Gordon wins his 3rd Brickyard 400

MountaineerTom · August 6, 2001

Pretty good race, even if Gordon won. :wink:

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From thatsracin.com

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INDIANAPOLIS - Jeff Gordon's victory in the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994 helped launch him to stardom in Winston Cup racing. His third career victory in the race on Sunday may very well propel him to a fourth Winston Cup championship.

It was a great day all around for Gordon, who celebrated his 30th birthday on Saturday, and his Hendrick Motorsports team.

Not only did Gordon win the race, he also padded his lead in the points standings on a day when Ricky Rudd, 45 points behind coming in, finished 39th after suffering early mechanical problems. That dropped him to 179 behind Gordon.

Dale Jarrett, who fell 107 points behind last week with a mechanical problem at Pocono, hoped a four-tire change on his final pit stop would help him become the first-time winner of this race. He went the other way, however, fading from seventh on the restart to 12th at the finish and now sits 160 back of Gordon in the season's standings.

In each of the past three seasons, the winner of the Brickyard 400 has gone on to win the championship. That streak began in 1998, the last time Gordon won the Winston Cup title.

Gordon had started 27th and made little headway in the early stages of the race as he fought an ill-handling car.

"What an incredible day." Gordon said in victory lane. "At the beginning, we were way off. We took two tires there at the end and it was absolutely the right call."

Gordon worked his way to the lead when it came time for a restart after the final yellow flag. With 18 laps to go, Gordon had Sterling Marlin, Ricky Craven, Johnny Benson and Rusty Wallace on his tail.

Gordon, who'd grabbed the lead by darting past Marlin on the previous restart, got another great jump this time and got Todd Bodine's lapped car between him and Marlin going into Turn 1.

Marlin cleared Bodine's car down the frontstretch on Lap 145, but Gordon was pulling away. Marlin's tires were about 15 laps older than two of those Gordon had changed on his final pit stop, and that fact certainly didn't help Marlin's chances of catching the leader.

Tires, though, didn't seem to matter much. Jarrett's Ford and several other cars that took four tires on their final stops were unable to make up any ground over the final laps.

Marlin held on for second place, his best finish of the season, with Johnny Benson parlaying his own late-race two-tire stop into a third. Rusty Wallace was fourth and Kurt Busch fifth.

Things started happening early in the eighth renewal of this race at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis track, where nearly 300,000 people packed the massive grandstands.

On Lap 2, Andy Houston spun his Ford coming off the second turn to start a multicar crash. Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth and Robert Pressley all got serious damage in the wreck while Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ken Schrader suffered damage as well.

Bill Elliott passed pole-winner Jimmy Spencer for the lead on Lap 17 for the day's first lead change.

On Lap 21, Rudd's Ford slowed, well off the pace. Rudd, second in the championship standings coming in, had been running fourth but lost a water pump on his No. 28 Taurus. That sent belts flying off his car's engine and brought out a yellow.

On the caution for the debris from Rudd's car, the leaders made their first trip to pit road. Ryan Newman, Kevin Harvick and Marlin came out first. Harvick got around Newman in Turn 2 after the restart and led Lap 26 after winning the Grand National race at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Saturday night.

The third caution came on Lap 32 when Spencer crowded Newman out of the racing groove and into the outside wall as they battled for position in the top five.

On the restart on Lap 36, Dave Blaney wrecked as traffic stacked up in the back of the pack, bringing out yet another yellow before the race had reached the 100-mile mark.

Marlin challenged Harvick for the lead and actually was in front at the line on Lap 44 before he had to back off as they raced to Turn 1. On the next lap, however, Marlin took his Dodge past Harvick's Chevrolet and got the lead with Stewart moving up to second.

That's how they ran until a round of green-flag stops began with Harvick coming in on Lap 60. Stewart was in two laps later, as was Ward Burton, who had worked his way up to third in his Dodge. Marlin came in on Lap 63.

Earnhardt Jr., whose Chevrolet had been damaged in the Lap 2 wreck and also had been involved in a bump with Hut Stricklin on pit road on the first round of yellow-flag stops, inherited the lead for a while as the cycle of stops continued.

Earnhardt Jr. pitted on Lap 71, giving the lead to defending race champion and defending Brickyard 400 champion Bobby Labonte, who pitted two laps later along with Gordon.

Only Jeff Burton and Jeff Green hadn't pitted by Lap 75 when debris on the track brought out the day's fifth yellow.

That created an interesting strategy decision - whether the cars that had just pitted should come back in to top off their fuel tanks, hoping to complete the 160-lap race on one more pit stop. Stewart, who would have been the leader had the cycle of stops been completed, elected to stay out and wound up with the top spot. Marlin, however, was among those coming in.

When the race restarted on Lap 80, Stewart was the leader on the scoreboard, but found himself back in traffic behind a group of cars on the tail end of the lead lap. Steve Park was second with Earnhardt Jr. third, and when Stewart got bottled up in that traffic Park wound up with the lead at the completion of that lap - the halfway point of the race.

Park built a lead of nearly five seconds by Lap 100, taking advantage of the clean air at the front of the pack to pull away and Stewart and Earnhardt Jr. swapped the second position a couple of times.

