Jarrett Finally Masters Rock

The last time Dale Jarrett won a race was eight long months ago.

"I'm not sure it even feels like the same year we won at Daytona," Jarrett said Sunday after finally mastering North Carolina Speedway.

On a track where he had finished second six times in his last nine starts, the defending Winston Cup champion took the lead late in the Pop Secret 400 and pulled steadily away from old nemesis Jeff Gordon to earn his first win on Rockingham's 1.017-mile oval.

The race was slowed in the late laps by a fire in the pits that injured a crewman and two track firefighters.

Jarrett, who had not won since the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 20, took the lead with 43 of the 393 laps remaining when his Robert Yates Racing crew got him off pit road ahead of the pack during the last of nine caution periods.

Gordon drove past Ricky Rudd to take second place moments after the green flag came out for the start of lap 354 and briefly challenged Jarrett's No. 88 Ford. But Jarrett finally moved away, beating Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet to the finish line by 2.197 seconds nearly a full straightaway.

"Finally. No more bridesmaid here," said Jarrett, who picked up the 24th victory of his career.

It was Gordon who beat him in two of those second-place finishes. The 1997 spring race was particularly frustrating for Jarrett, who dominated only to see Gordon race past in the final stages.

"I think in some of those times past we learned some things from Jeff Gordon and his team," Jarrett said. "They taught us a lesson that one day for sure, where we thought we were really home free and the last 30 laps they blew us away.

"When I looked up and saw he had passed Ricky back there, I was thinking, `Uh, oh, what's going to happen this time?' But we had made the right decisions. It was nice to be able to beat Jeff."

Gordon said his crew made major adjustments on the last pit stop "and the car came to life."

"But then it fell off after a little while. If I could have got ahead of D.J., it might have been a different story, but he was definitely quicker there at the end," Gordon said.

Dale Earnhardt, trying desperately to catch series leader Bobby Labonte in their championship duel, failed to take full advantage of what could have been a huge break with just three races remaining this season.

Labonte lost a lap when he pitted with a deflating tire just four laps before a caution flag brought out by a fire in Matt Kenseth's pit allowed the rest of the leaders to make scheduled stops.

Earnhardt, who had been running among the leaders most of the day, suddenly developed handling problems and began slipping back into the field. At one point, he was 19th, the last driver on the lead lap, just one position ahead of Labonte.

The seven-time champion did manage to pass a few cars in the waning laps and finished 17th, gaining nine points on the leader. He'll head into the race on Nov. 5 in Phoenix trailing Labonte by 201 points.

"I don't know if I had a bad set of tires or a mismatched set of tires there at the end," Earnhardt said. "The car just went all to heck. It was pushing so hard I couldn't turn it.

"We gained a few (points) on him, but nothing like we need to. The numbers will still work, though."

Labonte was happy to come out as undamaged as he was.

"We're very fortunate that it is what it is and it's over now," he said. "Now we'll go on to the next one."

Despite all the yellow flags, the only serious accident of the day was the pit fire that began when something hot fell from the car and on to spilled gasoline during a tire change.

Rick Machinski, Kenseth's gasman, was flown by helicopter to a Charlotte hospital for evaluation and treatment of second-degree burns on his neck and face. Two firefighters were treated for minor burns at the infield care center and released.

With 60 laps run under caution, Jarrett, the last of 10 drivers to lead the race, averaged just 110.417 mph.

Pole-winner Jeremy Mayfield led eight times for 169 laps before losing six laps with a battery problem. He wound up 29th.

Jeff Burton, who battled Mayfield through much of the race and led six times for 116 laps, faded near the end and finished fourth, behind Rudd and just ahead of Rusty Wallace, Steve Park and Tony Stewart.

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