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At a track where everything is bigger than life, Dale Jarrett, in the #88 UPS Ford, launched past the #10 Eagle One car driven by Johnny Benson with only six laps remaining in the Harrah's 500 race from Texas Motor Speedway. |
Driving the same car that took him to Victory Lane at Darlington two weeks ago, Dale Jarrett posted the 26th win of his NASCAR career.
The win, witnessed by 147,000 fans who never left their seats until the checkered flag dropped, kept DJ first in the championship points for 2001 and made him the only two-time winner of the 2001 season.
Most of the day was a hard-fought race between DJ, the #1 of Steve Park, and the #8 Budweiser driven by Dale Jr. While Jr.'s car was a rocket on the short runs, DJ and Steve's cars picked up speed and blew everyone off on the longer runs.
After a silent tribute for the fallen Intimidator on lap #3, all hell broke loose on lap #4 when the #15 NAPA Chevrolet driven by Michael Waltrip pounded into the wall, causing a chain-reaction crash, the first of a total of 10 cautions. #14 Ron Hornaday, #25 Jimmy Spencer, #96 Andy Houston were a few of the cars caught up in the melee. Although it looked as though Waltrip may have gotten bumped, he admitted that he got loose and the wreck was no one's fault but his own. He was, however, able to return after 102 laps were completed, and limped around until the end.
By lap 34, cars were beginning to get lapped when the #77 Ford driven by Robert Pressley got into the Jerry Nadeau's #25 Chevy, causing the second caution of the day.
Rusty Wallace in his #2 Miller Light Ford, attempted an early strategical move in this first round of pit stops by taking only 2 tires, which moved him up from 19th to 3rd after the field had cycled. While it was worth a shot so early in the competition, Rusty quickly lost places to the rest of the field who had all new rubber.
And Rusty, who finished 12th overall, had more bad luck on pit road during the 7th caution, when he was bumped from behind by the #93 of Dave Blaney, and pushed into the pit of #40 Sterling Marlin, sending one of Marlin's tire changers into the air, leaving only his baseball cap on Rusty's windshield. Thankfully, the tire changer came out of the incident uninjured.
The Joe Gibbs Racing Team of #18 Bobby Labonte and #20 Tony Stewart continued their bad luck of the 2001 season. Stewart finished 20th, 3 laps down, after bumping into Pressley in the second caution incident, and damaging his front grill. Bobby Labonte, the 2000 WC Champion, broke a rod after 225 miles and suffered his third DNF this year.
Both #6 Mark Martin and #40 Sterling Marlin were able to, once again, lead at least one lap of the race. They are the only two drivers who have led a lap in ever race this season. Martin finished a respectable 9th, but Marlin slammed the wall in turn 3 with 55 laps to go, causing the 9th caution flag of the race.
Kevin "Happy" Harvick, driving the #29 Goodwrench Chevrloet, who won the Busch race at TMS yesterday, continued to thrill us with his rookie talent. Starting in 33rd place, he was in the top 15 within 100 laps and finished 7th.
Todd Bodine's #66 was on a mission. He and Jeff Gordon worked each other for many laps, and Todd spent most of the race in the top 10, until he headed into the garage with only 36 to go with engine problems. Speaking of Jeff Gordon, he had a smile at the end of a race in Texas for the first time. He was in contention for much of the race, and had an excellent chance to pull it off in the last few laps before DJ blew around him. In his post-race interview, he said: "Finishing 5th is like a win for us at this place."
Steve Park's #1 Penziol DEI entry looked like a winner for most of the race. At a time when fuel was a concern, they were the only team on the lead lap to pit after the 9th caution, for a gas-and-go, and they came back out in 15th. It pretty much looked hopeless after that, but he worked his way through the field to a 2nd place finish!
And #21 Elliot Sadler, who was last week's first-time WC winner, was quiet for most of the race, until he wrangled his way into the top 10, only to be disappointed by a broken steering box, causing the last caution flag to fall with about 22 laps to go.
Dale Jr. was leading the field, and looked to be the first pole to pole winner since Tony Stewart last September, when they made what were to be, their final pit stops. Throughout the race, Jr.'s team had been amazing in the pits - they posted a 14.7 stop after the third caution, which former-driver-new-announcer Darrel Waltrip described as "the Frenchman rearing his ugly head - Pierre DeBris". Debris at the start/finish line.
But this time, it was not to be. The #8 team had a 16.5 second stop - their worst of the day, coming in 1st, going out 9th, and they finished the race in 8th. In what still must be the most difficult of times for Dale Jr., after the race he said: "At least I did well enough that you guys are interviewing me this week."
Taking the biggest chance of the race, Johnny Benson in the #10 Eagle One did not pit. He had a great car throughout the race, and made the decision not to pit, starting the last series of green flag laps in the #1 position. Eventually, though, he was bested by DJ and Steve Park. He finished a respectable 3rd.
There was a lot of talk near the end of the race, about "the kids" of NASCAR. Kudos to #97 Kurt Busch who blew by Gordon with 2 laps to go, and finished 4th!
In the end, it was the 44-year-old grey-haired guy, driving the UPS truck, er, I mean car, that took home the $400,000+ winnings. As the first woman to do Stooge's race report, I must digress just a little. My fantasy is seeing DJ idle his UPS truck at the end of my driveway. He is wearing a pair of stylish, Serenghetti sunglasses, and his butt looks just FABULOUS in those brown shorts! THAT'S for all of the gals on this site!!!!!!
(stooge note: First, Thanks so much toots for bailing me out today. Had a little business I had to take care of and you were a godsend. Second, you did a great job! Didn't she and her young son do great, folks? Third, I don't know about that last paragraph. Never really thought of racing from the distaff side. And I'm betting Jake didn't help with that one. And last, ..... well, I lost my train of thought with that last paragraph. Dang OL, we coulda done without that!)