If there is anything more Hendrick Motorsports could have asked of the Daytona 500, it is hard to imagine what it could be.

What it earned was more than victory. It was a sweep of the top three positions and the perfect gift for its ailing team owner.

Jeff Gordon, in one of the most improbable scenarios every witnessed at Daytona International Speedway, won the Daytona 500 and led the Hendrick 1-2-3 sweep of the race. Teammate Terry Labonte finished second while Ricky Craven, making his first Winston Cup start for the team, finished third.

It was a remarkable achievement and there could not have been a better show of affection and support for owner Rick Hendrick, diagnosed with life-threatening leukemia. He remained home in Charlotte, preparing for chemotherapy treatments.

But it didn’t take him long to join in the celebration. In victory lane, the first thing Gordon did was talk to Hendrick via telephone.

“My hat is off to Jimmy Johnson (vice president),” Gordon said. “He made the arrangements for the phone call. When I got to victory lane, I just happened to have my helmet off and my hat on and I saw him with a phone and a big smile on his face.

“He handed it to me and I couldn’t hear Rick because the engine was running. I turned the engine off and said, ‘We did it! We did it!’ he said, ‘Who is this?’ I said, ‘Jeff.’ And he got really, really excited.

“That was the achievement — bringing a smile to Rick’s face after winning this race. Rick needs a good attitude right now with what he’s going through and I hope this really pumps him up.”

“I thank the good Lord that Jeff, Terry and Ricky gave me a shock today,” said Hendrick via telephone after the race. “It’s hard to believe that you can have three cars to run like that at Daytona. Jeff told me last night he was going to win Daytona.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. This is the best medicine the good Lord could give me right now. I’m almost speechless.”

Three significant things helped Gordon win his first career Daytona 500 and his second race of Speedweeks — the native of Pittsboro, Ind, also won the Busch Clash on Feb. 9.

First, he came back from losing nearly a full lap to the field. Second, he was not involved in a frightening crash on the 189th of the race’s 200 laps that severely damaged the cars of two victory contenders — Dale Jarrett and Ernie Irvan — and thwarted for the 19th time Dale Earnhardt’s bid to win his first Daytona 500.

Finally, Gordon made a daring pass of race leader Bill Elliott in the first turn with five laps remaining. The move was to the inside — way inside. Gordon drove all the way down to the apron to make the move around Elliott that would ultimately bring him victory.

What sealed the victory thereafter came in the form of the race’s seventh and final caution period, which was triggered on lap 196 when an accident involving 11 cars erupted in the fourth turn.

The race ended under caution, which meant all Gordon had to do was cruise the final four laps to the checkered flag. It was the first time the Daytona 500 ended under caution since 1991, when Irvan was the winner.

At 25 years, six months and 12 days, Gordon becomes the youngest winner of the Daytona 500, replacing Richard Petty, who was 26 years old when he won it in 1964.

“This is the big one,” Gordon said. “I was pumped up for this one. The car felt good; it drove great. Little did I know how good it would be.

“I was able to get to the front, but I know that’s not enough to win the Daytona 500. You have to have everything go your way.

“When you don’t lose a lap after having a tire go down, when you sit there asking for a caution and you get it and when you get a restart with Bill Elliott in front of you and your teammates behind you, that’s when you know everything is going your way.”

But during the course of the race, Gordon certainly had his doubts.

Earnhardt, in the Richard Childress-owned Chevrolet, displayed all the mscle early as he snatched the lead away from pole winner and Childress teammate Mike Skinner on the third lap. Earnhardt would go on to lead 48 circuits.

By lap 57, Gordon was in the lead for the first time after he passed Irvan between turns one and two. He would lead the next 34 circuits, giving up his advantage when he pitted during the third caution period, which began on lap 90 after Ken Schrader and Steve Grissom crashed on the backstretch.

Thereafter, it was Mark Martin’s turn to lead the draft. The driver of the Roush Racing Ford led 52 laps. For most of that time, Gordon ran comfortably among the leaders, moving as high as third place behind Martin and Craven.

But then it happened. On lap 111, Gordon’s Chevrolet suddenly slung high in the second turn, coming dangerously close to the wall. It was obvious it had encountered a problem and Gordon made for the pits on the next lap. He thought he had a flat tire.

