Fresh Start Brings Win At Daytona Second Segment Decides Busch Clash For Last Year’s Winston Cup Polesitters

Jeff Gordon, mostly silent through the first few days of Daytona’s Speed Weeks, came to life Sunday by winning the Busch Clash.

In a race marked by surprisingly little action, Gordon started last in the 14-car field. The 20-lap, 50-mile race was for the previous season’s Winston Cup pole winners.

Gordon, 22nd on Saturday in pole qualifying for the Daytona 500, averaged 185.376 mph for the 20 green-flag laps of the Clash. He beat Rusty Wallace’s Ford Thunderbird to the finish line by 0.130 seconds - about two car-lengths. He won $54,000, including $50,000 for taking the second segment.

Gordon’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo got off to a terrible start and stayed near the rear throughout the first 10-lap segment on the 2-1/2-mile oval.

But the Clash, which Gordon also won in 1994, has a unique format. The field inverted for the last 10 laps.

So when the second segment began, Gordon found himself third, just behind Bobby Labonte and Dale Earnhardt, the only drivers who finished behind him in the first 10 laps.

“The whole key for the second segment was the restart,” Gordon said. “Labonte’s car didn’t take off real well and I was able to get by him.”

Gordon stayed with Labonte on the restart and shot into the lead on the second lap. Wallace, who started 12th on the restart, rocketed all the way to third after one lap and eased into second the next trip around the high-banked oval.

Earnhardt, a six-time winner of the Clash, fell to fifth on the restart, but came back to take third place on lap 12 of the event and that’s the way the front remained.

The first half of the event was just as uneventful as the second half, with the top four cars jumping into single file at the start.

Terry Labonte, who won $30,000 for his first-half effort, started from the pole and led Mark Martin, Wallace and Dale Jarrett to the finish.

The only things vaguely resembling action in the Clash were a few three-wide battles in the middle of the field early in the second segment and an incident on lap 12 in which Jarrett and Irvan bumped.