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Jarrett stops Ford skid

A late pit stop helps him overcome Steve Park and the Chevrolets, which won the season's first 4 NASCAR events.

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 19, 2001

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Nobody could pass Steve Park's Chevrolet on the track to take away the lead Sunday at Darlington Raceway, so Dale Jarrett beat him on pit road.

Actually, Jarrett's Ford beat Park's car off pit road on their final stops in the pivotal moment in the Carolina Dodge Dealers 400.

Jarrett held on to score his first victory -- and Ford's first win after four straight for Chevy -- of the Winston Cup season.

"I knew what I couldn't make up on the racetrack, the crew was going to make up in the pits," said Jarrett, who overcame an early mistake by his crew for his 25th victory and third at the 1.366-mile track.

On the first yellow flag, Jarrett's crew got only two of five lug nuts on the left front tire tight before Jarrett sped away to beat Jeff Gordon back onto the track.

"Before the race, I told the guys that this was going to be a day when pit stops would be important," crew chief Todd Parrott said. "I guess the guys got a little too antsy on the first pit stop."

Knowing there was a long way to go in the 293-lap race, Parrott ordered Jarrett back to pit road to have the rest of the lug nuts tightened before the green flew again.

That dropped Jarrett back in the pack and left Park and Jeff Gordon to battle for command most of the afternoon.

Park got the better of it, leading 164 laps and giving it up only when he came to pit road. Gordon led 72 laps in his Chevrolet, but his bid for a second victory in three weeks ended when his car began to overheat.

That forced him to give up second to come in on Lap 184 and eventually caused him to park the No. 24 car after 228 laps. Gordon finished 40th and fell from first to fourth in the Winston Cup standings.

Jarrett took over the points lead, 65 ahead of Sterling Marlin and Johnny Benson. Park was leading at the time, but gave it up to make a green-flag pit stop on Lap 199. Benson had been first among the leaders to pit on that round of stops and led until a yellow on Lap 225.

But a mistake by his crew, another loose lug nut, dropped him to eighth on the restart.

Park came out first after that stop with Jimmy Spencer and Marlin between him and the resurgent Jarrett, who had worked his way back through the pack.

"Every time we made a pit stop we made up five or six spots," Jarrett said. "Everybody talks about being patient here, and you have to be. It's a long race and I knew I had a good car and a good crew. I knew I would eventually work my way back into contention."

Jarrett passed Marlin and Spencer after the restart and was not losing any ground to Park. But Park's Chevrolet had been so strong that Parrott knew a late caution would provide his team with the best chance to pull out a win.

That chance and that caution came on Lap 278 for debris on the track in Turn 4, probably a piece that came off Benson's Pontiac when it slapped the wall a lap earlier.

That gave Jarrett's crew the chance to complete its atonement for the early mistake.

"I knew when they dropped the jack we were going to be first out," Jarrett said.

He was right. Parrott timed the four-tire stop at 14.2 seconds. Gordon's car, the only one pitting in front of Jarrett in the Turn 1 end of pit road, was out of the race so Jarrett had a straight shot out and had the lead when the green flew with 12 laps to go.

A crash in Turn 3 on the next lap, which resulted in Mike Skinner having to climb from his Chevrolet as flames burned underneath it, brought out a brief red flag and reduced the final race to the checkered flag to seven laps.

It didn't matter.

Park's car had been dominant all day on long runs, but Jarrett's car was better in the clean air at the front of the pack and nobody could catch him.

"I tell you, I would have had a better shot of holding (Jarrett) off than catching him," Park said. "It's hard to pass here, especially in such a short period of time."

Jeremy Mayfield, Spencer and Marlin rounded out the top five.

"Everything just went our way today," Jarrett said. "There were a lot of circumstances that played in our favor. We didn't have the best car; Steve had the best car."

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