Jeff Gordon banged his way past Rusty Wallace 600 feet from the finish line Sunday and won the Food City 500 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for the third consecutive year.
Gordon’s 22nd career victory came on an afternoon when Bristol’s .533-mile, high-banked oval produced piles of twisted sheet metal. No one was injured, but the 20 yellow flags tied NASCAR’s modern-era record. The 132 laps run under caution represented the third-highest total in the modern era, which began in 1972.
Wallace, the pole-sitter, took the lead for the last time on Lap 415 and built a comfortable edge before Gordon, with teammate Terry Labonte on his rear bumper, closed to within inches of Wallace’s Ford with 20 laps remaining.
Gordon was unable to get a good run at the leader until ducking low as they went down the backstretch on the final lap. Wallace surged ahead as they went into the third turn, but as they entered the fourth, Gordon gunned his Chevrolet into Wallace’s rear bumper.
Wallace bobbled up high as he fought to control his car, and Gordon slipped past on his way to a two-car-length victory.
– Alex Zanardi, whose record string of six straight poles was ended by Gil de Ferran, still won the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. He took the lead in his Honda-Reynaud 12 laps from the end of the 105-lap race when teammate Jimmy Vasser was forced to pit for fuel.
– Jacques Villeneuve, weakened by a stomach ailment, won the Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires for his second straight triumph. The Canadian’s Williams-Renault beat Eddie Irvine by less than a second. The victory was Villeneuve’s sixth, matching the total of his father, Gilles, who was killed in a crash at the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix.
