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NEW ENGLAND
OVAL TRACK MOTOR SPORT
ON~LINE MAGAZINE

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RACING NEWS PAGE ONE

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A Merrimack County Superior Court judge yesterday threw out a claim that adding 9,000 seats to the New Hampshire International Speedway would increase noise. She also disagreed with Canterbury residents who said the track has not worked with area communities to control traffic.  The decision clears the way for the speedway to erect the 9,000-seat grandstand, which could be ready this spring. The seats will be custom-made at a factory in New York, said track owner Bob Bahre.

"I'm very pleased, naturally," said Bahre. "I like to go forward and let this be over and not be mad anymore."

Whether the residents will appeal the decision was unclear yesterday, but it is something they will consider.

"I was aware when I took this on it would be a long, slow haul," said Hilary Nelson, who filed the lawsuit along with 13 Canterbury residents, the Canterbury Shaker Village, a Loudon resident and a Concord businessman, "We're going to regroup and continue.  We've got to meet and decide what we want to do in terms of this decision. Beyond that, I'm not sure where we will go."

In making her decision, Judge Kathleen McGuire kept the focus of the argument narrow.  All she considered was whether the Loudon Planning Board considered the impact on noise and traffic when approving the 9,000-seat expansion.  Previous expansion of the track that might have increased traffic and noise was not part of the argument, she said.

The track has increased seating from 55,000 in 1988 to 82,000 recently. The 9,000-seat grandstand will increase capacity to 91,000.  In court, Canterbury residents argued the broader topic of how the track has increased noise and traffic since expanding from 55,000 seats.

"While the court is not unsympathetic to the adverse impact the track has had on the petitioners, particularly Canterbury Shaker Village, a historical and aesthetic treasure," wrote McGuire, "the court simply has no authority to consider the cumulative effect of 51 prior unappealed planning board decisions expanding an existing 55,000-seat stadium.

Because Canterbury residents conceded that the additional seats will not increase noise, McGuire said the court would no longer consider the issue.  She also stuck down the residents' claim that the planning board and the track has done nothing to control traffic.  McGuire pointed out that the planning board will not allow the track to hold more than three events each race season where attendance exceeds a capacity of 82,000. Currently, the track holds only two such events: the Winston Cup races.  Based  on  that  condition, McGuire would only look at the impact of traffic on state and local highways on those big race days. In examining the evidence, McGuire found that the track has worked with the state Department of Transportation and the Regional Planning Task Force to devise traffic plans and fix any problems.  Through that process, the track has taken measures to ease traffic congestion, such as increasing shuttle buses and using police officers to direct traffic. The track has also built access roads, mailed directions to ticket holders discouraging them from using local roads, and offered to pick up the state's $10 million tab to expand Route 106.

"Given these coordinated and extensive plans to facilitate traffic flow, the court cannot find that the planning board's decision to grant the permit was unreasonable or unlawful," wrote McGuire.

As for efforts to reduce traffic on roadways outside Loudon, McGuire said that was beyond the jurisdiction of the planning board. She recommended Canterbury residents work with the selectmen in their own town to address traffic there.  McGuire added that some Canterbury residents add to the traffic problem by providing parking on their property for track fans. She cited a report by Canterbury Selectman Michael Capone, who located eight parking lots with a total of about 2,000 vehicles in the vicinity of Ashby Road and Mudgett Hill Road.  In Capone's report, dated July 23, 1998, he questioned
whether the lots should remain and anticipated possible resistance from those who run the lots, the Canterbury Village Store and operators of the Ashby Road parking areas.

McGuire's decision follows other good news the track received earlier this month. State environmental officials approved a permit so the track can expand parking to accommodate 110,000 spectators at the track.

There is no word yet on whether the Bahres will seek to expand seating beyond 91,000. A condition the planning board set in approving the 9,000-seat addition was that if the Bahres posed any future expansion they would have to submit a l0-year plan for development of the speedway property and study secondary roads in Loudon, Canterbury, Belmont and Gilmanton.