“You don’t just drive along and things suddenly feel crazy,” Gordon said. “Every once in a while I get some crazy feelings in my head. My decision was to get on pit road as quick as I could. I came on pit road and they changed it.

“I said, ‘Hey guys, tell me it was flag.’ Ray (Evernham, crew chief) said, ‘No it wasn’t.’ I said, ‘I’m sorry. I just lost us the Daytona 500.

“Later, Ray came back on the radio and said, ‘You were right, it was going down.’ I’m glad it was a slow leak so I could pit. If it was bigger, all the air would have come out at once and I probably would have spun around.”

Gordon said he wanted four fresh tires during the pit stop, but Evernham forced a two-two change.

Had Gordon taken on four tires, he surely would have been lapped. As it evolved, he was able to stay in front of the leaders, whose speeds were significantly higher because they were locked up in the draft.

By lap 118, the leaders, paced by Martin, had caught Gordon.

“I thought I was lapped,” Gordon said. “Those guys wer ereally trucking. When Mark came up on me, I was able to block him just a little bit, but I didn’t know how long it would last. I did have a little momentum and Mark just caught me enough where I could block him and slow him down. It didn’t kill the whole line. I surprised myself and probably a whole lot of other out there that they just didn’t smoke on by me.”

Still, the only way Gordon could ultimately avoid being lapped would be the appearance of a caution flag.

It happened on lap 122, when the fifth caution period began after Greg Sacks and Jeff Burton tangled on the backstretch. Gordon beat the field to the line.

“That is what saved me,” Gordon said. “If they had lapped me and then the caution had come out, it wouldn’t have mattered. I never would have got the lap back if they got past me. To be able to stay out front and the caution falling when it did really saved us.”

But he still had an arduous task in front of him. When the race restarted on lap 126, he was in 24th place. To be a contender again, he would have to negotiate his way through the field — not always the easiest thing to do without help in the draft.

“It was really frustrating back there,” Gordon said. “No one wanted to work with me. I had to be really, really patient.”

Bill Elliott, bidding to win his first race since the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in 1994 — 64 races ago — took the lead in his Ford on lap 155, passing Irvan, and held it until the sixth caution period began.

It started on lap 167, when the yellow flag flew after debris was spotted in the first turn. The race restarted on lap 171, with Sterling Marlin the new leader and Gordon running ninth.

Irvan retook the lead on lap 176 and was passed by Elliott on lap 178. By this time, Gordon had moved into third place behind Elliott and Earnhardt.

With 22 laps to go, the stage for a dramatic finish was set. Elliott, attempting to win his first Daytona 500 since 1987, was leading with Earnhardt — whom fate had denied a Daytona 500 win by virtually every means possible — in second place. Then came Gordon, 1991 Daytona 500 winner Irvan, two-time (1993 and 1996) winner Jarrett and Labonte.

By lap 185, the running order was Elliott, Earnhardt, Gordon, Jarrett and Irvan. The question became, who would make the first move to deny Elliott the victory?

Gordon made the move on lap 189. he diced to the inside of Earnhardt as they came out of the second turn. Earnhardt’s Chevrolet shook and then clipped the wall. It then bounced into Gordon’s Chevrolet, knocking it aside and then was hit in the rear by Jarrett’s Ford.

That caused Earnhardt to slide and turn sideways. Suddenly, his Chevrolet vaulted into the air and rolled, landing on Irvan’s Ford and sending its hood into the Tiny Lund grandstands, where it injured two spectators.

Earnhardt’s Chevrolet landed on its wheels and slid into the grass along the backstretch, where, mangled, it came to a stop.

“Jarrett and Ernie were pushing me hard,” Gordon said. “They had pushed me hard into turn one. I closed on Earnhardt and had to squeeze out of the gas to avoid hitting him.

“I pulled my car to the bottom, to the while line. He kinda slip up a bit and it looked like he was pushing. I had a lot of momentum coming out of the second turn and I figured he would hit the wall and bounce off and hit me. And sure enough he did. Then he got it.

