Jarrett’s Gamble Pays Off at Dover

Although there are many ways to win a race, success rarely is achieved as a result of a problem on a pit stop.

But that might have been the case Sunday, when Dale Jarrett gambled on fuel and won after a dominant Jeff Gordon was forced to stop for a splash of gas in the MBNA Platinum 400 at Dover, Del.

“When we had it jacked up, the left rear fell down,� said Todd Parrott, Jarrett’s crew chief. “We had like a 22-second stop.�

But those four wasted seconds assured them of one thing--plenty of gas.

“Obviously, when we sat there that long the guy really packed the thing with fuel,� Parrott said of the final pit stop with 101 laps of 400 laps remaining. “I knew we could do 103-104 laps.�

That was good enough for Jarrett, who ended his career-long drought at Dover Downs International Speedway.

“I never even asked him how close we were going to be on fuel,� Jarrett said. “Todd said we were going for it, and I said, ‘OK.’ �

What they got was redemption in the form of an easy victory. Jarrett won despite leading only the final eight laps while Gordon showed the way for 375. A year ago in this race, Jarrett led 255 laps at the Monster Mile and lost.

Gordon, who two weeks earlier lost the NASCAR all-star race when he ran out of fuel with a lap remaining, settled for third after his gas-and-go gave Jarrett the lead.

“I knew that we needed to save some fuel,� Jarrett said. “Once I knew I couldn’t catch Jeff, I backed off. If he was going to have to pit, we were going to win. If not, we were going to finish second.�

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Jimmy Vasser outlasted Helio Castro-Neves in a fuel economy run and pulled away at the end to win the Miller Lite 200 at the Milwaukee Mile at West Allis, Wis.

Vasser, who won in April at Nazareth, made it a sweep of the one-mile ovals on the CART FedEx Championship Series schedule and gave his Target-Chip Ganassi Racing team its second consecutive victory. Alex Zanardi, the defending series champion, won the previous week on the 1 1/4-mile oval at Madison, Ill.

“This team used to have no success on any short ovals,� Vasser said. “We’ve been working very hard to figure out the black art of one-mile ovals. It’s very hard to keep the car consistent from the beginning of a fuel run to the end. Obviously, we’re making progress.�

This time, Vasser, the 1996 champion, took the top spot for the final time on lap 126 of the 200-mile event when Richie Hearn, out of sync with the rest of the leaders on his stops, made his last visit to the pits during the fourth and final caution period.

The green flag waved on lap 131 and the rest of the race was run without interruption, making it a fuel gamble for all the leaders at the end.

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Rookie Derek Higgins started seventh and dominated the second half of the race at the Milwaukee Mile at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds at West Allis, Wis., his first PPG-Dayton Indy Lights Championship victory.

Brazilian veterans Felipe Giaffone and Sergio Paese finished second and third, while Geoff Boss of Narragansett, R.I., was fourth, the top American in the 24-car field.

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Kenny Bernstein, Whit Bazemore, Mike Thomas and Matt Hines won their respective professional categories at the inaugural FRAM Route 66 Nationals at the new state-of-the-art Route 66 Raceway at Joliet, Ill.

Bernstein won a tire-smoking pedaling match in the top-fuel final over Gary Scelzi. Bernstein was on and off the throttle of his Budweiser King dragster, nursing it to victory in 5.586 seconds at 265.43 mph, well in front of Scelzi.