Loudon Selectman Ray Cummings applauded McGuire's decision yesterday.

"We're very happy," said Cummings.  "We were very confident that we had done  everything right."

Perhaps it's just wishful thinking, but Dale Earnhardt is sure he can win another championship in 2000.  Earnhardt, who'll be 48 when he begins the new season at the Daytona 500 in February, won the last of his record tying seven Winston Cup titles in 1994.  He hasn't come close since but three victories in 1999 - the most for The Intimidator since he had five in 1995 - a maturing relationship with his crew chief and some setup changes have Earnhardt believing he has at least one more championship run in him.

"Our team really came together as '99 went on," said Earnhardt, seventh in points last season. "Kevin Hamlin and I got real comfortable working together, and our team just kept looking better and better and better.  I've had confidence in myself all along. It was just a matter of getting the pieces back in place.  I think we've made a lot of changes that needed to be made. If we didn't make those changes, we weren't going to win."

Those changes include new personnel and modifications to his Chevys.

"Richard Childress and myself have made some important innovations on our cars," Earnhardt said. "You've got to be closer to the edge than ever to win.  That means sometimes you go over the edge, and I don't mean driving, either."

Childress,  Earnhardt's  team owner for 16 seasons and six of his seven championships, is just as confident that his driver and team can again be in the title chase.

"Our people have been working together for a while, and they have built some real good chemistry," he said. "Add to that the fact that I believe Dale Earnhardt can still win week in and week out, and you have a chance at that eighth championship."

The 1999 showing by Earnhardt was inconsistent, not the way to win championships in NASCAR® top division.  In 34 starts, Earnhardt had only seven top fives and failed to finish seven times.  He did, however, have 21 top 10 finishes.

"I'll tell you the biggest thing we have to change," Childress said. "It's our qualifying.  As competitive as the teams are now, making it handle to come from the rear every week is just too hard."

It wasn't always that way. A bad starting position once was fairly easy to overcome but with Dale Jarrett,   Jeff   Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Mark Martin and Tony Stewart running up front virtually every week, it isn't so easy anymore.

"We can race with them every week, but even if you can get to the front, you have to use up the car and the tires to do it," Childress explained.  "Nobody can hit it every week.  We just want to improve to 75 percent.  That's what can make us a contender."

One problem for Earnhardt, who also owns a team, is the possible distraction of his son, Dale Jr., moving up to Winston Cup next season.  Little E has caused tremendous excitement by winning two consecutive Busch series championships to earn his shot at the big time with Dale Earnhardt Inc. (DEI).  The elder Earnhardt knows he can't let the youngster's trial by fire detract from what he's trying to accomplish in his career.

"He's not going to be a distraction to me unless he's competing against me for a win," Big E said. "I pay the bills for DEI, and those guys over there do their jobs."

CINCINNATI - A new comic book that has as much to do with selling soft drinks as it does with entertaining youngsters will get its national preview today.  Racewarrior will be a weekly comic book series that will debut nationally in February, but 500 copies of Volume 1, Issue 1 will be available starting today at a Kroger supermarket in Cincinnati.

The comic follows the story of a futuristic  NASCAR  race  team competing in a race series in the year 2020. The team is sponsored by 7Up soft drink and it competes against teams sponsored by other soda brands, including Dr. Pepper, Vernors, Sunkist and Hawaiian Punch. All those brands are owned by London-based Cadbury Schweppes.  Soda brand logos are displayed prominently on the cars and driver's uniforms in most frames and in two instances, a brand gets a full page plug that is written and drawn as part of the story.

"We designed the ads to have a comic-book look," said John Powell III, president of Custom Comics and creator of the new magazine.

