This is his 11th career Winston Cup victory in 98 career starts. He led the most laps for 10 Winston Cup bounus points for a total of 185, moving him to 9 overall - 168 points behind points leader Dale Jarrett. This is his 2nd Winston Cup victory of 1996. His last victory came at Richmond two weeks ago. This is his 9th superspeedway win. Gordon is the defending champion at Bristol for the spring race - his first short-track victory.
This is his 2nd win at Darlington Raceway - both coming in consectutive races - as he won last fall. This is the 14th time someone has won at DR starting from the 2nd position, the second most popular spot - the pole is tops with 18 wins.
This is the 4th Winston Cup victory for Chevrolet this season out 5 races.
There was no winner of the Unocal Bonus, it will be $121,600 next week at Bristol. The bonus is awarded to the race winner if he started from the pole.
There was no winner of the RJR Points Leader Bonus, it will be worth $40,000 next week at Bristol. It is awarded to the winner of the race, if he is also the points leader. Dales Jarrett and Eranhardt had won it the first two weeks respectively.
Bobby Labonte's second place finish was not only his best of the season but it was his first top-10 finish. Off to a very slow start as they sort out their engine program - Labonte's previous best finish in 1996 was a 17th at Daytona.
Ricky Craven's third place finish equals his best career finish, and second finish in the top-5 this year as well as his career. His first third place finish came at Rockingham.
Rusty Wallace is among this weeks' large group who earned their best finish of the season. Wallace's 4th betters his 7th at Richmond. Maybe the key for Terry Labonte is not to dominate these events. Going into Darlington, Labonte had led over 28% of all laps run this season, but due to strange engine problems at Daytona and Rockingham - he only had good finishes at Richmond (8th) and Atlanta (2nd) to show to this point. His 5th today is another indication this team is championship calibre. This is the first week that Labonte *did not* lead at least one lap.
Like Bobby Labonte - Morgan Shepherd is off to his worst start in his career. Shepherd best finish prior to his 8th place in today was a 30th at Atlanta to go along with a 31st at Daytona, 37th ar Rockingham, and a 32nd at Richmond.
Ricky Rudd finished 9th and stretched his consecutive streak of top-10 finishes to seven. Jeff Burton continued to show that the #99 Jack Roush/Buddy Parrott team is for real. After failing to qualify for Atlanta, Burton finished 10th after leading the Transouth Financial 400 for a period of time. Burton has three top-10 finishes in the four races he has started.
Team Cars Performance: The Roush team put all three cars in the top-10 for third time this season. They did it previously at Daytona and Richmond. Hendrick's team has done it once at Atlanta, but he has two wins with Gordon.
Dale Jarrett was in leading in the late goings until he brushed the wall with 10 laps remaining that slowed his progress. A late splash and go for fuel cost him a couple more spots.
Hendrick - Gordon (1), Labonte (5), Schrader (28) Yates - Jarrett (15), Irvan (33) Roush - Martin (6), Musgrave (7), Burton (10)
