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The Virginia 500 looked to be a battle between two Virginians for the win today with Ricky Rudd from Chesapeake, VA and Jeff Burton from South Boston, VA closing on lap 500, nose to tail. But Dale Jarrett, from Hickory, NC, on a fresher set of tires came on strong near the end, to take his third win of 2001. |
Race day started with Jeff Gordon on the pole and Rusty Wallace sitting outside. But the biggest surprise of qualifying was Jeff Burton, usually starting in the high 30's, starting in 3rd today. Rusty got the jump coming out of turn 2 on the first lap and powered by Gordon to lead the first lap. Since this is a short track and Rusty is one of the best on a short track we were treated to a Rusty show for the first 50 laps. A brief caution at lap 41 for a rookie loop by Andy Houston didn't change much at the front with most leaders staying out.
The second yellow of the day at lap 57 was brought out by one of those chain reaction deals you get in every traffic jam. And if ever there was a jam it was 8 laps after a restart when about 6 cars were going for a 1-car space. Kevin Harvick cut down hard on the front fender of Brett Bodine. Both cars suffered a little cosmetic damage but the ensuing brake check behind them got progressively worse until Kenny Wallace was rear ended enough to send him heading for a wall. Meanwhile John Andretti, Steve Park, Ron Hornaday, Jimmy Spencer and Sterling Marlin were keeping their body shops employed for the next few weeks, bending sheet metal in the pile-up that resulted. It was time for pits for most of the field now and when the smoke had cleared it was Matt Kenseth, Kenny Schrader, Ricky Craven, Hornaday and Mark Martin who stayed on the track to get track position.
The cars that stayed out on used tires were able to hold off the pack and remain out front. Craven surfaced as the leader of this pack and managed to lead the next 20 or so laps. At lap 94 Mike Waltrip and Jimmy Spencer swapped bumps, paint, sheet metal and ugly stares before Mike spun and brought out the third yellow of the day. Craven and Kenseth took this chance to renew their used tires and turned over the point to Martin, still running on old tires. The green at lap 99 saw Mark leading followed by Hornaday, Gordon, Johnny Benson and Terry Labonte.
Hornaday slipped by Martin soon after the restart and after starting dead last today was now at the point for the first time this year. He didn't get to lead for long though because the yellow flew again at lap 114 when Harvick, Mike Waltrip and Kenny Schrader traded a big ol' pile of sheet metal and gave the field a chance to pit under yellow once more. It was the second crash for Mikey and Kevin and the first for Kenny. Ricky Rudd had a brake line fail and the stop to fix the problem cost him two laps. This yellow took a bit longer and green flag racing didn't return until lap 129.
Martin was out, front followed by T. Labonte, Bobby Hamilton, Craven and Sterling Marlin but Labonte's used tires were starting to hurt him and he quickly dropped to 5th place. A yellow at lap 148 gave Labonte a chance to pit and Martin decided to try new tires too. Hamilton, giving the #55 Square D team one of their best runs ever was now leading with Marlin second, Craven third, Kenseth fourth and Bill Elliott grabbing fifth. Hamilton stayed out front until Marlin took the lead at lap 182. Sterling led the next 20 laps until the yellow flew for the 6th time when Jerry Nadeau took a quick spin. Pit stops by most of the field saw Hornaday stay out again and retake the point, followed by Joe Nemechek (no stop), Jeff Gordon (2 tires), Hamilton and Marlin. Green at lap 208 was followed shortly after by yellow at lap 214 for the crashing car of Mike Skinner, who collected Bobby Labonte and Brett Bodine too. I don't know what happened and it takes a lot to rile him, but Kenny Schrader hit Skinner about a half dozen times before Mike spun. It was definitely a hit by Schrader that spun Skinner, just not sure why. I'll leave this one as "just one of them racing deals".