The use of comics to promote products is a tradition that dates to the start of the comic book publishing business, Powell said. The first comic book was published in 1933 and was sold as a promotion by Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, he said. A P&G soap for children came with a coupon that entitled the buyer to send it in and get a l0¢ Max Gaines comic.  Starting today, shoppers who buy a 7Up product at the Mt. Washington Kroger in Cincinnati can get a copy of Racewarrior for 99¢. The regular cover price is $2.99, Powell said.

LOUDON, NH - In Barton Mayer's office, the lawyer who represents Loudon in the expansion of the New Hampshire International Speedway dispute, sits a stack of folders eight inches high - his copy of the court record so far.  Another 1½ feet of paperwork forms the basis of his oral argument, defending the Planning Board's approval of a 9,000 seat expansion of the track.  The hundreds of pages - from a controversial sound study, transcripts of planning board meetings and newspaper stories - all boil down to two familiar issues, the same two that have dominated this case since it sped into the legal arena almost two years ago: noise and traffic.  Finally, on Wednesday, a Superior Court judge will listen to all
sides of the dispute and render a decision. When that decision will come is anyone's guess.  Optimists hope it will take a few days, while the more cautious anticipate that it could take up to two months.

"Imagine letting lawyers go loose for two years and not getting to the heart of the matter (with a trial). There's been a lot of back and forth correspondence, collecting of data," said Mayer of the firm Upton, Sanders and Smith. "It's a considerable amount of paper."

The case on Wednesday will be heard by Judge Kathleen McGuire. No jury will be seated.  Attorneys will not call any witnesses to the stand. They will simply give oral arguments.  All of the attorneys - those representing the town, the speedway, and the residents and businesses that filed the suit declined to discuss any part of the oral arguments.  All Mayer emphasized was that the case needed to remain focused on the impact the 9,000-seat expansion, which would bring total seating at the speedway to 91,000, would have on noise and traffic in the area and not veer off to the issue of traffic and noise problems the track may already create.

To that , Canterbury residents ans business owners, who filed suit on December 18, 1997, feel the Loudon Planning board did not do enough to weigh the potential impact of additional seating on noise and traffic, according to their attorney Scott Hogan of the law firm Baldwin, Callen, Hogan and Kidd but they also feel the issue is larger than just the 9,000 seats. The track, they contend, already causes too much noise.

Residents and business owners rallied  behind  that  stand  last December when results from a study conducted by the New Hampshire International Speedway zoomed into the legal dispute.  The study, which measured noise levels at such spots as Canterbury Shaker Village during races, concluded that a larger grandstand would not increase noise on surrounding communities. In fact, it suggested that 9,000 more bodies might help absorb the racket.  Residents dissected the study point by point, making an accusation that it did not include in a chart the highest sound readings in the village during the Busch North race in May 1997.

The speedway received some good news last Friday. State environmental officials approved a permit so additional parking can be built to accommodate extra seating, according to a report by The Associated Press. Concerns over disrupting wetlands held up earlier approval.  Track owners Bob and Gary Bahre will create eight more acres of wetlands on the property in exchange for the state withdrawing its demand they donate 25 other acres for conservation use.  Also part of the deal, the state dropped a provision that would have prohibited the track from receiving any future wetlands permits.

The track, once the 9,000 seat expansion dispute is resolved, wants to add even more seats that will raise capacity to 110,000.  Commissioner Bob Varney, in an interview with the Monitor last week  before  a  permit  was approved, said regardless of the outcome of the wetlands issue it would likely have no impact on Wednesday's court case.

"That's a separate- issue," he said.

As all sides gear up for their day in court, many concede it won't be their only appearance.  Regardless of the outcome, whichever side crosses the finish line last will likely file for an appeal.

"I can't imagine it will resolve everything," said Canterbury resident Hillary Nelson. "If it goes the way we want, I'm sure the New Hampshire (International) Speedway will appeal."

By the time Dale Jarrett took the final victory lap of the NASCAR® season, there was little excitement over his first championship.  Granted, the lap following a second place finish last Sunday came a week after Jarrett won the Winston Cup title and his post race ride around Atlanta Motor Speedway was more a celebration of consistency than anything else.