Park gave up that lead for a green-flag pit stop on Lap 105, with Stewart coming in right behind him. Earnhardt Jr. pitted on Lap 109 and Harvick came in a lap later. None had come in on the caution just before the halfway point, so there was never any doubt they would need two stops from that point to complete the race.

Gordon and Jarrett were running first and second by Lap 111, with Labonte third, Marlin fourth and Busch in fifth. Jarrett pitted on Lap 112 and Gordon came in the next time by. Labonte and Marlin stayed out, hoping to get within the fuel window that would let them go the rest of the way without stopping.

Marlin and Busch swept past Labonte on Lap 117 to take the lead as Labonte's car began to lose fuel pressure, but Labonte barely got his Pontiac to pit road without running out. The engine did stall, however, costing him a few seconds on pit road.

Marlin and Busch came in the next time by, on Lap 118, as did Burton, Green and Wallace.

That all put Park back in the lead, nearly five seconds ahead of Stewart and six up on Earnhardt Jr. Marlin was nearly 15 seconds back, but he was well ahead of all of the other cars gambling they could go the rest of the race without stopping for fuel.

Then, on Lap 130, a caution flew for debris in Turn 3. Marlin stayed out, but everybody else pitted.

Gordon took two tires and came out behind Marlin with Ricky Craven third, Johnny Benson fourth, Wallace fifth and Busch sixth on two tires. Stewart came out seventh, Park eighth, Jarrett ninth and Earnhardt Jr. 10th, with all of them on four new tires when the green flew on Lap 135.

Gordon got a jump on the restart and dove to the low side entering Turn 1, grabbing the lead. Back in the pack, meanwhile, Jarrett dove low and passed both Park and Stewart to get ahead of everybody who had four tires. As he completed the pass, Stewart got into the outside wall and damaged the right rear of his Pontiac, costing him several positions.

The caution flew again on Lap 139 when Jerry Nadeau smacked the wall in Turn 3. None of the leaders stopped, so the only effect of that yellow was to reduce the number of laps Jarrett and the others on new tires had to make up ground on Gordon and all of those ahead of them.

Elwood · August 6, 2001

Yeah it wasn't too bad, other than Gordon winning. But I'm still a little upset over Jimmy Spencer putting Ryan Newman into the wall, but then again I'm used to Spencer always wrecking someone. But like the TV guys said, Jimmy may never forget, but there are 40 some other drivers out there who don't forget either.

I would've liked to seen Rusty, Jr., or Park win it but all in all it was a pretty good race.

General Lee 01 · August 6, 2001

I ditto what both of you are saying w/ it being a good race though HE won. I really wanted to see Marlin win it when it came down to the last pit stop.

I got a good laugh out of it when Gordo Couldn't do a good burnout at the end :biggrin:

Jpshostr · August 6, 2001

Yes it was a good race, but in my opinion if you are good enough to win a NASCAR race, you better be good enough to do a burnout. Man that was pathetic! Hopefully he will practice it before he tries it again.

General Lee 01 · August 6, 2001

The least he could've done was yanked the steering wheel to the left and get a couple donuts out of it. But I can understand why he didn't.

If I was a NASCAR driver, the ONLY place I WOULDN'T cut donuts is on the Bricks @ Indianappolis. I'd just feel like I'd be dissrespecting All the forethcoming Drivers who have racedwon before me.

(Edited by General Lee 01 at 12:41 am on Aug. 6, 2001)

bowtiefan · August 6, 2001

YAHOO. That race was awesome sorry guys but gordon's the man. Great race.

Bill89 · August 6, 2001

I second that bowtiefan. His car was junk at the beginning. But being the great driver that he is, he adapted to it and the crew worked on it. And we all know the outcome. Next weekend is another road course. YE HA

Elwood · August 7, 2001

Hate to sound like a jerk, but I believe it had alot to do with what a great crew he had. He even said he was just patient and let the crew dial it in over the course of the race. He may be good, but his crew deserves just as much or more credit.

Bill89 · August 7, 2001

I agree elwood. As my post said the crew had somehting to do with it as well. But the crew don't drive the car. And you see a whole lot of guys that wreck when the car just isn't right. Gordon deals with it an still drives the wheels off.

General Lee 01 · August 7, 2001

Quote: from Bill89 on 12:49 pm on Aug. 7, 2001
I agree elwood. As my post said the crew had somehting to do with it as well. But the crew don't drive the car. And you see a whole lot of guys that wreck when the car just isn't right. Gordon deals with it an still drives the wheels off.

Maybe so. But that win wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the crew. I don't care if Bo Duke drives, he still needs a ton of help from the pit crew.

There's no "G-o-r-d-o-n" in "team" :biggrin:

(Edited by General Lee 01 at 1:28 pm on Aug. 7, 2001)

Bill89 · August 7, 2001

Before this gets out of hand. Yes the crew is awesome. I will be one of the first to agree the crew is a main part of the team. It takes a team effort and that is what wins races. When I race I always give the guy some credit that helps me tune my car. But I drive it. Once I hit the line it don't matter what he has done. If I don't drive the car to it's potential then tuning it does no good.

Those low 15 high 14 second pit stops are all crew. He has one of the best in NASCAR.