This time Hornaday and Nemechek gave up track position for new tires and Jeff Gordon found himself leading. Two through five were Hamilton, Marlin, Kenseth and Jeff Burton. Hamilton had enjoyed being out front for the first time in a while so he made quick work of Jeff Gordon and began pulling away as Gordon and Marlin battled for 2nd. Marlin got past Gordon but Dale Jarrett was coming on strong and took over 4th about the same time. Soon after DJ took third from Jeff as Gordon's handling seemed to go away. Jeff Burton got past him around lap 260, bringing Rusty Wallace along with him. The 8th yellow flag at lap 270 for a hard crash into the wall by Mark Martin gave everyone a chance to update rubber.
When the green returned it was Hamilton still leading with Burton, Marlin, Jarrett and Kenseth chasing. This time they only ran 7 laps before yellow flew again for debris on the track. No stops, no change up front and Hamilton continued leading when they went racing again. And for the first time in a while we got some racing with a green flag run of about 70 laps. Jeff Burton was able to wrestle the lead from Hamilton and shortly after Bobby was passed by DJ and Marlin too. As he continued to drop on his used tires Burton led with DJ chasing until lap 363 when the 10th yellow of the day flew for debris on the track.
Although Burton remained out front Rusty got the biggest help on this pit stop. He managed to leapfrog past Marlin and Jarrett to take 2nd with Jeff Gordon holding fifth. They managed to get in 37 laps of green this time with Burton leading them all before Mike Wallace treated us to a bathroom break when he looped and yellow #11 was flying at lap 412. Behind Burton Ricky Rudd had finally turned up the heat on his #28 and was moving through the pack. Todd Parrot decided it was time for new tires to run for a win and called DJ into the pits. Jarrett was the only top 10 car that stopped and when the race resumed he was sitting in 12th. So with 83 laps to go the green flag flew with Jeff Burton still leading. Rusty, Sterling, Ricky Rudd and Jeff Gordon set sail after Burton but it was Rudd that showed the most muscle at this point. He made quick work of Marlin and Wallace when Rusty got loose and clipped Sterling. As the cars fought to gather it up Rudd went low and took over second. Burton tried to extend his lead but Rudd was simply the fastest of the top 5 cars and finally passed Jeff on lap 445.
But all was not settled yet. At lap 452 Ricky Craven smacked the wall and his stalled car brought out the 12th caution of the day. Burton had watched his tire speed fall off until Rudd had passed so he headed for pit lane. Rudd, now in the lead and running strong on used tires stayed out to keep track position along with Marlin and Gordon but now Dale Jarrett was sitting in 4th and he was packing fresher rubber. The green at lap 457 was setting up a 43 lap shoot-out and it only took DJ 2 laps to get by Gordon. It was clear Jeff had used up his tires as he continued to fall to 8th place by lap 470. DJ was giving Sterling all he could he handle in their battle for 2nd, finally slipping by at lap 476. It was looking more and more like Parrot had made the right call for those fresh tires. Marlin continued to backslide as DJ chased his teammate, Rudd, with Bobby Hamilton and Jeff Burton hard charging on their fresh tires.
In a storybook finish Ricky Rudd would have held off his teammate and returned to victory lane after a long absence at the track where he had his last win. But this was no storybook and at lap 494 Rudd finally gave up his tight line through the turns and DJ swept by. Rudd's tires were used up and DJ just cruised away for his 3rd win of the year.
Kudos go out to Ricky Rudd (2nd) who is about to win at any time now, Jeff Burton (3rd) hopefully having shaken that bad luck, Bobby Hamilton (4th) giving the Square D team something to smile about, Sterling Marlin (5th) running close to the front all season and looking for a place to win, Matt Kenseth (6th) who ran strong all day, Tony Stewart (7th) who just didn't have it all day but managed to hang on for a top 10, Bobby Labonte (8th) who despite suffering damage and a spin early came back to finish great, Jimmy Spencer (9th) winner of the ugliest top 10 car award, and Jerry Nadeau (10th) who just outlived everyone else behind him. An "attaboy" goes to Ron Hornaday who started dead last and took his #14 to the front for a little limelight. But the "Big Yahoo" goes to Dale Jarrett…. again. And a big nod goes to Todd Parrot for the winning call today.
Next week is an off week and I may even take Easter day off myself. And since I'm late getting this done I'll just scream a quick…
Keep The Shiny Side
Up!