Earnhardt Slumps After Crash

Dale Earnhardt finds himself in an unfamiliar position going into today’s season-ending NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway - out of the battle for the Winston Cup championship.

Earnhardt appeared a solid favorite to win a record eighth series title before a crash in July at Talladega left him with a broken shoulder blade and sternum that hampered his performance and put him into a season-deadening slump.

Coming to the track in Hampton, Ga., Earnhardt, who won twice early in the season, has gone 26 races without a victory. After the first 12 races of the season, Earnhardt was first by 136 points and had 10 top-five finishes and an average finish of 6.08. In his last 18 starts, he has two top-fives and a finishing average of 14.1 and has sunk to fourth in the standings, trailing leader Terry Labonte by an insurmountable 335 points.

“It has been a tough season for the entire team,” said Richard Childress, owner of the GM Goodwrench Service team. “We had to play hurt the second half and never were able to regain the momentum after Talladega. But, considering all the circumstances and where we are in the points, I think we had a good year.”

Atlanta could be a bright spot for Earnhardt, whose last two starts on the 1.522-mile oval have resulted in victories. In fact, Earnhardt’s Chevrolet Monte Carlos have led 403 of a possible 656 laps run in those two events.

“A win in the last race of the season seems to make the winter go by much faster,” said crew chief David Smith.

Sort of close

The 47-point spread in the Winston Cup standings between Terry Labonte and second-place Jeff Gordon is close enough that the lead could change under the right circumstances today.

However, it is only the seventh-closest point race since the current scoring system took effect in 1975.

The closest was in 1979 when Darrell Waltrip came into the last race leading Richard Petty by two points. Petty wound up winning the title by 11.

Waltrip led Bill Elliott by 20 going into the 1985 season finale and wound up winning the championship by 101. He also won the title in 1982 by 72 points after coming to Atlanta 22 ahead of Bobby Allison.

In other close finishes, Earnhardt led Cale Yarborough going into Atlanta in 1980 by 29 and won by 19, while Davey Allison was ahead of Alan Kulwicki by 30 going into the 1992 finale. Kulwicki won the championship by 10 points over Elliott, while Allison crashed and faded to third.

So close

At least mathematically, Dale Jarrett remains in the championship hunt, trailing Labonte by 99 points.

Jarrett can claim his first Winston Cup title if he wins the NAPA 500, Labonte finishes 29th or lower and Gordon finishes 14th or lower. He could also win the title by winning the race and leading the most laps - worth five extra points - while Labonte finishes 26th or worse, leading no laps, and Gordon finishes 11th or worse and leads no laps.

“We can still win the championship, but our chances are slim, very slim - especially since we’re chasing two people instead of just one,” Jarrett said. “They would both have to have trouble and we’d have to have a perfect race.

“But nobody expected us to even be a title contender in our first season as a team, and now I’m sure nobody expects us to win the championship.”

Just say no

General Motors officials asked Rick Hendrick, owner of the team that fields Chevrolets for Labonte, Gordon and Ken Schrader, to consider either fielding a team in the Indy Racing League or building engines for the fledgling series.

Hendrick said no.

“I looked at it, but it got more involved,” Hendrick said. “Building a new team would be real complicated, and we just don’t have the time to do