NASCAR Achieves Parity

FONTANA —  Parity is the lifeblood of NASCAR’s Winston Cup.

From the day Big Bill France founded the stock car racing organization, the plan was to have cars as equal as possible, with as many drivers as possible in the winner’s circle, because if you did those things you probably would have plenty of fans in the seats.

This has been a dream year for them.

In the first nine races, there have been seven winners, and seven drivers on the pole.

The California 500, race No. 10 in the 34-race Winston Cup schedule, could likely produce another new winner. It already has a driver on the pole for the first time, but not because he earned it with the fastest qualifying speed.

Jeff Burton and his Jack Roush-owned Ford Taurus will lead the 43-car field off the line because he is No. 1 in points. Qualifying was canceled Friday because of rain, causing NASCAR to position the field by points.

Burton and defending Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon, who will start fifth in one of Rick Hendrick’s Chevrolet Monte Carlos, are the year’s only double winners. One-race winners are Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace in Fords, Terry Labonte and Dale Earnhardt in Chevrolets and John Andretti in a Pontiac.

If history means anything, the winner will come from the first two rows. In the two previous races at California Speedway and nine run at Ontario Motor Speedway, no winner started farther back than fourth.

More than 115,000 are expected for today’s 500-mile race over the D-shaped, two-mile banked track. All 86,450 reserved seats were sold well in advance, with another 20,000 jammed into the infield, which is large enough to hold eight Dodger Stadiums or four Rose Bowls.

Last year’s crowd of 114,440 was the largest attended sporting event in California in 1998.

Two of the season’s four leading drivers, Dale Jarrett in second and Bobby Labonte in fourth, are without a win. Jarrett, only 40 points behind Burton, has finished fifth or better in six of the last eight races. Labonte, 65 points from first, has five top-five finishes.

“Maybe it is a little frustrating [not to have won], but on the other hand I know we have 25 races left and we’re doing the things right now without doing the best that this race team can do,” said Jarrett, driver of the No. 88 Ford Taurus. “We know we can do much better than what we’ve performed to this point and yet we’re only 40 points out of the lead, so that’s very satisfying that we’ve been able to accomplish what we have this year.”

Although three Fords are at the top of the standings, Jarrett says Gordon is still the one to beat after winning three of the last four Winston Cup championships.

“That’s not to take anything away from Mark Martin or Jeff Burton or anyone else, but you can’t discount Jeff Gordon,” Jarrett said. “The rest of the guys that are up there in the top five, he’s the only one to win a championship, so the rest of us have to prove that we can do that for an entire year.

“I heard someone say that they weren’t sure that Gordon could make up the point differential that he has now and, of course, you have to laugh a little bit at that.”

Gordon, after being wrecked and finishing 37th last week at Talladega Superspeedway, is 210 points out of the lead. He was fastest in Saturday’s practice with a 181.365-mph lap.

In 1992, the late Alan Kulwicki was 278 points behind with six races remaining and came back to win by 10 over Bill Elliott, the narrowest margin in Winston Cup history.

Even though Andretti is the only Pontiac winner, four Grand Prix drivers rank among the top 12 in points--Labonte second, rookie Tony Stewart seventh, Ward Burton 11th and Andretti 12th.

“I feel pretty good about tomorrow,” Labonte said after posting the second quickest time of 180.212 mph in practice Saturday. “At least we have a good starting spot and we’ve got a pretty good car.”

For a number of years, the Pontiacs lagged behind Ford and Chevrolet in development, but Labonte said that the playing field is more level now with the emergency of the Joe Gibbs team of himself and Stewart and the Petty Enterprises duo of Andretti and Kyle Petty.

“I think everybody is pretty content with the rules right now,” he said. “It’s probably the best it’s been in a while. I don’t have any complaints about things right now. I’ve said for a long time now if we go somewhere and run bad it’s not the Pontiac’s fault. To me, the Pontiacs are running better because of their teams.”

Stewart, who left the Indy Racing League open-wheel cars to drive a stock car for Gibbs, has a commanding lead in the race for rookie of the year. He has 112 points to 88 for Elliott Sadler.

Ten drivers in today’s race ran the Auto Club 300 Busch Grand National race Saturday. One of the 10, Jeff Burton finished second behind Matt Kenseth. Burton, however, downplayed the significance of it helping him today.

“It’s not like you can take the setup from the Busch car and use it on your Winston Cup car,” he said. “Seat time, and track time, is about all you can get out of it.”

California 500 Facts

* When: 11 a.m. today.

* Where: California Speedway, Fontana.

* TV: Ch. 7