Smart Drivers Win, Gordon Says

Jeff Gordon has some very bad news for the rest of the Winston Cup series: He’s getting better all the time.

Gordon, who has won the first two races of the season and now has 21 career victories in just over four full seasons in NASCAR’s top series, said he is a much smarter driver than he used to be.

“I used to just push the pedal down and wherever it took me I followed,” the 25-year-old racer said. “Now I try to push the pedal down where I want to go.

“Each year I wanted to be a little more patient. To me, what makes a good race driver in Winston Cup is smart race car driver. You need to be aggressive at times, but you need to know when to be aggressive and when to be patient.”

“The Kid,” who won the Winston Cup championship in 1995 and finished a close second - by 37 points - to Terry Labonte last season, said the learning process takes place on and off the track.

“You can stretch yourself too thin,” he said. “I’m trying to get those (off-the-track) things accomplished, but doing it in a little better time. That part of it has been enjoyable, and I feel like I’m driving better and smarter because of it.”

Trifecta not best

When Hendrick Motorsports teammates Gordon, Labonte and Ricky Craven finished 1-2-3 a couple of weeks ago in the Daytona 500, there were initial reports that it was the first time such a feat had been accomplished by a Winston Cup team.

It turns out the sweep was considerably less than unprecedented, although it hadn’t been accomplished recently.

According to NASCAR historian Bob Latford, publisher of the weekly “The Inside Line” newsletter, the last 1-2-3 sweep came in 1956 on a three-quarter-mile oval in Charlotte, N.C.

Actually, it was one of four such sweeps for Chryslers fielded by carowner Karl Kiekhaefer that season, with Buck Baker, Herb Thomas and Speedy Thompson as drivers.

Latford says those were not the best single-team showings, though. That distinction is held by Pete DePaolo, who headed the Ford factory team of the mid-1950s.

In December 1955 - which is listed as part of the 1956 season - Fireball Roberts, Curtis Turner, Marvin Panch and Ralph Moody finished 1-2-3-4 on the 1.6-mile road course in Titusville, Fla.

They did it again later in the season at North Wilkesboro, N.C., and also took the top three spots at Richmond, Va., in 1957, with Paul Goldsmith beating Roberts and Panch.

The previous best finish for Rick Hendrick’s multi-car team was in the 1989 Daytona 500, when Darrell Waltrip beat Ken Schrader and Geoff Bodine finished fourth.

Winning numbers

The Hendrick team, with wins by Gordon in each of the first two races this season, has now surpassed Penske Racing South as the winningest team since the Penske team began competing in Winston Cup in the 1991 Daytona 500.

During that period, Penske driver Rusty Wallace has led NASCAR with 28 victories.

The Hendrick team is now one better - Gordon with 21 wins, teammate Labonte with eight.

Robert Yates Racing, with wins from current drivers Dale Jarrett and Ernie Irvan, as well as former driver Davey Allison, has produced 23 victories during that period, while Dale Earnhardt has given Richard Childress Racing 22 triumphs since the start of the 1991 season.

Full fields

Beginning with today’s Pontiac Excitement 400, every short-track race run in the Winston Cup series will have a field of at least 42 cars.

With nearly 50 teams trying to make every race in NASCAR’s top series this season, the sanctioning body asked the tracks with ovals shorter than 1 mile - Richmond, Martinsville, Va., and Bristol, Tenn. - to expand the starting fields from 36.

“The teams told us they’d rather double up on pit stalls than go home,” explained Kevin Triplett, spokesman for NASCAR.

The fields at the short tracks will now be filled just as they are at the superspeedways, with 38 qualifiers based on two rounds of time trials, four provisional starters based on top 40 car-owner points and a 43rd spot reserved for any former series champions who may need it.

Streak over

Mark Martin’s 13th-place finish last week at Rockingham, N.C., ended a string of 16 consecutive top-10 finishes, dating to July 21, 1996 at Pocono.

The last time he finished out of the top 10 was on July 14, 1996, at Loudon, N.H., where he finished 33rd.

Shaping up

Dave Marcis, the oldest full-time driver on the Winston Cup circuit, turned 56 Saturday. But Marcis, who has finished 17th and 30th in the first two events this season, says he isn’t giving up a thing to the younger guys.

“I might be the oldest guy out there, but I’m just as physically fit as some of those younger guys,” Marcis said. “I can go 500 miles just as well as they can.

“Maybe the wingtips (Marcis’ trademark driving shoes) are the secret. They keep my feet cool. I’ve got about four pairs of wingtips I keep circulating, but I get new soles on them when they need it.”