He won the championship with just four victories - only one after the halfway point of the season - and no poles but Jarrett isn't apologizing.

"If you told me that we were only going to win one race next year, but we could win the championship, I'd take that deal," Jarrett said. "The championship is what it's all about."

Jarrett's road to the top was paved with 24 top five finishes and 29 top tens in 34 races.  Those were numbers Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton and Bobby Labonte - all of whom won more often - were unable to match.

"You'd always like to win every week, but to say that we're disappointed we didn't get into victory lane more, no," Jarrett explained. "We did our jobs."

The others didn't do theirs as well.  Gordon won a season best seven races, but failed to finish seven times. Gambles he took to get back in the hunt didn't work.  Jarrett, who seized control of the championship chase a third of the way through the season, didn't have to take any chances.  Sometimes, he won by overcoming adversity. Jarrett proved he could do that early on.  The season began with a terrible day in which the two-time Daytona 500 champion got caught up in an accident and finished 37th in NASCAR's® premier race.

"Man, we were low after Daytona," Jarrett said. "You spend so much time preparing for that race in the offseason. You focus on it, and you want to get a really good start on the season and, bang, it's over and you're in a hole."

After the disastrous start, Jarrett immediately began the turnaround that enabled him to add a third family championship to the ones his father, Ned, won in the 1960's. Jarrett gives much of the credit to his crew.

"This team doesn't ever quit, never!" he said. "They just sucked it up and got it turned  around in a hurry"

HAMPTON,  GA - Bobby Labonte closed the NASCAR® season with a dominating victory yesterday in the NAPA 500, reasserting his mastery of the Atlanta Motor Speedway oval.  Labonte, who finished second in the Winston Cup standings to Dale Jarrett, won for the fourth time in his last seven starts at the track. It was his third victory since the 1.54-mile oval was redesigned midway through the 1997 season.

"What a way to end the year," Labonte said. "It's been a lot of fun. To end the year with five wins is just unbelievable."

Labonte's Pontiac pulled away at the end of the 325-lap race, finishing about half a  straightaway ahead of Jarrett, who passed Jeremy Mayfield for second place on the last lap.  It was the third straight victory for Joe Gibbs Racing, with Labonte adding this win to the two straight by rookie teammate Tony Stewart in Phoenix and Homestead, Florida.  Labonte, who started 37th in the 43-car field, didn't lead for the first time until lap 91.  From that point on, the younger of the two racing brothers from Texas was out front for a race-high 147 laps.  He took the lead for the final time during a restart on lap 290, roaring past Jeff Burton, who had beaten Labonte out of the pits on the last stop by the leaders. It
was no contest the rest of the way, as Labonte pulled steadily ahead, winning by 2.428 seconds.  Nobody had ever won a race at this track from farther back than 30th, a feat accomplished in 1983 by Dale Earnhardt, who started 36th and finished ninth yesterday.

"We did everything wrong this weekend, but the guys never gave up," Labonte said. "I didn't think we were that good. The last practice was not that good, but we made some changes this morning.  It was just a patience deal this weekend. I didn't get upset when we didn't qualify. We just made sure we had a good race car at the end."

Labonte wound up 201 points behind Jarrett, who wrapped up the title the previous Sunday in Homestead.

"Bobby's going to win his championship," Jarrett said. "He was the man here today, but he's the man at a lot of places."

Following the race, Jarrett was driven, along with his Robert Yates Racing team and his family, slowly around the track on the back of a float to the accolades of a crowd estimated at 145,000.

Asked what it feels like to be the champion, he said, "You sit and wonder what this is going to be like, and it's even better than what we thought it was going to be."

LOUDON, NH - NASCAR's network television deal to broadcast the Winston Cup Series and other races is expected to pump more than $12.5 million into the New Hampshire International Speedway, owner Bob Bahre said yesterday.  That's an $8 million increase over anticipated broadcast revenue for this year.

