Road Trips Haven’t Been Kind To Jarrett

Road courses have never been the best venues for Dale Jarrett.

Jarrett, who leads the Winston Cup points heading into today’s Save Mart 300 at Sears Point Raceway, has never finished in the top five on a road course.

Holding only a 45-point lead over defending series champion and expert road racer Terry Labonte, Jarrett knows he needs to get things turned around this weekend.

“I have been running in the top five (at Sears Point) a couple of times and then, on the last couple of laps of the race, I got spun out,” Jarrett explained. “It hasn’t been one of my better tracks for finishes, and I can’t say that it is one of my favorite race tracks, but it’s a place that you have to deal with.”

Last August at Watkins Glen, N.Y. - the only other road course on which the Winston Cup cars race - Jarrett was running in the top five late in the race but collided with Dale Earnhardt and wound up finishing 24th.

Being in a Ford, as Jarrett is, appears to be an advantage at Sears Point. Ford drivers have won seven of the eight races on the hilly, 2.52-mile, 12-turn circuit.

Two of those winners were Davey Allison and Ernie Irvan, both driving for the same Robert Yates Racing team for which Jarrett competes.

Road warriors

Rusty Wallace, the defending champion of the Sears Point race, is NASCAR’s all-time leader in road racing victories with six.

Close behind is Ricky Rudd, who has won five times on the road circuits.

But the guys with the most success last year in the two road races on the Winston Cup schedule were Labonte and Mark Martin, who both finished in the top five in each of the events.

Martin, who won three consecutive races (1993-1995) at Watkins Glen, finished second at the Sonoma, Calif., track and third at The Glen last year. Labonte was fifth at Sears Point and second at Watkins Glen.

In fact, Labonte has posted four straight top-five finishes on road courses.

“It’s an extreme change of pace from ovals,” Labonte said. “But we only get to do this twice a year, and it’s nice to have a new challenge thrown at us.”

Priorities

Robby Gordon doesn’t want Winston Cup fans thinking he doesn’t take stock car racing seriously.

Gordon will skip the rain-delayed Winston 500 when it is run at Talladega, Ala., on May 10 in order to attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 pole. The former Indy-car regular will attempt a rare double on May 25 when he runs both the Indy race and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Team Sabco teammate Joe Nemechek, who failed to make the Talladega lineup, will replace Gordon in the stock car race.

“Emotionally, this was a tough one,” Gordon said. “I was really looking forward to driving at Talladega. When I was there in 1993, I can remember taking Robert Yates’ car to near the front. I was looking forward to doing that again for (current car owner) Felix (Sabates).

“I haven’t lost sight that I’m a NASCAR Winston Cup driver first and foremost,” he added. “I really hope people don’t see us prioritizing the Indy 500 ahead of my commitment to driving in NASCAR. But Felix, Joe and I thought we should go ahead and take advantage of the situation and make a run for the pole.

“Hopefully, we’ll make the NASCAR fans proud that they have a driver representing them in the Indy 500 - and one that’s on the pole or front row when the green flag drops.”

Ratings raging

The popularity of NASCAR’s top division is easy to document. All you have to do is look at the TV numbers.

For the first quarter of the 1997 season, the average network rating for Winston Cup broadcasts is 6.8. That’s up from 5.6 for the same period a year ago.

The average Winston Cup cable rating for the period is 5.1, which is up from 3.9 in 1996.

Six of the first eight stock car races this season have set new records for ratings and/or viewership.

Close match

Despite all the furor over aerodynamic rules, the Manufacturers’ Championship race is almost as close as it can get between defending champion Chevrolet and Ford.

With four victories apiece, Ford holds a two-point (58-56) lead over Chevy.

Pontiac, which has yet to win a race this season, is a distant third with 38 points.