| By: Michael Gibson | Maybe you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but that don't mean he's forgot the old ones, as Kevin Harvick found out Saturday night. In a rather odd Richmond race in which the bottom groove never came in, the old dog and the young gun provided a thrilling finish in what had been a bit of a boring race up front. |
(stooge note: I sincerely apologize for the lateness of this race report. Michael was nice enough to have it sent to me by 8:50 this morning but I didn't get chance to post it until Sunday eve. So blame me, not the wonderful author.)
Jeff Gordon held the point at the start, lap 7 John Andretti hit the wall when a tire went down. On the restart at lap 15 Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ricky Rudd, and Ron Hornaday seemed to be moving to the front. Rusty Wallace passed Gordon for the lead on lap 20, and held it until the caution came out for a Buckshot Jones spin on lap 28. No replay was shown, I have no idea what happened.
On the restart at lap 33, things started to get interesting. Ron Hornaday blew around the outside of the 24 car to take second and Sterling Marlin came up to put pressure on a seemingly slower Gordon. Marlin tried to dive under Gordon and it looked like the front of the 40 car pushed up the track a little and hit the 24's quarterpanel. Gordon hit the wall and was basically done for the night. Ricky Rudd was smiling in 5th place and moving forward, Dale Jarrett had fallen from 16th to 28th and needed to get a handle on his car if he was to capitalize on Gordon's misfortune.
On the restart at lap 41, Hornaday tried Wallace for the lead but in what was to become a recurring theme could not get off the corner good enough in the low groove to complete the pass. By lap 60 Hornaday was starting to fade as Marlin passed him for 2nd and Wallace was cruising in the lead. Johnny Benson and Tony Stewart seemed to be moving up back in the pack, and Ken Schrader and Kevin Harvick had moved into the top ten.
On lap 90 it was Wallace, Rudd, Marlin, Spencer and Earnhardt at the front, and Marlin was fixin' to bust a move, by lap 92 he was leading. On lap 94 Kevin Lepage blew a right front tire and hit the wall and the leaders pitted. Marlin had to back up to get out of his pit stall and the car got stuck in reverse. His night was theough after a lengthy stretch behind the wall. The order out of the pits for the lap 98 restart was: 28-2-8-26-29-22-14-99-30-20.
On a lap 116 restart after Elliott Sadler spun Mark Martin got in the back of Mike Wallace and Hornaday got collected in the ensuing mess. Not much happened until lap 167 when an apparently still mad Hornaday tried one of his patented kamikaze moves on Buckshot Jones. The resulting wreck took Matt Kenseth out also. The leaders pitted and on the restart it was Wallace, Rudd, Spencer, Harvick, Earhardt, and Stewart. Jarrett seemed to be on the move back in the pack. After a brief attempt by Rudd to stick in the bottom groove, they ran that way until Rick Mast and Jeff Green hit the wall in seperate spins on lap 234.
On the lap 239 restart it was Wallcae, Rudd, Earnhardt, Spencer (hanging tough) Harvick, Stewart, W. Burton, T. Labonte, J. Burton, B. Labonte, Petty, and Jarrett starting to close on the top ten. Rudd again tried Wallace on the bottom, allowing Earnhardt to take 2nd on the outside. Earnhardt tried to take Wallace, but nobody seemed to have anything for the 2 car. Lap 250 Terry Labonte was black-flagged when his exhaust pipe began dragging the track, the crew tried to fix it but on lap 260 it fell off, cut a rear tire and put the 5 car into the wall and out of the race.
On the lap 270 restart it was: 2-8-28-29-20-26-2-18-88. The 26 car had lost 3rd gear, and Stewart and Jarrett were moving forward. By lap 320 Stewart had moved to 3rd and Jeff Burton had climbed to 5th and at this point it seemed these two had finally solved the mystery of the bottom groove. Skinner cut a tire and hit the wall on lap 345 and the leaders pitted again.
On the restart at lap 355 it was Wallace leading Rudd, Harvick,Earnhardt, Jarrett, J. Burton and Stewart. The caution flew again at lap 360 when Stacey Compton got loose on the front stretch, Dave Blaney checked up and Bill Elliot didn't, Blaney got spun. After a false start at lap 365 they finally got all the debris off the track and turned them loose at lap 373. It was Wallace, Rudd, Harvick, Earnhardt and Jarrett. Rudd once again immediately went after Wallace low, and even though Rusty had held him off on every restart for the past 300 laps, apparently he had decided to change the air pressure in the right rear tire, The 2 car got loose coming off turn 2 on lap 380 and Rudd, Harvick and Earnhardt all went around him.
Harvick was smelling blood, and a few laps later drove a little too hard under Rudd coming off turn 2 and turned the 28 way sideways. Rudd made an amazing save and only lost one position. Anybody who wasn't already standing came to their feet as the 28 car starting homing in on the 29. Rudd caught him with 5 to go, and the old dog hardly broke stride as he laid a perfect bump and run on the rookie and blew past him. Harvick held on to second, Earnhardt, Jr. finished a fairly amazing third in a car that seemed to be sideways about as much as it was straight, Jarrett pulled out a really hard-fought fourth, and Rusty Wallace once again out-thought himself from the lead to a fifth place finish.
Rounding out the top ten were Bobby Labonte, Stewart, Spencer, J. Burton and Benson. Kudos also to Kyle Petty, who had a real good run going until a caution came out right after he had pitted under green and he went 2 laps down.
All in all it was a fairly interesting race, great finish and now we have a championship battle that might warrant all the attention.
stooge note: Thanks a ton Michael. For those who want to leave Mike a thank you let CampusPotator know on the message board. And for the regulars, if you're wondering why I didn't do the race last night... see here.