GM complaints about Fords blunted by Gordon’s win

Friday, Feb. 27, 1998 | 12:01 p.m.

Some General Motors teams grumbled after Jeff Gordon spoiled their post-race strategy by driving his Chevrolet to victory at North Carolina Speedway.

That wasn't supposed to happen. NASCAR had ordered Chevys and Fords to have an identical aerodynamics package - 5-inch spoilers and front air dams. The GM teams were certain that would favor the new Ford Taurus, and they would have started complaining.

They were right about the Taurus: It was dominant at Rockingham. Despite that, the Chevy teams - and those with Pontiacs - won't be able to say they can't win and seek relief from the so-called five-and-five rule.

That's because of the Gordon rule: prosper when the other GM cars don't match up to the Fords. He has made a habit of that, which in large measure explains two Winston Cup championships and a near-miss in the last three years.

This time, Ray Evernham, Gordon's crew chief, was able to turn disaster into a victory by getting an ill-handling car sorted out halfway through the Goodwrench Service 400 on Sunday.

The idea behind the rule that took effect Sunday was to take away some downforce and make the cars harder to drive in the corners, thereby slowing them down.

"It worked," said Daytona 500 champion Dale Earnhardt, who at The Rock struggled to a 17th-place finish in his Chevy. "The only problem is it didn't work the same way for everybody."

Rockingham was very competitive, with race records of 27 lead changes among 12 drivers - eight in Fords - and 13 cars on the lead lap at the end. Six Fords trailed Gordon's Chevy across the finish line.

"I'd say the fact that all those Fords finished in the top 10 says the rules are wrong," said Kyle Petty, 24th in a Pontiac, which has a slightly larger spoiler and slightly smaller air dam. "That was NASCAR's deal.

"Everybody tried to get them to wait four races before they changed the rules, before they helped somebody."

That somebody turned out to be the Ford contingent.

"The new rules compounded the problem we had at Rockingham last time," Petty said. "We just ran the tires off of it. What compounded it more than that was trying to run the pace they were running."

John Andretti, 13th in a Pontiac, said one look at the leaderboard told the story.

"All I can say is that at one point they said there were two GM cars in the top 17," he said. "That was me and Gordon.

"The rules just made the cars harder to drive. I think we were real lucky it was a real overcast day, or else it would have been a lot uglier."

The performance of the Taurus, the car molded to NASCAR specifications in a hurry to replace the discontinued Thunderbird, pleased many Ford drivers. Sixth-place finisher Bill Elliott was among them.

"You can tell it was a heck of a race for the fans from what I saw," he explained.

Dale Jarrett, off to a slow start that has him 20th in the points, cautioned against thinking the Chevys are not as good as the Fords.

"We've got just one Chevrolet that's still better than everything else right now," said Jarrett, who finished seventh.

In agreement was ninth-place finisher Bobby Hamilton, who drove a Chevy.

"It's going to be a five- or six-race thing to see who's best, but Ford didn't win the race," he said. "As long as that 24 car is winning, that means one of us can, too.

"As long as he's winning, there's a chance the Monte Carlo is a good race car and everybody else has got to get their act together."

Gordon insisted all the teams have an equal chance.

"The rules are what they are, and we just have to make our cars the best we can," he said. "It's hard for us to complain when we pull into Victory Lane.

"It shows us that we have to stop complaining about the Tauruses and get to work. Once they drop the green flag, it doesn't matter anyway."