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In the inaugural Kansas Speedway race it looked like it was going to be Rusty Wallace’s day. With only Rusty being able to beat Rusty, a speeding on pit road penalty sent him to the longest line and too far back to be able to wrest his lead spot back. With only a rookie left to chase him Jeff Gordon easily drove to his 6th win of 2001 and 58th overall. |
”Now Let’s Go Racing!”
The rookie season for the Kansas Speedway saw rookie, Jason Leffler capture his first pole and keep his lead for the first 8 laps. Of course, a rookie crash in the first turn of the first lap helped, bringing out yellow on lap 1 and staying yellow through lap 6. This first of many wrecks was just plain impatience. Casey Atwood drove hard into turn 1, trying to win the race on the first lap while Stacey Compton came down on him blocking for the win. I hope the resulting crash and the 43rd and 34th place finishes, respectively, teaches them a little patience but I won’t wait for it. Ricky craven, innocent by-stander, took a shot in the rear by Rusty Wallace and got crossed up too but was fortunately able to continue on.
Green came out for lap 7 and by lap 9 it was Buckshot Jones taking his mandatory spin of each race and the race back to the yellow had Jeff Gordon taking the point away from Leffler. A quick yellow had green flying again at lap 13 and Bill Elliott starting to make his move from his 3rd place start. By lap 15 he drove low under Leffler and set his sights on Gordon, passing him at lap 23 and pulling away. As lap 50 closed in Elliott had opened up a 3.1 second lead and was looking to break a LONG winless streak. But not before Jimmy Spencer had a say in the outcome when he just lost it at lap 50, slid high and smacked the wall, bringing out yellow #3. It was pit time for all with Elliott leading Gordon, Leffler, Ricky Rudd and Johnny Benson down pit road.
Green flag racing resumed at lap 54 with Elliott keeping his lead, followed by Gordon, Rudd, Benson and a hard charging Rusty Wallace making his first appearance in the top 5. Putting the other “Dodge Bookend” on the top 5 was Sterling Marlin who was one of the fastest on the track by now, moving from his 19th place start to 6th in just over 50 laps. After one lap Gordon went low beneath Elliott, pulling Rudd along and after leading one lap Rudd went by Gordon to get his 5 point bonus. The following lap Gordon was back out front and by the next…
Back to yellow at lap 60 when rookie Kurt Busch took his rookie slide down the back stretch. Rudd won the race back to yellow by a photo finish for one of the best races of the day and when green returned racing at lap 64 it was Rudd, Gordon, Elliott, Wallace and Benson. Rusty had gained another spot and was looking for more. Gordon ran Rudd high into the turn and as the #28 slid back Gordon took the point and Wallace took 2nd. Rusty now had the lead easily in sight but unfortunately, behind them, Jerry Nadeau lost his sight, drove under (not around, UNDER) Ward Burton, sent him up into the #66 of Todd Bodine and caution #5 was underway. Nadeau was able to continue with no damage while Ward and Todd were done for the day.
Pit stops again had Gordon back at point with Rusty, Kevin Harvick, Leffler and Randy Newman filling out the top 5 when the green returned at lap 79. Rusty stormed by Gordon to show his full strength but before he could finish opening the carburetor all the way yellow was out again at lap 81. This time it was Stacy Compton doing the rookie maneuvers and taking the long slide into the wall. A quick yellow got green back underway at lap 85 and Rusty got chance to show that he was going to be tough to beat. He led the next 30 or so laps before green flag stops began for the front half of the field. Their last stops had come at the lap 50 caution and only the back half of the field had stopped for the lap 60 or 68 cautions. Rusty dove down pit road at lap 118 handing the lead to Sterling who pitted the next lap after grabbing 5 points. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. now found himself out front. As the rest of the field eventually needed to gas up the lead passed from Jr. to Kenny Wallace (subbing for Steve Park) and then to Matt Kenseth. Kenseth was able to remain on the track along with 7 other drivers to keep their front running spots until lap 138. Bill Elliott had blown his engine and oiled the track, caution #7 was in the air.
