Gordon Controls Winston Young Points Leader Holds Lead For 80 Percent Of The Race
Jeff Gordon says he’s content to take whatever comes his way on the racetrack.
That’s easy to say when you’re leading the season points competition by a wide margin and riding a string of 12 straight top-10 finishes.
The 24-year-old wunderkind, showing absolutely no signs that he feels any pressure in the midst of his first Winston Cup championship battle, led 400 of 500 laps, including the final 198, on the way to an easy victory Sunday in the MBNA 500 at Dover Downs International Speedway.
Gordon’s only challenge in the race on the one-mile concrete oval came from Bobby Hamilton, who came up short by 2.34 seconds - about 10 car-lengths - but did give car owner Richard Petty the team’s best finish since Petty himself drove to a second place in 1987.
“We’re content with whatever we get,” Gordon said after delivering his series-leading seventh victory of the season and ninth of his budding stock car career. “We just go out there and do the best we can do every week.”
That’s probably understating the case since Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports team has thoroughly dominated the 1995 season, building a 309-point lead over seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt with six races remaining.
“We’re not going to get into all that stuff about points,” Gordon said with a grin. “There’s a lot of races left and anything can happen. We’ll just have to wait until November and see how the points stack up.”
Noting that he put a little more distance between himself and Earnhardt in the title fight, Gordon said, “That’s what it takes to win championships, having cars that finish races, and these suckers just keep running.”
Earnhardt, who came into the 25th event of the 31-race season trailing Gordon by 279 points, finished fifth, but lost another 30 points.
“I hate to see Gordon win another one, but he’s strong this year and he’s got everything going his way,” Earnhardt said.
Rusty Wallace, who had to start from the back of the field after wrecking his primary car Saturday in practice, drove his backup Ford Thunderbird to third place, followed by the Chevys of Joe Nemechek, Earnhardt and Sterling Marlin, the only other drivers on the lead lap.
Gordon averaged 127.740 mph, the second-fastest race in Dover history, and added $74,655 to his more than $2 million in season earnings.
The start of the race was delayed for 1 hour and 47 minutes by rain and the race began under threatening skies. But there was no more rain and the sun popped out in the late stages of the event.
Gordon, who started alongside pole-winner Rick Mast, took the lead on lap three and dominated through the first 200 laps of the grueling race.
Then Hamilton, who started 32nd in the 40-car lineup, suddenly popped into the picture, chasing down Gordon and taking the lead on lap 217. It was a battle between those two most of the way.
Hamilton mounted a strong challenge after a restart on lap 424, getting the nose of his Pontiac Grand Prix ahead of Gordon’s Chevy for a moment before Gordon, who led the final 198 laps, resumed control. There were no more challenges.