Jarrett Takes a Spin Before Winning

Dale Jarrett rebounded from a spin on the 12th lap and passed Jeff Burton with five laps left to win the NASCAR Winston Cup Pepsi 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday.

Jarrett’s 30th career victory--and fourth at Michigan--came on the 11th anniversary of his first one, when he edged the late Davey Allison by inches on the two-mile track in Brooklyn, Mich. Jarrett also won this race in 1996, the last time it was held on Aug. 18.

The Ford driver has two victories this year, also winning the June race at Pocono.

Burton stretched his fuel for the final 53 laps, but an overheating engine was a bigger concern. With two laps to go in the 200-lap race, Burton’s car began spewing water and trailing smoke, but he held on to finish fourth.

Tony Stewart finished second in a Pontiac, about two seconds back, and Kevin Harvick was third in a Chevrolet. Mark Martin trailed Burton to the line with point leader Sterling Marling sixth.

“Who’d have thought when I spun out earlier that we’d be right here?” Jarrett said in victory lane.

Jarrett’s team decided to take four tires during the sixth caution on Lap 164, while the rest of the front-runners--except Burton--took only two. The decision put Jarrett back to 17th on the restart, but he steadily progressed through the field.

He took fifth from Bobby Labonte with 20 laps to go, then passed Kevin Harvick for fourth three laps later.

A final caution for Derrike Cope’s crash on Lap 186 set up a final dash for the checkered flag, with Burton leading Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jarrett. Earnhardt got by Stewart with 10 laps left, but neither could hold off Jarrett.

He moved past both to second on Lap 192, then closed in on Burton. With four laps to go, Jarrett drove to the inside in Turn 4 and pulled easily into the lead, leaving Burton to race with the others.

Rookie Jimmie Johnson finished seventh, followed by Johnny Benson, Jeff Green and Earnhardt, who fought an ill-handling car over the final laps.

The race was the first run under a rule change by NASCAR that allowed General Motors teams to bump their front air dams out slightly; Chevrolet was given an extra inch, and Pontiac a half-inch. Although Ford and Dodge teams speculated the move would leave their cars uncompetitive, all manufacturers had cars near the top of the leaderboard.

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Cristiano da Matta returned to form, ending a three-race slump with a victory in the Motorola 220.

The CART series leader won for the first time on the scenic four-mile road course at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Minn., earning his sixth win in 12 starts this season and the 10th of his career.

“It’s very satisfying, because we had a couple of bad races together, and it’s very rewarding to be back in first place,” Da Matta said.

It wasn’t a dominant victory, as were some the Brazilian driver has had this season. Paul Tracy actually led the most laps (24) in the race, which was extended this year from 55 to 60 laps, and pole-winner Bruno Junqueira and Alex Tagliani both were contenders to the end.

Tracy, who started fourth in the 18-car field, got a great start and passed Junqueira on the fifth turn of the first lap to take the lead. He led easily until making his first pit stop on Lap 25, building margins of up to 2.3 seconds.

Junqueira inherited the lead and stayed in front until he pitted on Lap 39. Da Matta, who had been lurking near the leaders throughout the early going, took the lead at that point and never lost it.

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John Force drove his Ford Mustang to a 5.405-second pass at 216.62 mph to beat Gary Densham (6.929 at 130.27) in the finals of the funny car division at the NHRA Rugged Liner Nationals.

Kenny Bernstein won the top fuel division and Jeg Coughlin won the pro stock division in the $1.9-million event at Brainerd, Minn., International Raceway.