"The Winston Cup is big money," said Bahre. "Auto racing has taken off more than we thought it would. All along we thought it would be good but it's done better."

The $400 million deal, a joint effort among NBC Sports, FOX and Turner Sports, will, start in 2001. No longer will fans need to surf through dozens of channels to find their race. NASCAR. events will have a set TV schedule and a home.  FOX and NBC will rotate coverage of the Daytona 500, starting with FOX. The two networks will also split the racing coverage, FOX taking the first half of the season and NBC the last half. The majority of the Winston Cup races will air live on FOX or its sister network, FX. NBC will use a similar set-up, pairing off with TBS Superstation. The Winston Cup races at NHIS
will be part of the NBC partnership.  The television rights will bring in about $19.2 million for the two Winston Cup races at  NHIS. The  track will keep 65 percent, $12.5 million.  Twenty-five percent will go to drivers and 10 percent to the National Stock Car Auto Racing.

Vince Wladika, senior vice president of media relations for FOX, said auto racing is a sports success story of the 1990's. Ratings since 1995 have jumped by 17 percent.

"It's currently the No. 2 rated sport on television," said Wladika. "It trails only the NFL in average household ratings."

Commercials for Kellogg's Cornflakes, Home Depot and the Family Channel fill the airwaves during breaks in auto racing coverage, said Wladika, showing how the sport has broadened its appeal to the general public.

"People can identify with cars. The game is not complicated. Whoever goes around the track the fastest  wins,"   said  Wladika.  "NASCAR has done a great job of marketing themselves, and it's paid off."

The personalities and the stories of the drivers themselves, he said, have also fueled interest.  Paul Bennett, senior manager for public relations at Turner Sports sees the popularity of the sport accelerating well into the next millennium when networks promote the events and set a regular schedule of coverage.

"The more coverage of races on television,"  said  Bennett,  "will make people more interested in watching the event in person at the track."

Should that happen, Bahre said, he is confident that he will not lose any of the Winston Cup races he hosts to a larger track.

"We have a good market," he said, "the Boston market."

Boston is the sixth largest television market in the country.  In the meantime, plans are underway to add 9,000 seats to the 82,000 seat stadium on Route 106. The Loudon Planning Board has granted approval, but a legal challenge by Canterbury residents and the caretakers of Shaker Village, who are upset about traffic tie-ups and noise, is holding up construction. The case will go before a Superior Court judge on December 6.

"I think we've got a good shot," he said. "The planning board, I think, did everything right."

HAMPTON, GA - Once again, the season-ending NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway has been stripped of any drama.  Dale Jarrett already clinched his first Winston Cup championship, turning Sunday's NAPA 500 into nothing more than a 500-mile victory lap.

"I think there is a little more relief that it is over with," said Jarrett, who wrapped up the title with a fifth-place finish  in  Homestead, FL, last weekend. "I think the  feeling  of accomplishment hit me more than anything else."

For the second year in a row, the season championship was decided  before the final race in Atlanta. Jeff Gordon also clinched the 1998 points title in the next-to-last event.  Even so, Gordon kept driving hard and won the NAPA 500, tying the modern record with his 13th victory of the year.  Jarrett doesn't plan to let up, either.

"It would be nice going out as champions winning the race," he said. "It would be nice to have one big celebration in Atlanta."

Car owner Robert Yates looks forward to having Jarrett race for a victory rather than just guarding his lead in the standings.

"You know, chasing is sometimes a lot more fun," he said. "You can be a little more risky, but when you're trying to protect the lead and make all those decisions week after week, it wears on you. Boy, it's hard to stay up front."

There will be a few subplots in Sunday's race:

• Only two spots in the top 10 have been settled - Jarrett in first and Dale Earnhardt in seventh - so there could be some shuffling in the standings. The closest battle is for fifth, with Jeff Burton holding a mere two-point lead over Gordon.  An addendum to that duel: Burton is the only driver with a chance to tie Gordon for most victories this season.  Gordon, who has won seven times, is assured of setting a Winston Cup record by leading the circuit in victories five years in a row. Burton, with six victories, would share the top spot this season by winning in Atlanta.

