NASCAR WCUP: Rain Gives Park Positions It Took Away At Last Darlington Visit
7 September 1999
In March, Jeff Burton stood by his racecar on the frontstretch of Darlington International Raceway waving his arms, appealing to the crowd to join in his prayer for rain that would guarantee him victory. At the same time #1 Pennzoil Monte Carlo driver Steve Park hoped the rain would hold off allowing him more time to continue his climb through the field. So it was a bit eerie Sunday when Burton was once again urging the rain gods to let the heavens open up so he could win the 50th running of the Southern 500 while Park stood a few feet away hoping the remnants from Hurricane Dennis would leave the South Carolina race track alone. If the race would resume, the second-year driver figured he could improve upon the 15th place he occupied. "Man, that was just like it was the last time we were here in Darlington," Park said. "At the last race I knew we were faster than those other guys and because it rained we had to settle for 12th place. Today we had gone from 39th to 15th and I knew we could do a little better than that so I was hoping the rain would hold off." The 367-lap race had already been stopped on lap 230 for rain and returned to green for just seven laps before the second shower brought out the red flag. For 80 minutes, drivers, crews, and fans waited thinking the racing might be over for the day. But at 6 p.m. NASCAR called the drivers back to the cars and the field began making pace laps in preparation for a restart. NASCAR told the teams that the race would continue until 6:30 p.m. when the flagman would signal that 10 laps remained. "That was going to be real interesting," Park said. "That was going to be some shootout." NASCAR signaled the field one lap to go before the restart. The top four cars stayed on the track gambling their old tires could make it the 35 or so laps until the checkered flag. Several others in the top 10 like Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Jimmy Spencer, Elliott Sadler and Terry Labonte all came in for fresh tires hoping for an advantage in the final sprint. Park and crew chief Paul Andrews elected not to take tires and moved up to 10th because of the five cars that stopped for new tires. As the field approached the final turn for the restart the rain resumed and NASCAR told the pace car to make another lap and then another. The rain fell harder each lap. "You know, when we were 15th I wanted this thing to restart, but now that we are 10th I'm not so sure," joked Andrews. "I can live with a 10th place finish." Andrews got what he wanted. Because the rain fell even harder and NASCAR presented the checkered flag to Burton on lap 270. Park had earned a 10th-place finish. "That was about as weird as you can get," he said after the race. "The way I look at it, the rain cost us some positions here in the spring and it gave us some here in the fall. It all evened out." Park and his Dale Earnhardt Inc. crew return to action Saturday night in Richmond. Driver Point Standings 1 Dale Jarrett 3693 2 Mark Martin 3525 3 Bobby Labonte 3373 4 Jeff Gordon 3351 5 Tony Stewart 3323 6 Jeff Burton 3292 7 Dale Earnhardt 3141 8 Rusty Wallace 2882 9 Terry Labonte 2857 10 Ward Burton 2725 11 Mike Skinner 2715 12 Jeremy Mayfield 2638 13 Ken Schrader 2504 14 John Andretti 2481 15 Bobby Hamilton 2452 16 Wally Dallenbach 2433 17 Jimmy Spencer 2406 18 Sterling Marlin 2403 19 Bill Elliott 2375 20 Chad Little 2286 21 Michael Waltrip 2273 22 Steve Park 2244 23 Kenny Irwin 2243 24 Kenny Wallace 2197 25 Kevin Lepage 2172
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