Stewart Takes Advantage of What Falls in His Lap

By SHAV GLICK

June 25, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SONOMA, Calif. —

Lapped cars don’t often determine the outcome of a race, but one certainly did Sunday at Sears Point Raceway.

Rookie Kevin Harvick, one lap behind surprise leader Robby Gordon--racing’s “Rent a Ride” driver from Orange--doggedly pressured Gordon’s Ford for several laps before bumping him sideways 10 laps from the end of the 112-lap Dodge/Save Mart 350.

This brief racing episode was all Tony Stewart needed to pass both of them and continue on to win NASCAR’s only West Coast road race in a Joe Gibbs-owned Pontiac.

Favorite Jeff Gordon, seeking his fourth consecutive victory on the two-mile hillside course, led 55 laps, nearly half the race, but at the end was unable to keep up with Stewart and Robby Gordon. He finished third.

“You gotta do what you gotta do,” said Harvick, who had fallen back after being penalized for exiting the pits too fast. “It was frustrating. I had fresh tires, I was faster than him, and I had to get my lap back. If he had been anybody with any sense, he’d known we had fresh tires and let me by. I’d been behind him a long time. He swerved over and run into the side of me.

“If he’d let me go by, he’d have been OK, but he wouldn’t. I got underneath him [once] and he ran me down to the curb. I don’t feel sorry for him a bit.”

Robby Gordon, once the storm petrel of racing who wouldn’t back down from any challenge, was uncharacteristically calm after being knocked out of what would have been his first Winston Cup win in 50 starts.

“It’s just not that big a deal,” he said. “We had a good result. I’m proud of our team, finishing second. Obviously, I’m a little disappointed, but there are many more races in the future.

“I hope this helps people understand what I’m all about. I was on the front row at the Indianapolis 500 and led laps there, and we ran in the top five at Daytona this year. I just look at today as a good opportunity to showcase my driving.”

Back in Winston Cup for the first time since being dropped by the Morgan-McClure team early this season after only four races, Robby Gordon was driving for Jim Smith, a Buena Park businessman.

“To be in the hunt for the win at our stage at Ultra Motorsports is phenomenal and to do it with somebody I grew up with,” Smith said. “Robby only lives a half a mile from me in Orange County. We’ve raced desert races together and this is just a wonderful day. We’re second and I’m thrilled to death with that.”

It was Robby Gordon who saved what started out to be a boring parade led by Jeff Gordon.

During one stretch, after a pit stop dropped him to seventh place--on a track not conducive to passing--Robby Gordon picked off, one lap at a time, Bobby Labonte, Johnny Benson, Ward Burton, Stewart and Rusty Wallace.

Jeff Gordon was leading at the time and when he pitted, Robby Gordon took the lead for the first time on lap 74, only to give it up four laps later when he pitted.

A swift pit stop got him back behind Jeff Gordon and on lap 86 he passed the three-time Winston Cup champion.

“The pit guys did an excellent job for me,” Robby Gordon said. “The guys aren’t even regular Winston Cup crewmen. They came over from Jim Smith’s truck team, so for them to keep us in the top five in the pits, I was very excited about that.”

At that point, it appeared to be Robby Gordon’s race to win. Between he and Stewart was the lapped car of Harvick, with Jeff Gordon and Rusty Wallace trailing.

Then Harvick began to pressure Robby, driving the nose of his Chevrolet up under the rear of Gordon’s No. 7, or probing inside and outside lines. Jim Long, Gordon’s crew chief, dashed to Harvick’s pit in hopes of working out a deal to have the Bakersfield rookie back off.

Instead, Harvick kept pushing and pushing until their two cars banged together as they came out of turn 7, at the crest of the 300-foot incline before the course turns back downhill.

“With Robby racing Kevin like he was, it gave Jeff and I a chance to catch up,” Stewart said. “I saw how hard Kevin was working, but I had to stay as close as I could get in case something like that did happen.”

When Harvick and Robby Gordon collided, Stewart swept around the outside and passed both.

“We were catching Robby a little at a time, but I doubt if we could ever have gotten by him. We were in the right place at the right time.”

Both Stewart and Jeff Gordon agree that, in similar circumstances, they would have let Harvick pass. With only 10 or 15 laps remaining, even if he had got back on the lead lap, he would never have been a contender for the lead.

Said Stewart: “I’d have let him go. He [Robby] was costing himself time by blocking Harvick. Even if there had been a caution, there was no way Kevin could have come all the way back.”

Said Gordon: “If it was me, I’d have let him go, but I think it was unfortunate that he was putting on so much pressure. I guess he wanted that position back pretty bad. He was apparently pretty upset about that penalty on pit road. You just let a guy like that go. I think on an open track, Robby could have held Tony off. But when the two of them got into it, both got out of shape pretty good and Tony capitalized on it. That’s what you have got to do.”

Stewart won $139,875, averaging 75.889 mph over the twisting wine-country course. He finished 1.746 seconds ahead. It was Stewart’s 11th Cup victory and his second this year.

Jeff Gordon’s third-place finish, coupled with Dale Jarrett’s disappointing 26th place, enabled Gordon to extend his lead to 126 points as the long season reached the halfway mark.

Harvick finished 14th, still the highest-positioned rookie.

Although this is his first year in Winston Cup, having been called on to replace Dale Earnhardt after the tragic accident at Daytona, Harvick was in no mood to back down.

“You gotta do what you gotta do,” he kept repeating. “You’re leading the race, what do you do? You let the guy behind you go.”

Robby saw it differently.

“I think when you’re a race car driver and you can keep a lapped car between you and second place, you do it. I didn’t anticipate Tony would get by both of us. It’s a little disappointing, but I’m already looking forward to my next race.”

With Robby Gordon, you never know where that will be.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE FINISH

Dodge/Save Mart 350 results at Sears Point Raceway:

1. Tony Stewart, Pontiac

2. Robby Gordon, Ford

3. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet

4. Ricky Rudd, Ford

5. Rusty Wallace, Ford

STATISTICS

Time of race

2 hours 57 minutes 6 seconds.