Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 43

wwwstar-telegrancom Monday April 3 2000 9D LAP-BY-LAP RECAP BY JOHNNY BOGGS SPECIAL TO THE STAR-TELEGRAM a I I II POLE-LAP 50 Key moments: Adam Petty making his first Winston Cup start heads to the garage on Lap 219 and is officially out of the race with a blown engine But his father Kyle who did not qualify for the race replaces Elliott Sadler as driver when Sadler's Ford returns to the race on Lap 229 Jeff Fuller loses control of his Pontiac and crashes into the wall in Turn 2 bringing out caution No 8 on Lap 238 Because of earlier green-flag pit stops Kevin Lepage and Chad Little are the only drivers on the lead lap Dale Jarrett crashes into the Turn 1 wall and Ed Berrier spins out to avoid the wreck bringing out another caution flag on Lap 247 When Lepage and Little slow down 15 other drivers move back to the lead lap Leaders (Lap 50): Rusty Wallace Mike Skinner Bobby Labonte Dale Earnhardt Jr Johnny Benson Matt Kenseth Kevin Lepage Jeremy Mayfield Dale Jarrett Terry Labonte Key moments: A loose condition sends pole-sitter Terry Labonte back Scott Pruett and Dale Earnhardt Jr pass Labonte on the third lap and Pruett leads from laps 4 through 16 By Lap 9 Labonte has dropped to sixth Pruett spins into the Turn 4 wall to bring out the first caution flag on Lap 18 During the pit stop Elliott Sadler spins into the grass and blames Steve Park NASCAR tells Park who was right behind Pruett before the accident to settle down Johnny Benson moves up to sixth place after starting 26th on Lap 42 Race leader Rusty Wallace puts Pruett three laps down with a pass on the backstraight on Lap 50 -0--e-g 1 4-11111 iktir 15 ') 1 )N I it i 'it'il 'Ttx r4 1------0 4-t-ik: t( 4 ''-----tt---- '1------ 't -cr------ i 1 fiLliii 7" i ------tz--- ett'' or 1 A 1 't rtrti 4k 1' 0-'w' 1'734: -olei 41- '--V-4- I I LAPS 250-300 11 LAPS 51-100 Star-TelegramDARREEE BYERS Chad Little in the No 97 John Deere Ford Dave Blaney in the No 93 Amoco Pontiac Mayfield in the No 12 Mobile 1 Ford come out of the No 4 tun HI BYERS Pontiac Leaders (Lap 300): Dale Earnhardt Jr Bobby Labonte Jeff Burton Rusty Wallace Kevin Lepage Jeremy Mayfield Steve Park Tony Stewart Mike Skinner Terry Labonte Key moments: Bobby Labonte and Dale Earnhardt Jr move past leader Kevin Lepage on Lap 252 Three laps later there's another caution flag after Joe Nemechek is spun into the Turn 4 wall and Rick Mast spins through the grass to avoid him Another caution flag is waved on Lap 275 because of oil on the backstraight after Ed Berrier's Ford blows a motor Dale Earnhardt has a long pit stop during the caution to change a battery Dale Earnhardt Jr passes Steve Park on the frontstraight near the start-finish line for the lead on Lap 282 Matt Kenseth crashes in Turn 3 bringing out the 12th caution flag on Lap 291 Only Chad Little Mark Martin Terry Labonte Dale Earnhardt and Robert Pressley pit The average speed is 127046 mph on Lap 300 and Dale Earnhardt Jr has a 0791-second lead over Bobby Labonte Leaders (Lap 100): Bobby Labonte Rusty Wallace Matt Kenseth Dale Earnhardt Jr Mike Skinner Jeff Burton Terry Labonte Jeremy Mayfield Kevin Lepage Dale Jarrett Key moments: Rusty Wallace reports getting tight on Lap From let 57 Ken Schrader is forced to pit on Lap 56 and loses a lap and Jere' because the left rear tire was deflating Johnny Benson is forced to pit on Lap 70 and loses a lap because his car did not get enough fuel during the caution-period pit stop earlier The second flag is waved on Lap 88 after Stacy Compton crashes into the wall in Turn 2 Vying for track position is showing an importance during yellow-flag pit stops Many cars opt to take only two tires some stop for fuel only From left and Jeremy AK LAPS 151-200 LAPS 101-150 LAPS 251-334 Leaders (Lap 200): Jeff Burton Jeremy Mayfield Bobby Labonte Steve Park Dale Earnhardt Jr Dale Jarrett Kevin Lepage Mike Skinner Ricky Rudd Dale Earnhardt Key moments: When a sixth caution period is called because of debris in Turn 3 race leader Dale Jarrett slows down to allow teammate Ricky Rudd to pass him to get back on the lead lap But Rusty Wallace takes advantage also and passes Jarrett for the lead on Lap 156 "The 28 got his one help for the day" Todd Parrott Jarrett's crew chief says of Rudd's team "Now they got to get the car right" Jarrett retakes the lead on the backstraight after the restart on Lap 159 Gary Bradberry spins into the Turn 4 wall to bring out yet another caution flag on Lap 170 Ricky Rudd takes the lead by not pitting He maintains the lead from Laps 171-179 before Jeremy Mayfield sweeps by him inside on the backstraight By Lap 180 Rudd has dropped to fourth He's running ninth by Lap 196 Jeff Burton takes the lead for the first time on Lap 198 after running side-by-side with Mayfield heading into Turn 4 Leaders (Lap 150): Dale