It was a beautiful morning - perfect racing weather. But we knew the weathr front that was right over the Teneessee mountains couldn't miss us. The NASCAR radar system told us that.
So it was no surprise that at 1:00 sharp it started to rain just as the "start your engines" call was issued. The 42 minute rain-delay was just the start of a long day.
Once under way, the pace was quick - but cautious. No one dared to get out of the groove. Only when a driver slipped, did he venture out of the groove - and when he did he would loose a number of spots.
Pole-sitter Mark Martin dominated the first 59 laps. The Martin set-up, on a track he claims to "hate" was at work again. Outside pole-sitter Terry Labonte tried to keep pace but Martin held a comfortable edge on him.
Jeff Gordon charged from is 8th starting position to the top-5. Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace also moved quickly to the front. After a stretch of cautions for a number of wrecks - the race went green from lap 64 to 321 when the race was red-flagged for rain. During that stretch Bill Elliott held the lead, followed by Gordon and Wallace. Following the 33 minutes delay there was confusion over the race leader. Initially Terry Labonte was told that he was leading, but after a quick consultation that was overturned and Gordon was told he was leading.
NASCAR officials are probably still discussing it on the flight to Japan.
Since there was so little racing after this delay it turns out to be significant.
Once underway, the race was red-flagged again 4 laps later when Darrell Waltrip spun resulting in his fuel-cell bursting. The clean-up took 18 minutes.
Just as soon as the race was to restart - with Gordon leading - the rains came again. After an hou and 7 minute delay NASCAR decided to call the race at 342 laps after reviewing their radar and consulting with the weather office.
Gordon's win backs up his first short-track victory at this race last year and his his second win in succesive weeks. After Rockingham he was 43rd in points. With this win he has now climbed to 6th - 133 points behind points leader Dale Jarrett. Jarrett has lost 39 points to Dale Earnhardt, second in points, over the last three racess.
Gordon had this to say. "Rain was a concern a little bit. But Gary Nelson said in the drivers meeting that we had lights and could run until dark. We just about did.
It was a pretty uneventful race. I hated to see it end early like that. If it was up to me, I would have never wanted to see the rain. We were pretty much where we needed to be, right on track.The car was at its best. When the rain came we were about to lap some pretty good cars.
I've never won a race quite like this before. You're in victory lane and there's absolutely not a soul in the granstands. It was pouring down rain.
We had a great car and we showed that out on the race track. At least we didn't just fall into the lead right there at the end before the rain came.
