Gordon wins third career Brickyard 400

By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
August 7, 2001
12:31 PM EDT (1631 GMT)

INDIANAPOLIS -- Most anywhere else on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series circuit, a cascading chorus of boos would have rained down from the grandstands Sunday as Jeff Gordon screamed down the frontstretch and under the waving checkered flag.

Jeff Gordon's crew kisses the bricks at the start-finish line.

But not here, on the sacred soil where Indiana’s native son honed an uncanny God-given talent -- not where he is regarded as hero, mentor and family member.

Gordon added yet another dramatic chapter to his storybook life Sunday by winning the eighth annual Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, pocketing him nearly a half-million dollars and making him the first three-time winner of one of NASCAR’s most prestigious events.

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Gordon, one day removed from his 30th birthday, gained several positions on the track with a two-tire stop on lap 136 following a caution for debris on the track. Two laps later, he stole the lead from Sterling Marlin, then got a great jump on the final restart with less than 20 laps to go to retain it -- for good.

Gordon started the race in 27th position, the furthest back a Brickyard winner has ever started. Dale Jarrett won from the 26th position in 1999.

“That was just an incredible day, I never dreamed it would happen,” Gordon said.

The Brickyard 400 gets under way.

“At the beginning we were way off, and lately we haven’t had too many pit strategy (calls) go our way. Everything worked out today. The car drove great once I got out front.

“This was just an amazing week for me, and this is for sure the best way to celebrate my birthday. It feels unbelievable. To have all these people cheering us on, I got really choked up in the car. I love Indianapolis. I love the state of Indiana. Sometimes things just work in your favor and that certainly happened to us today.”

Marlin produced a fine run to finish a season-best second, as did third-place finisher Johnny Benson. Both veteran drivers put forth career-best efforts at the legendary 2.5-mile oval Sunday.

Rusty Wallace finished fourth and rookie Kurt Busch continued his impressive first season with a fifth-place run.

Earlier in the afternoon, Wallace appeared to be in prime position to gain the win on fuel mileage. However, in order for that to happen, the event would have needed to go caution-free over the final 40-plus laps.

As for Marlin, his last-gasp shot at Dodge’s first victory was spoiled on the final restart.

The win makes Gordon the only three-time Brickyard winner.

“That last restart I missed a gear,” said Marlin, who moved past Tony Stewart into fourth in the point standings Sunday. “Our cars have had trouble loading up on the restarts.”

With the win, the 56th of Gordon’s nine-year career, the three-time series champion took a gargantuan leap towards title number four.

For the second consecutive week, misfortune for his competitors allowed Gordon to greatly extend his lead.

Last week, Dale Jarrett’s early race accident and subsequent season-worst 41st-place finish at Pocono enabled Gordon to carry a 45-point lead over Ricky Rudd, and 107-point advantage over Jarrett, into Indy.

Gordon leaves the Brickyard with a 160-point lead over Jarrett, who slides up from third to second after Rudd suffered motor trouble just 22 laps into the event, relegating him to a season-worst 39th-place finish. He now sits in third position, 179 points back.

“It threw the fan belt off for some reason,” Rudd said. “It’s kind of a crazy thing to have happen, but the first thing I knew is I lost all of my power steering. I happened to look down at the water temp gauges and it was off the scale at the same time, so I’m not sure … if the water pump blocked up and burst or we lost the belt.

Dale Jr. finished the race in 10th place.

“Evidently, we damaged a cylinder head or something. This is probably one of the hardest (points) hits you can take, coming to Indy and probably be one of the first cars out of the race.”

For the majority of the event, Steve Park was quite dominant. He was the leader on the final pit stop, but reentered the contest in eighth position and didn’t have enough time to make a charge to the front and eventually finished seventh.

Park’s teammate, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., had a strong ride as well and drove home tenth, which is a moral victory after the way his day started.

Earnhardt Jr. came to Indy confident about his prospects of a trip to Victory Lane, but a sub par qualifying run Saturday marked a quick demise for the young star Sunday.

Junior was caught up in a lap 2 wreck, and after pitting twice to repair damage returned to the event mired deep in the 43-car field.

However, after the race’s second caution flew on lap 22 when Rudd dropped fluid on the track, the No. 8 team pieced together a rapid pit stop and Junior appeared primed to make up much-needed ground.

Then, in the form of Hut Stricklin, the bomb dropped.

Stricklin exited his pit and swerved hard to the right, slamming into Junior’s left front, and sending him into the right-side pit wall.

“We got in the first wreck and that bent front all up,” said Tony Eury, Earnhardt’s crew chief. “Hut Stricklin was trying to drive right out onto the race track I guess, just put us right in the wall, knocked front fender in, knocked toe off. We got it back pretty good. Hopefully it’ll stay okay but the speeds out there are pretty high.”

A No. 90 Ford crew member claimed Stricklin’s maneuver was evasive, as he attempted to steer clear of a crew member on a team pitting in front of him.

While basking in Victory Lane, Gordon made a poignant statement about setting his mind on racing.

“I don’t race for statistics, I race to win,” he said. “If you win, the stats will take care of themselves.”

Others might want to take note of that statement. The man has had a storybook career, after all.