Jarrett Rusty Wallace Matt Kenseth Terry Labonte Bobby Labonte Dale Earnhardt Jr Jeremy Mayfield Jeff Burton Mark Martin Kevin Lepage Key moments: Rookie Dave Blaney apparently gets loose and out of the groove and slows down causing a chain-reaction wreck on Turn 2 on Lap 111 that involves Jeff Gordon Jerry Nadeau Bill Elliott and Johnny Benson Benson's crew reports no damage but Elliott's Ford lands on the hood of Gordon's Chevy and Nadeau's Chevy becomes the first car officially retired from the race Elliott's and Gordon's cars require repairs but both will finish the race On the restart on Lap 119 Gary Bradberry doesn't accelerate and Elliott Sadler spins out Sterling Marlin on the frontstraight Marlin's Chevy gets stuck on the infield grass between the frontstraight and pit road Dale Earnhardt Jr has a 4896-second lead over Bobby Labonte by Lap 140 The fifth caution period begins on Lap 146 when Johnny Benson and John Andretti wreck on the backstraight Benson's Pontiac is finished but the radiator is replaced on Andretti's Pontiac The average speed is 130588 mph on Lap 150 Leaders (Lap 334): Dale Earnhardt Jr Jeff Burton Bobby Labonte Rusty Wallace Kevin Lepage Jeremy Mayfield Dale Earnhardt Terry Labonte Tony Stewart Ricky Rudd Key moments: Dale Earnhardt Jr pulls away from second-place Bobby Labonte then Jeff Burton while Junior's father continues to charge forward Sterling Marlin takes his Chevy to the garage on Lap 288 to end his day with an engine problem Dale Jarrett's Ford returns to the track on Lap 290 Engine failure sidelines Michael Waltrip's Ford at Lap 305 and Steve Park's Chevy is black-flagged on Lap 317 for a smoking problem The problem is a stuck valve and although Park returns he won't be able to recover On Lap 322 Dale Earnhardt Jr clinches the five bonus points for leading the most laps He has a 4079-second lead over Burton on Lap 327 The lead is 4437 seconds on Lap 31 5277 seconds on Lap 33 and 5920 seconds at the checkered flag LAPS 200-250 Leaders (Lap 250): Kevin Lepage Bobby Labonte Dale Earnhardt Jr Jeff Burton Jeremy Mayfield Tony Stewart Steve Park Rusty Wallace Mike Skinner Joe Nemechek CUP GALLOWAY 4 From Page i From Page ID 1 1 1 KZ 4 vk 0 I 1 1 II i' i 01 10 i 8 8 "i A 1- r- 4 'i i li 4 1-i cs 1 ii or ti- p1 li 8 i 4t ri A N4 4 i 4' 1 A rri try 1 VI 40 1 s' 't 'I' ttelt I0 4 7 oe it- i -t Iv 1 'f kiktv i I 1 "l'i 0 rt 4 l''''" 4- I -k4 A ts A i'''777 I 4 It' kl --1 0 4 I -1) 4" 4 '1 vi et 11111 -) I i 11 I Il 11 i 1 0- I At I A ----I(3 4 4 I i' r48-- 4 es -0t 2 to le 01 I 0 1 I 4 tee'N i i i Fr 2 ei vt 771 r-s 5 I 4 4 14 -1 --4- 4'''' ll'qk t'-L -14' el 4 i '4-''''''N 1ts 1' 1 ot If 0 "1'' -0 a 1 i i i i I i 40 11 4 4 1 I T4 4 1 A i 4 'A 1444t it s'1 i 4 I I 'i 7: 1 s' 1 14 1 1 11- l' 0 go0 0g mks i 1 1 's '40 s-A '1 "1 0 4 )004 4 t121s0 r's-I 1 't A 1 1 I '''l 1 p- i' 4-- lc- 7 4 i 1 i i 1 i 4: 11 0 he climbed into the driver's side window to hug his son "He told me he loved me" Dale Jr said "and he wanted to make sure 1 took the time to enjoy this moment" Later young Earnhardt drew a laugh in the media room when he said of his father "He was pretty happy all right but 1 don't know if he was just putting it on for you guys" Eddie Gossage the TMS general manager who along with Bruton Smith weathered two years of driver storms over the track layout wasn't "putting on" anything with his postrace happiness Too many yellow flags? So what Some serious traffic problems outside TMS meaning Fort Worth keeps the title of the NASCAR track with the worst gridlock on race day? Yes that's true too "But with Little winning it makes everything else moot" Gossage said "When Dale Earnhardt Jr wins his first Winston Cup race here that means in the eyes of our fans that we can do no wrong Years from now our fans will be saying they were there the day Dale Jr won the first one" Gossage asked for forgiveness for the muddy conditions in the TMS parking lots that are unpaved "The heavy rains Saturday didn't cause us to lose any parking but it made getting into many of our lots go very slow and that led to a traffic slowdown on the roadways I regret all that On a scale of 10 with Dale Jr winning this day would have been a 10 But due to traffic I'll make it about a 612 or 7" For a promoter like Gossage that's showing plenty of caution Then again it kind of fit the theme of the day Nothing moved as fast as everyone would have liked unless of course your name was Dale Earnhardt Jr A Ot But several weeks ago it was Smith among several who stuck his sport with the "boring" tag stirring up NASCAR officials and some drivers To be honest the DirecTV 500 didn't really change that perception whether it be true or not "Little won because as Junior put it so well "We were hauling butt from the first lap" His Budweiser Chevy led for 106 of the 334 laps nearly twice as many as Rusty