papis’ right front to Brack’s left rear, and Brack careened into the outside wall, while Papis spun into the inside barrier.

Both were able to walk away from the crash without injury.

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Warren Johnson raced to his record 86th pro stock title and Angelle Savoie broke the NHRA’s female victory record in the Mopar Parts Mile High Nationals at Morrison, Colo.

Johnson, who broke a tie with Bob Glidden for the pro stock victory record, beat son Kurt in the final with a quarter-mile run of 7.347 seconds at 188.28 mph.

Savoie took her 19th pro stock motorcycle victory to break a tie with Shirley Muldowney for the most national event victories by a female. Savoie edged Antron Brown with marks of 7.595 and 171.01.

Larry Dixon was the top-fuel winner, and John Force the funny-car victor in the competition at Bandimere Speedway.