A rush on pit road and a long yellow for ”a massive oil clean-up” saw green finally return at lap 150. Rusty was back out front with Benson, Jr., Gordon and Bobby Labonte filling in 2-5. This time the field managed to get in 35 laps of green flag racing. With Johnny Benson closing fast on Rusty’s rear end and Jr. pushing from behind a plume of smoke erupted from Benson’s #10 and he headed for the garage, done for the day. Caution #8 was out for another oil clean up and the field was looking for another pit stop. Jerry Nadeau took gas only this time, hoping for track position and got out first. Wallace was fast behind him followed by Gordon, Jr. and Bobby.
Green at lap 190 saw yellow at lap 191 when Dave Blaney spun across the track. As the cars behind checked up, Derrike Cope didn’t, sending Mike Waltrip hard into the wall. Caution #9! Green at lap 199 saw Nadeau still out front but Rusty settled the argument over who was fastest in one lap. The #2 retook HIS lead at lap 200 and tried to open a lead over Gordon, his next closest competitor. Gordon wasn’t going to let Rusty get away, though, and looked to be heading for a second place finish as he just couldn’t get past Wallace. It looked like the only person that could beat Rusty was Rusty.
So… he did. Pit strategy was going to play a big part like in the previous day’s NBS race in which David Green stayed out on the track on the final stop to win. As the cars headed down pit road some chose to get gas only, some got 2 tires and some stayed for 4. Sterling Marlin, who headed down pit road in 5th place took gas only and was first to leave his pit stall. As he approached Rusty’s pit area, Wallace swung all the way across pit road (I might add, dangerously) to block Sterling ad the fast closing Mark Martin. He managed to but as he neared the last 10 or so stalls he saw Ricky rudd in the first stall starting to pull out. Rusty stomped his gas to beat Rudd across the line at the end of the pit road and was quickly nabbed by the NASCAR “Smokies”… speeding on pit road! Penalty? End of the longest line! When the green flew at lap 234 it was Rudd in the lead, followed by Martin, Marlin, Kenseth and Gordon. Rusty, fastest all day, leading the most laps, was sitting in 17th spot, last car on the lead lap. Shot in the foot!
The restart saw Kenseth and Gordon get by Marlin and as the #40 was caught high Ryan Newman slipped by too. Rudd ran his hardest and managed to hold the point until lap 239 when Matt Kenseth, in 5th, blew a tire and smacked the wall hard enough to loosen fillings. This close to the end nobody was going to lose track position for a stop so the cars held their positions with Rudd still leading followed by Martin, Gordon, Newman and Marlin. Lap 245 saw green again and Martin got a jump on Rudd with Gordon pushing from behind. Rudd dropped back down behind Gordon and followed him past Martin again. With Rusty still trapped back in traffic in 8th place Jeff looked to run off but before he got chance the hardest hit of the day came about on lap 247.
The slower lapped car of Ricky Craven was down low, trying to stay out of the way. The #4 of Kevin Lepage and Bobby Labonte’s #18 slowed a half a heart beat and then swung high to get by. Dale Jarrett got a good run when the #4 and #18 slowed and swung high too. The #4 got by and as they approached the turn they were suddenly 3 wide. DJ figured he was past Bobby but didn’t quite have him cleared. The #18 tried to slow up but it was too late. Jarrett clipped Labonte’s front bumper and both cars headed for the wall. Dale took a VERY hard hit against the wall on the driver’s side. After cutting his roof to extricate DJ he was flown to a nearby hospital for “further observance”. Hopefully he will check out OK and be back next week.
