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Ricky Rudd, who lost to Jeff Gordon on the last lap last week, holds on at the Pocono 500 with just enough fuel to spare.
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 18, 2001
LONG POND, Pa. -- Ricky Rudd figured because he was winning the Pocono 500, something bad was bound to happen.
And with Jeff Gordon closing at the end Sunday, the script seemed perfect for another defeat. But Rudd had enough fuel to finish and beat Gordon by 1.119 seconds to break an 88-race drought.
"I knew something had to go wrong, and then I saw the checkered flag," Rudd said of his first win since 1998. "Earlier, I thought I was going to finish third, then I realized, 'Hey, this thing is sticking in the corners.' "
"There's no way I can describe it," said Michael "Fatback" McSwain, who got his first victory as a crew chief.
McSwain decided Rudd had enough gas to make it to the end.
"We had to watch it, but they were pretty confident," Rudd said. "I was running 95 percent most of the time, but when I saw Jeff coming I stepped it up a bit."
He was relieved to win.
"You don't have to explain yourself ... why you lost," Rudd said. "It makes conversation easier on Monday."
Rudd got his 21st victory. The 44-year-old has won for six different car owners. Bobby Allison won Winston Cup races for seven.
It was the first victory for Rudd in 44 starts at Pocono International Raceway, where he has competed since 1977. He is third in the series standings after 15 of 36 races, trailing leader Gordon by 130 points.
"Once he got in clean air, nobody was going to catch him," Gordon said. "We did everything we possibly could. Catching him was one thing, but passing him would have been another."
Gordon never got close enough to find out, and trailed by about 15 car lengths at the end.
Third was Rudd's teammate, Dale Jarrett, followed by Sterling Marlin in a Dodge and Mark Martin in a Ford.
Gordon, who at one point traded the lead with Jarrett on five straight laps, was sprinting away as other contenders began pitting under green. But a caution flag waved on Lap 121, permitting the field to bunch up behind him.
"The caution just didn't fall right for us," Gordon said.
Last week, he won in part because Marlin lost a big lead the same way.
Sunday, Jarrett led Rudd and Gordon on a restart with 37 laps left and Dale Earnhardt Jr. just in front, trying to stay on the lead lap.
But Rudd passed Jarrett and Earnhardt on Lap 177.
"When two guys get racing side by side, it slows them down 15-20 mph," Rudd said of his decisive move to the bottom of the track exiting the first turn. "I caught them in the right situation, and once I got out in front I had clean air. I looked up and saw daylight.
"Had Junior not been there, I think Dale Jarrett would have gotten in that clean air, taken off and pulled away," Rudd said. "Junior put up a heck of a fight, and had a caution come out he would have been on the lead lap. He had a good car, and could have gotten back up there. You have to fight for everything you can, and he was fighting to stay on the lead lap. But you hate it for Dale Jarrett."
Earnhardt's blocking maneuver kept Jarrett from his first win since April 8 at Martinsville.
Jarrett was asked if he was upset with Earnhardt, who seemed to have no chance to win. Jarrett said: "He's doing his job. That's what he was supposed to be doing."
Gordon later got by Earnhardt, and the threesome raced together until the end.
The most serious incident came on Lap 53 when Brett Bodine spun coming off Turn 2 to start a wreck in which 14 cars were damaged. Among those hurt most was Ward Burton, who parked after 113 laps and finished 40th, falling four spots to 23rd in points.
Rudd averaged 134.389 mph in a race slowed by seven cautions covering 26 laps.