Wallace who was in front for 58 laps and finished fourth overall But it wasn't exactly an afternoon of pedal-to-thefloor for anyone The yellow flag kept waving and very fast cars spent far too much time creeping around the track while cleanup crews and wreckers took care of the mess There were no serious wrecks just a lot of wall-banging and a lot of crunched fenders and hoods The 12 cautions were a high for the four years of Winston Cup racing at TMS and a high for the NASCAR circuit this season There were 62 laps run under yellow reducing this 500-mile spin to a race without a lot of substance and form The purists could appreciate the strategy involved in pitting under yellow in trying to establish an advantage under green But for the rest of us well we're not that bored yet Personally I vow to never complain again about how an American League baseball game drags Not after three hours and 49 minutes of ho-hum action yesterday If nothing else however the scene in Victory Lane was special Big Dale who finished seventh jumped out of No 3 after parking it right next to the winner's circle and then awaited the arrival of Junior whose car is owned by dad "The Intimidator" was no where to be seen Instead Big Dale was a proud and happy father as old man The preseason favorite for Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors Earnhardt Jr had posted i a season's best 10th-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway i before he and his former BGN 1 team had stumbled at Atlanta Motor Speedway Darlington Raceway and Bristol Motor i Speedway i 1 "You never really do know if you're going to win ever" said Earnhardt Jr who qualified fourth in the No 8 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo "Guys race and race for years and don't ever know I really didn't know what to expect this year I didn't know if we were going to be kicking butt right out of the box Ior whether we were going to be crappy for a year or two But I felt like we could win a race The odds were not really stacked against us" Especially at TMS Earnhardt Jr scored the first victory of his BGN career here in April 1998 the first of his two consecutive championship seasons "But a lot of tracks like this that we don't run the same at" said Earnhardt Jr who qualified fourth "Car chief Tony Eury Jr and the guys have a good setup here We didn't change nothing all day long I could adjust my driving line and style to each set of tires I didn't have to do a whole lot I'd point-andshoot and that thing ran That's about all there was to it" Actually Earnhardt Jr was one of 17 drivers involved in an event-record 29 lead changes A record 12 caution flags also played into the mix with Earnhardt Jr and crew chief Tony Eury Sr opting for four-tire changes on every pit stop "We stuck with four tires because we didn't want to upset the handling of the car" said Earnhardt Jr who led eight times for a race-high 106 laps "That was the smartest thing we did all I day long" Burton who scored his first Cup victory here in 1997 said any designs he had on tracking i down Little were slowed by his il attempt to clear Labonte i "It took me a long time to get 1 by Bobby" said Burton driver of 11 the No 99 Exide Batteries Ford MITaurus "If I could have cleared i il Star-TelegraMRON ENNIS The confetti was all over Dale Earnhardt Jr enjoying his first Winston Cup victory celebration after three weeks of poor finishes September 1999 Little said that after the last three weeks he enjoyed running at the front again "It was fun to show these guys I could use my head and make smart decisions" said Earnhardt Jr 25 "Even when I've got a real fast car and I'm not up front I can be patient and pick my way through there It was fun to prove that to them and prove my status as far as a driver goes" Bobby a little bit quicker then we could have given him a run for his money I had a fast enough car to run with Dale Jr but once I got behind him there was no sense in running the car any harder than I needed to" Burton finished 5920 seconds behind Little and Labonte was fading at a faster rate whether changing two or four tires "It's pretty screwed up" said Labonte driver of the No 18 Interstate Batteries Pontiac Grand Prix "Four was worse than two was" But the native Texan retained his series points lead for the fifth consecutive week stretching his advantage to 84 points over Mark Martin Rusty Wallace last week's winner at Bristol finished fourth followed by No 2 qualifier Kevin Lepage Wallace driver of the No 2 Miller Lite Ford scored his second consecutive fourth-place finish at TMS Lepage posted his first top-five of 2000 and tied his career-best Cup result set at Darlington in Randy Gallmiay's Sports at Six can be heard weeknights 6-8 pm on WBAP News Talk 820 rgallowaystar-telegrancom John Storbin (817) 3904498 turb(Oshar-tekgramcom i A.