Pennzoil
400 - Homestead-Miami
Speedway
Qualifying-
Jeff Gordon qualified
the #24 DuPont Chevy in the 28th position at what 'hasn't
been our best race track.'
Steve Park ran a lap good enough for his second Bud Pole of the season.
Race-
Gordon earned his 9th
top-10 in ten races in the Pennzoil 400. He gained more
positions than any other driver (21) and had a car that was
capable of finishing in 2nd or 3rd. However, a broken
throttle spring late in the race threw those hopes out the
window.
"I never had that happen before,'' Gordon said.
"I don't know exactly how the throttle spring broke, but when I released the throttle down, it must have hung up. It didn't make it stick wide open. It just make it stick where it had too much speed going into the corner, and I had to lock up the brakes.''
Gordon said he wasn't very comfortable entering the turns late in the race.
"It was kind of scary there for a moment,'' he admitted. ``I used that switch on the steering to shut it off. If it had stuck wide open, it wouldn't have helped, but it helped me in that situation.''
Nonetheless, Gordon was ecstatic with his weekend.
He finished 10th last year in Homestead's inaugural Winston Cup race but, after a slow start to the 2000 Winston Cup season, Gordon went into Sunday on a bit of a roll. Eight of his past nine races resulted in top-10 finishes, including a victory at Richmond, Va. He was the pole-sitter in his only finish out of the top 10 during that span, one that ended with a crash at Charlotte, N.C.
"That was exciting for me to run at a place like this, which really hasn't been our best race track,'' Gordon said after Sunday's race.
"This is the track where I struggled the most at last year. We worked our tails off all weekend to get the car to handle like that.''
Gordon had good things to say about Tony Stewart who has won both Winston Cup races at Homestead, and six races this season.
"He's [Stewart] got something,'' Gordon said. ``They really know what they're doing around this place. You put a piece of equipment like that under a driver like that, they're going to hide from everybody.''
Congratulations to Bobby Labonte on winning his first ever Winston Cup Championship!