• Ricky Rudd will make one more run at extending his active record of 16 consecutive years with at least one victory. He will run with an engine provided by Yates' team, a prelude of Rudd's move into the Number 28 car next season.

• Tony Stewart will try to add one more victory to his remarkable rookie year. Last weekend, he became  the  first  driver  of NASCAR's modern era to win three races in his initial season.  Fourth in the standings, he also needs to hold off Burton or Gordon to become the first rookie since James Hylton in 1966 to finish in the top five.

Jarrett has four victories, but his championship was a triumph of consistency.    He has been a top five finisher in 23 of 33 races and failed to complete only one event.

"Those guys didn't win all the races, but they did win enough and they finished in the top five a lot," said Bobby Labonte, who is second in the points. "That's what it takes."

Jarrett has led the standings since May 11, forcing the rest of the drivers to reassess their goals. Even last week, when Labonte still had a remote chance of winning the championship, he was more concerned with keeping what he had.

"I wasn't worried about catching (Jarrett) as much as outrunning the guys that are behind us in the points," said Labonte, who leads Mark Martin by a comfortable 98points. "I didn't want them catching us and I didn't want to get too overwhelmed and lose sight of them. I think that helped us out."

Labonte and Stewart, teammates with Joe Gibbs Racing, bumped near the end of the race in Homestead.  Stewart took the blame and called Labonte to apologize.

"I just wanted him to know that I realized I had made a mistake and it wasn't anything intentional. He knew that," Stewart said. "His feelings were as long as I learned something from it, that's all that mattered to him. We're ready to go"

HAMPTON, GA - Robert Yates had second thoughts about becoming a NASCAR team owner almost from the day Davey Allison talked him into it.

"There have been a lot of times when I wished I hadn't done it," said Yates, who in 1989 bought Harry Ranier's team, which included driver Allison. "There have been good times, but there have been some real sad ones, too."

The grief came after Allison's death in a helicopter crash in 1993 and replacement Ernie Irvan's near-fatal crash the next season.

"After both of those, I didn't know how I was going to go on," Yates said but his perseverance paid off.

He now has his first Winston Cup championship, courtesy of Dale Jarrett, who won the title last Sunday by finishing fifth at the Pennzoil 400 in Homestead, Fla.  Jarratt came aboard in 1995 as little more than a journeyman doing a one-year stint while Irving healed. Jarrett wanted his own team but couldn't get it started. So, when Robert Yates Racing expanded to a two-car operation in 1996, Jarrett stayed on.

For Yates, one of the great engine builders of the last two decades before buying the team he worked for, second thoughts gave way to second guessing. Jarrett had just one win in 1995.  Allison and Irving had won repeatedly in the same car.

"A lot of people couldn't figure out why I hired Dale," Yates said. "They said he wasn't good enough to take over the No. 28 for Davey and Ernie."

Although Jarrett won the pole in his first drive for Yates, 1995 didn't go well.  Fans of the No. 28, driven by many Hall of Famers throughout the years, were incensed over Jarrett's performance.  They booed him during a parade that May in Charlotte, NC.

"That, I guess, was the low point," Jarrett said. "There were a lot of people that thought Robert should have gotten somebody else." "They wanted Davey and Ernie."

Yates could understand that, and Jarrett's reaction to failure in one of sport's best cars. Jarrett had just 14 top-l0 finishes in 31 races in 1995, and wound up 13th in the points.

"It was probably a little hard for Dale to believe he couldn't get in that car and do some of the things he had seen Davey and Ernie do," Yates said but he takes the blame, saying the team fell behind on technology.

He said Jarrett, sensing the disastrous season was not entirely his fault, wanted changes.

