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| | Thursday, July 6 The question is: 'Can Labonte hold on?' | |||||||||||
Special to ESPN.com | ||||||||||||
Bobby Labonte can see it. Dale Earnhardt wants to nab it. And, Dale Jarrett's waiting for Labonte and Earnhardt to fumble it.
After 17 races in a Winston Cup season that has been defined by parity amongst veterans, rookies, and manufacturers, the final half of the 2000 season has come down to a bona fide points race between the best in the business. Only 334 points separate first from tenth in the Winston Cup standings.
Labonte knows he's in the best position right now. He currently leads the points race with 2,527 markers -- 52 ahead of Earnhardt. That puts Labonte on pace to score 5,054 at season's end. Last year, when Labonte finished runner-up to Dale Jarrett, Labonte totalled 5,061. That's consistency -- championship calibre consistency. "I don't feel comfortable because we want to be better than where we are now, as far as wins go, and top fives and top 10s," says Labonte. "But we've got to take what we've got, build off that and learn what we can off that. I feel like we're definitely on the good part of everything. We would also like to just make sure we don't screw up anywhere as we go either." Simply put, NO. Labonte would love to win a Winston Cup championship. Earnhardt loathes being tied with Richard Petty at seven championships. Nobody in the points race has a chance for redemption like Earnhardt. Since his last title in 1994, the Man in Black's been chasing No. 8 -- a mark that would break a tie with Petty and make Earnhardt the champion-of-champions. There's nothing else left for Earnhardt to prove -- except that he can win another championship. When Earnhardt won his seventh, it seemed likely that No. 8 couldn't be far behind. Then, Jeff Gordon burst on the scene and stole some of Earnhardt's thunder by winning two straight in 1995 and 1996. It's been six years since Earnhardt sat at the head table at the Waldorf Astoria for the Winston Cup banquet.
In terms of the perfect season, Jarrett had one in 1999. Jarrett and his No. 88 Robert Yates Racing teammates collected 24 top-five finishes in a 34 race season. This season, Jarrett is slightly off his championship pace with 10. Still, six of those top-fives have come in the last eight races. As the circuit makes it's turn at halfway, Jarrett is rolling. Even though he's10th in the series points standings, Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet is a multiple winner in 2000 with trophies from Talladega Superspeedway and Sears Point Raceway. Gordon's on pace to score only six top-five finishes in 2000. That would be the worst showing of his career, dating back to seven top-fives in his rookie season of 1993. For Gordon to win his fourth Winston Cup crown, Bobby Labonte would have to finish worse than third in the remaining 17 events. That isn't out of the realm of possibility. But, even if it does, Gordon would have to win them all and lead the most laps doing it. Jeff, the youngest of the Burton brothers has two wins in 2000. Ward has one. Both Burtons are challengers for a first championship. At the halfway point, Ward is fourth, and Jeff is fifth -- both less than 215 points out of first. Unlike Venus and Serena Williams of tennis fame, these two siblings play each other every weekend and manage to keep the peace at the family gatherings. In what may be the saddest story of a storied career, the time is running out on Waltrip's final parade in the Winston Cup ranks. Brother Michael puts it like this: "I was watching Pebble Beach the other day and Jack Nicklaus was making what was maybe his final appearance in the U.S. Open, and he was struggling home. He got in on an exemption, and they said it could be his last one if we can't figure out how to get Jack into one more, this could be it. "I think about our sport, and I say, why can't people be talking about Darrell that way? Why can't they be saying, 'Man, this is going to be the last time we see Darrell Waltrip at Daytona? Please just grasp this moment, he's meant so much to this sport. He's going to be gone.' Instead we're saying, 'Look at him. He had to use a provisional again.' "That's the kind of comments he's getting, and that kind of gets on my nerves. It doesn't seem fair." It's apparent that youth is the name of the game in NASCAR's 21st Century. Of the 17 races in the 2000 season, seven have been won by 20-somethings. Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart have each won two. Matt Kenseth also has a win this year. Jeremy Mayfield, who turned 31 in May, also has two wins. Much like other sports, as NASCAR becomes mainstream in America, the kids wanting to be part of the game are going to be younger. When Jeff Burton -- only 33 -- won the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, he was the oldest Winston Cup winner since Mark Martin won at Martinsville in April. "I see Dale Earnhardt driving harder and more aggressive than I've seen him the last three years," says Burton. "Mark Martin has every bit of intensity that he had when I first met him. Dale Jarrett, he is what he is, he's a Winston Cup champion and a competitor and I'm not about to take that away and feel like they're ready to bow over to us. "There is a youth movement in NASCAR. There's a push to bring real young drivers into Winston Cup and teach them how to learn and how to race in Winston Cup and they've been a real pain in the butt. They've been hard to beat. The success that Matt has had, and the success that Earnhardt has had, Stewart, Gordon -- it's incredible that guys that young -- it came way more natural to them than it's come for me. "Having said that, I believe that if Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin and an old guy like myself, if we continue to work hard and care about our program as much as a young kid, we may be a little smarter. We may not be as aggressive at times, but we may be smarter. Dale Earnhardt's in a great position to win the championship and he may be the oldest active driver, I don't really get into age, but he's sure older than me. I don't see him bowing over by any means." Many scientists believe that Comet Temple-Tuttle may hit the Earth on Nov. 11, 2097. As it stands now, that weekend is taken up on the Winston Cup schedule by International Speedway Corporation's Homestead-Miami Speedway. There's a good chance that ISC would gladly yield their 2097 date to either Texas or Las Vegas when it becomes apparent that this meteor is on a crash-course with the Florida Keys. As it stands now, NASCAR is satisfied in adding Kansas and Chicagoland Speedways next season to an already packed schedule. Phil Furr, a freelance writer based in Charlotte, N.C., writes a weekly auto-racing column for ESPN.com. | ALSO SEE Weber: On the move, or moving backwards? Charting the championship contenders | |||||||||||
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