Even Gordon is amazed by his recent success

Friday, Sept. 19, 1997 | 9:08 a.m.

DOVER, Del. -- Sometimes, even Jeff Gordon can't help but marvel at his place in auto racing history.

"It's amazing that we have won 10 races this season," he said on the eve of qualifying for the MBNA 400. "... The competition has been real tough."

When Gordon hits the track Sunday at Dover Downs Speedway, he will be looking to add another mark to his third straight season of domination on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit.

By winning last Sunday at Loudon, N.H., the 26-year-old Hoosier became the first driver in 15 years to reach double figures in victories in consecutive seasons.

If Gordon wins Sunday, his 11 victories will match the best totals of Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott and David Pearson. Since NASCAR's modern era began in 1972, only two drivers have done better. Darrell Waltrip won 12 races in 1981 and 1982, and Richard Petty won 13 in 1975.

Gordon's 10 victories last year were not enough for a second straight Winston Cup championship. So he isn't thinking about milestones.

"We're leading the points, but not by a whole lot over Mark Martin," he said. "Consistency is what pays off. We'll continue to go to every race with the intention of winning, but we won't do anything that might cost us a shot at the championship."

Martin thinks that's a wise policy.

"I don't figure Jeff Gordon and those guys have written us off any more than we've written off Dale Jarrett and that crowd," Martin said. "Nobody in this sport gives up too easily."

Gordon enters the $1.6 MBNA 500 with a 139-point lead over Martin, who could overtake him by finishing about 40 positions higher in the 26th of 32 races. Jarrett is third, 49 points behind Martin.

Gordon ran into race leader Jarrett, taking both from contention three months ago in the Miller 500 at Dover. Later, when Ernie Irvan crashed, Ricky Rudd inherited the lead. He blocked Martin over the last several laps for the victory.

"We were in the right place at the right time to take advantage of a good break," Rudd said. "Then Ernie had a problem, and I said to myself, 'Man, they're trying to give us this race, so we better take it.' "

All five drivers figure to be a factor Sunday. First, all might find themselves pursuing Bobby Labonte for the pole.

In qualifying Friday, Labonte will try to win his third consecutive pole at the Monster Mile. Driving a Chevrolet last year, Labonte sat on the inside of the front row in this race at a Dover record 155.086 mph. He finished fourth.

He put his new Pontiac on the pole three months ago, and was leading when Kyle Petty sent him spinning into the wall early in the race.

"I backed into Kyle, I guess," Labonte said.

Earlier this month, Pontiac, winless since last November, was given aerodynamic considerations NASCAR hopes will make it more competitive. But the Pontiacs of Labonte and Petty, who collected the most recent of his eight career victories at Dover in 1995, are little more than longshots.

The race probably will come down to Gordon -- whose victories represent Chevrolet's total for 1997 -- the super Fords of Martin and Jarrett, and the resourceful Rudd.

* NO DUEL IN DESERT: The duel in the Black Rock desert north of Reno remained on hold Thursday as gusty wind whipped sand into low dunes across the desert course where two teams continue to prime for a run at the land speed record. The British Thrust SSC team, headed by record holder Richard Noble, has been unable to run since an on-board computer locked up during a 550 mph dash on Saturday. American Craig Breedlove managed two low-speed runs on Tuesday but encountered problems with the replacement jet engine that was mounted in his Spirit of America last week.

* F-1 RETURNS TO AUSTRIA: The last time there was a Formula One race in Austria, a car ran into a deer on the track. The driver survived. The deer didn't. Grand Prix racing returns to Austria after a 10-year absence. Times have changed, along with the track, the location and all but one of the drivers. In 1987, a deer from the woods near the race course jumped onto the track during qualifications and Stefan Johansson, in a McLaren-TAG Turbo, hit it head-on. That incident, along with two major crashes at the race on Sunday, helped to eliminate the Austrian Grand Prix from the Formula One schedule until this year. The only driver from the former race still in Formula One is Austrian Gerhard Berger, who made his debut in Grand Prix racing at the 1984 race here.