“I was trying to win the Daytona 500, the biggest race I know of. I think Dale would have done whatever he could to win. What good would it do me to ride behind him and help him? I like Dale a lot but I’m there trying to win. What I did didn’t cause him to wreck. What I did caused him to lift.

“It was very close for me losing control. When he hit the wall I was fortunate that he hit me square in the door. If he had hit me further back, it would have turned me.

“I didn’t make that move to say let’s have a wreck and get these guys out of the way. It was crunch time, when we had to make moves. I wasn’t about to miss the opportunity. I saw him slide up a bit and I took advantage of it.”

Earnhardt left the ambulance which had been dispatched to the scene and drove his car back to pit road. Thereafter, he would limp around to a 31st-place finish, but he gained valuable Winston Cup points.

Meanwhile, hasty repairs to Jarrett’s and Irvan’s Ford allowed them to continue, but hopes for victory were lost.

“Someone told me that Dale saw his car still had four wheels and tires on it,” Gordon said. “At the end of the race, I saw this mangled No. 3 come up and I thought, ‘Uh-oh.’ But he gave me the thumbs-up sign. I think that meant he was not putting the blame on me.”

Edward W. Suders of Chambersburg, Pa., suffered a superficial fracture of his right forearm from the flying debris from Irvan’s car. His arm was placed in a splint in the infield medical center and he was released. George Ray Anderson of Chase City, Va., suffered a badly bruised knee and was also treated and released.

The incident brought out the seventh caution period, which ended on lap 194. Elliott was still the leader, but the trio of Hendrick cars had lined up behind him — Gordon, Labonte and Craven.

On lap 195, Gordon made his moved. And what a move. He shot to the inside of Elliott in the first turn and sped below the yellow line that marks the apron. As he did so, Labonte and Craven went to the high side of Elliott to take spots two and three.

“The plan was for me to go to the inside and they go to the outside,” Gordon said. “I had turned the radio to Terry’s channel and said it would be pretty neat to get these three Hendrick cars to the ront. I then talked to Ricky and asked him who he was going with and he said he was going with us.

“But then I went to the inside and looked in my rear view mirror and they weren’t there. I thought, ‘Man, we’re three-wide.’ But Bill sorta moved up. It was like he didn’t know who to block.

“I would have gone down to the people in the infield cooking out if that’s what it took to get by Elliott. I was trying to figure out how to go from the aprong back onto the track without causing a big wreck.

“That was my last chance. That was the chance to win the Daytona 500 right there and it paid off.”

Just as the three Hendrick drivers finished the lap in 1-2-3 order, a multicar accident was triggered in the fourth turn when, amid a pack of cars, the Pontiacs of Johnny Benson and Bobby Hamilton made contact. Damaged cars scattered amid the smoke. Involved were the cars of Jarrett, Kenny Wallace, Brett Bodine, Dave Marcis, Joe Nemechek, Morgan Shepherd, Dick Trickle, Lake Speed, Bobby Labonte, Benson and Hamilton.

It effectively ended the race.

Benson was taken to Halifax Medical Center for a CAT scan of his pelvis and bladder, which proved negative. He was released. The victim of an accident early in the race, Robert Pressley had also gone to Halifax for a CAT scan of his pelvis, which was also negative. He, too, was released.

Following the mishap, the Hendrick cars strolled to the checkered flag with Elliott following in fourth place. Marlin was fifth, Jeremy Mayfield sixth, Martin seventh, Ward Burton eighth, Ricky Rudd ninth and Darrell Waltrip, likely making his final Daytona 500 start, 10th.   

Irvan wound up 20th with Jarrett 23rd.

Gordon earned $377,410 for his victory. It ws his part of the 727,960 take on the day for Hendrick Motorsports. He won with an average speed of 148.295 mph. Twenty-three cars finished on the lead lap, a Daytona 500 record.

“You can never plan how things are going to work out,” Gordon said. “Little did I know I would have my two teammates behind me after the last restart. I knew they were trying to win the Daytona 500 but at the same time, they were thinking of Rick Hendrick like we all were. We wanted to finish 1-2-3, it didn’t matter in what order.

“I just felt good all week long. I felt something special was going to happen today and something special did happen.”

See Also:
The Legend
1997 Daytona 500 Photo Gallery