Little Loses Ground In Chase

Johnny Rumley’s early gas stop Saturday paid off with a victory in the MBNA 200 Busch Grand National stock car race at Dover Downs International Speedway.

Rumley pulled over on lap 94 of the 200-lap race, stopping off just before the end of a caution period. He took on enough gas to get to the end, losing a lap in the process. But the strategy worked when all the other leaders had to make gas stops in the late going.

Series leader Johnny Benson finished ninth, extending his lead from 206 points to 220 over runner-up Chad Little with three races remaining. Little, of Spokane, finished 13th.

“It really paid off,” Rumley said of the gas strategy. “As the fuel load got light, the car got better. It worked to our advantage.”

He became the 14th different winner in 23 races this season.

Phil Parsons finished third, followed by Wallace and Steve Grissom.

MBNA 500

With the stretch run for their first Winston Cup championship under way, car owner Rick Hendrick and driver Jeff Gordon are hoping not to get too caught up in the mental aspects of the point race.

Going into today’s MBNA 500 at Dover Downs, Gordon, who drives a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, holds a 279-point lead over seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt.

But Earnhardt isn’t about to concede anything with seven races left.

“His team has been pretty consistent, but all it takes to lose a big lead like that is some bad luck in a couple of races,” Earnhardt said.

Earnhardt, going for his third straight title, has become a master at playing mind games with his opponents. This time, his opponents are a car owner who never has won a title in 11 previous years on the top stock car circuit, and a precocious 24-year-old driver in only his third season of Winston Cup racing.

“He’s always trying to get into your head,” Hendrick said. “The other day, he walked by me and said, ‘Hello, champ.’ I said, ‘Yeah, right. Go play with someone else.”’

Gordon is trying hard not to get involved in such mind games, either.

“I know what he tries to do,” Gordon said. “I can’t stop him from trying, but I can just keep from getting involved in any of it. All we need to do is keep doing what we’ve been doing.”