NASCAR began its 50th-anniversary season on Sunday by harking
back to its roots: with a good old-fashioned flap. No punches
were thrown as of yore, but angry words flew as Jeff Gordon
accused Rusty Wallace of illegally jumping the final restart of
the Bud Shootout bonus race at Daytona. Wallace and Gordon have
a history of jousting on restarts, but NASCAR officials let the
matter slide this time. The infraction was so obvious that much
of the crowd of about 100,000 booed as Wallace drove into
Victory Lane with the first win for Ford's new racing Taurus.
As a caution period ended with one lap to go in the 25-lap
sprint, Gordon was in the lead, but Wallace, running second, was
allowed to line up beside Gordon. "Rusty jumped the start big
time," said Gordon afterward. Generally the race leader controls
the pace of the restart, and the second-place driver must defer.
So, said Gordon, "I kept waiting for a caution flag," which
would have signaled that officials disallowed Wallace's jump and
ordered the field to realign. Officials let Wallace rip,
however, and Gordon fell to the back of the field.
NASCAR officials maintained that they thought Gordon had trouble
with his Chevrolet at the moment of the restart. But Wallace
suspected trickery. "When I took off, I noticed that Jeff stood
on the brakes," said Wallace. "I throttled back a little bit,
and then I took off."
The fiasco may have resulted from a misunderstanding over where
the drivers were supposed to step on the gas during a restart.
"They told us, 'Start at the grass,'" said Wallace, referring to
the spot where the infield grass begins, some 300 yards before
the start-finish line at Daytona. But Gordon maintained that
he'd been told to start in the area of the 76 ball, a large
spherical sign some 100 yards closer to the start-finish line
than the grass.
So forget the official start-finish line. Was it green grass or
76 ball? NASCAR officials couldn't explain the miscommunication.
After half a century of growth, some things haven't changed.
Issue date: February 16, 1998
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