Notebook: Pocono 500
By Tim Packman, Turner Sports Interactive
June 18, 2001
10:42 AM EDT (1442 GMT)
LONG POND, Pa. -- It was a green track that greeted the drivers for Sunday's race at the Pocono Raceway. Unrelenting and heavy downpours overnight washed off all the rubber laid down during Saturday's two practice sessions and the ARCA race.
The rain also left the infield areas of the 2.5-mile trioval soggy and slippery when cars slid off the track and across the grass.
DODGE COULDN'T DODGE DODGE
Buckshot Jones and Jason Leffler made contact coming out of Turn 2 on lap 80. As they slid off the track and across the infield, Jones' No. 44 Dodge made head-on contact with the inner aluminum wall. Leffler's No. 01 Dodge came to rest next to Jones.
"I got up off the turn and the car got tight," Jones said. "It got loose, it was pushing so much the No. 01 got into the back of us. It was more of a racing deal than anything, nobody's fault."
Leffler was involved in an early 14-car incident and was already damaged.
"We were in that first wreck and it screwed the fenders all up," the rookie said. "It wasn't driving right, but it wasn't terribly bad. Buckshot was pushing out to the wall and he just turned it away from the wall and hit me when I was going underneath him."
VALVE CAPS COST ELLIOT
Bill Elliott's left-front tire went flat on lap 114 forcing him pitside. As the tire went down, the left-front fender was scraping on the ground as he made his way to the No. 9 Dodge pit stall.
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Bill Elliot finished 27th at Pocono.
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The reason -- no valve caps were found on the inner or outer-tire valve stems when the car came in. He was one of 14 cars involved in the lap 53 multi-car incident.
"I did a little agriculture driving out there today," he said. "Everybody spun out and I didn't have anywhere to go. The grass was my only option. I didn't really hurt the car, what hurt worse was cutting that left-front tire down."
RACE STATS
There were 13 lead changes among five drivers in the 200-lap race. Seven cautions, one by NASCAR on lap 25 as a competition caution, slowed the race for 26 laps.
Jeff Gordon scored his 10th top-10 finish this year while Dale Jarrett scored his ninth top-10. Jarrett also scored his 10th consecutive top-10 at Pocono.
Rudd's win came in his 710th Winston Cup race, became the 11th different winner in 15 races this year and his 21st victory ties him with Benny Parsons, Jack Smith and Terry Labonte for 24th on the all-time win list.
This was Rudd's first victory starting from the Bud Pole and the first ever win for his crew chief, Michael "Fatback" McSwain.
Going up: Ken Schrader, Mike Skinner and Stacy Compton moved up the most by gaining three points positions. Kevin Lepage moved up two.
Going down: Ward Burton dropped four spots on the points chart from 19th to 23rd. Bobby Hamilton and Jeremy Mayfield fell two spots.
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