The green was back at lap 253 with Gordon, Rudd, Martin, Newman and Marlin filling out the top 5. As the cars approached the green flag Gordon pulled a “brake check”, bunching up the front 5 (Marlin rapped Newman in the rear!), Rusty swung high and got a full run on the cars checked up. Before he hit the 1st turn he was able to slip from 8th up to 5th but with lapped traffic separating him from the front 3 he was running out of laps to get back HIS lead. With just 11 laps to go Jason Leffler blew a tire and smacked the wall hard, bringing out the 13th caution of the day. A 10 lap shootout was now set up when the red flag came out to clean up the mess the #01 left. By the time the cars were restarted and lined up there were 7 laps to go with Gordon still out front followed by Rudd, Newman, Martin and Wallace.
Gordon got a good jump with another brake check but more were ready this time. Rusty went high to challenge Martin and by the time they hit the line Marlin dropped low to get a spot or two himself. Forced down to the apron he slowed a little and had to fall into line behind Rusty as they reached the first turn. Newman raced Rudd hard, eventually slipping by for 2nd but with the jump Gordon got it was all #24 to the finish. Jeff Gordon took his sixth win of the season and padded his points lead over Ricky Rudd by another 10 points.
Kudos go out to Ryan Newman (2nd) for his best finish of the year and excellent rookie run, Ricky Rudd (3rd) who did all he could but still lost ground to Gordon, Rusty Wallace (4th) who ruined his own chances of running away with this one, Sterling Marlin (5th) hanging in taking 4th place from Jarrett in the points, Mark Martin (6th) who looked strong for a little while, Robert Pressley (7th) who stayed clean and grabbed his 4th top 10, Tony Stewart (8th) who never was a factor today, Kurt Busch (9th) who stuck around after an embarrassing spin to get a top 10 and Dave Blaney (10th) who just snuck in for his top 10. Attaboys to Johnny Benson who had another good finish taken by another’s wreck and Matt Kenseth who lost a good finish to a bad tire. But once more in 2001 the Big Yahoo goes to Jeff Gordon and the Flaming Rainbow Warriors. They sure are making it hard on spots 2-5 in the championship.
Next week it’s off to Charlotte. Sorry I didn’t get a column or “Who Drove It?” during the past week but I was under the weather. I WILL do so this week! Until then…..
Keep The Shiny Side
Up!
Unofficial Results 1 24 Jeff Gordon Chevy 2 02 Ryan Newman Ford 3 28 Ricky Rudd Ford 4 2 Rusty Wallace Ford 5 40 Sterling Marlin Dodge 6 6 Mark Martin Ford 7 77 Robert Pressley Ford 8 20 Tony Stewart Pont. 9 97 Kurt Busch Ford 10 93 Dave Blaney Dodge 11 99 Jeff Burton Ford 12 25 Jerry Nadeau Chevy 13 4 Kevin Lepage Chevy 14 55 Bobby Hamilton Chevy 15 31 Robby Gordon Chevy 16 29 Kevin Harvick Chevy 17 1 Kenny Wallace Chevy 18 96 Andy Houston Ford 19 7 Mike Wallace Ford 20 33 Joe Nemechek Chevy 21 32 Ricky Craven Ford 22 26 Jimmy Spencer Ford 23 21 Elliott Sadler Ford 24 57 Derrike Cope Ford 25 11 Brett Bodine Ford 26 36 Ken Schrader Pont. 27 5 Terry Labonte Chevy 28 01 Jason Leffler Dodge 29 18 Bobby Labonte Pont. 30 88 Dale Jarrett Ford 31 44 Buckshot Jones Dodge 32 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 33 8 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Chevy 34 92 Stacy Compton Dodge 35 90 Hut Stricklin Ford 36 12 Jeremy Mayfield Ford 37 10 Johnny Benson Pont. 38 15 Michael Waltrip Chevy 39 43 John Andretti Dodge 40 9 Bill Elliott Dodge 41 22 Ward Burton Dodge 42 66 Todd Bodine Ford 43 19 Casey Atwood Dodge