"Dale was pushing for different chassis stuff and there were some times we struggled, when I got yelled at," Yates said. "The car just wasn't good but I don't think there was ever a day when I lost confidence in Dale Jarrett."

That turned out to be a good decision in 1996, when Jarrett moved to the newly formed No. 88 team after the return of Irvan. Yates took a gamble, giving Jarrett crew chief Todd Parrott.  Astoundingly, a second-string driver with a rookie calling the shots in the pits won the stock car racing's crown jewel - the Daytona 500 - the first time out of the garage.

"Robert believed in me, in this team," said Jarrett, whose father, Ned, won two NASCAR titles.  "He put me with Todd Parrott, a new crew chief, and a whole new team and let us grow together.  I'm glad we could give this gift to him."

For Yates, this has been a nerve-racking year, even with four victories, 23 top-fives and 28 top-l0's in 33 starts entering Sunday's season-ending NAPA AutoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Jarrett, who had finished third, second and third in points his three previous seasons in the No. 88 car, started 1999 as one of the favorites to win the title.  He took the lead for good on May 11, in the 11th of 34 races this season, and turned it into a virtual runaway by August. Still, Yates agonized.

"I haven't slept through many nights," he said.  "You would think after 30 years it would be just a normal business and you could eat before a race. Before my very first race at Darlington in 1967, I was a nervous wreck, and nothing much has changed.

"There were times this year when I wished somebody would knock me out and not wake me until we won the championship." Now, he says he's able to relax and enjoy the success.

"Except for being president of the United States, I guess this has got to be second best," Parrott said after Jarrett wrapped up the title.

"Actually, I think this is better," Yates said.

HOMESTEAD Fla - Ned Jarrett quietly worked his way off the stage, out of the noise and hoopla at
Homestead/Miami Speedway late Sunday afternoon. His son Dale had just clinched the NASCAR
Winston Cup championship, the champagne was still being sprayed into the crowd and Jarrett needed a
place to just smile.  After he descended, he was met by a throng of well-wishers, faces familiar and
foreign. The celebration with Jarrett's Robert Yates Racing team raged on behind, with Ned Jarrett clearly to the side.

"It's more special," he said, "than when I won championships."

Ned Jarrett won two titles back in 1961 and '65. Since then, he has watched his son struggle to make it to that level but Ned, a selfless soul, felt a strange twang in the midst of his pride during the ruckus.

"There was something he said to me last night, and I kind of feel bad that he even said it, but it really hit
home," Dale Jarrett said yesterday from his office outside Hickory. "He said, 'This is yours. Don't let me get in your way. I don't want to intrude on your championship.' "

Dale Jarrett would have nothing of it. In fact, no one on the Yates team, none of the people that work on the No. 88 Ford that won the title, could think things like that. The family connections in the Charlotte shops are strong and since Yates formed the team four years ago, adding if to the famous No. 28 car he already owned, the people have just grown tighter,and tighter.

"Robert Yates Racing is about family," said Todd Parrott, Jarrett's crew chief."It comes before racing.
(Yates) has his priorities in order, and I think that's one of the reasons why we've got such a strong team, because he takes care of his people. As hard as this sport    is, as much as we're gone from home, I the way he treats other families, and my family, he just treats them like one of  this."

The family ties on the team are everywhere. It only starts with the fact that Dale grew up first watching Ned race, then working at the speedway Ned ran. Parrott's father, Buddy, was a crew chief for years, a guy who worked with Yates in the 1970's and '80's and led some of NASCAR's most famous drivers, including Darrell Waltrip and Rusty Wallace. Parrott's brother, Brad, now works as a chassis specialist on Jarrett's team.  Yates, too, has passed his primary talent - engine building - on to his son, Doug and Doug Yates built the engines that didn't fail Jarrett once all year.  All of that helped everyone on the team understand what it would take to win not only races, but a title.

"My dad was out racing and I was home with my mom and my brother playing baseball and football,"
Parrott said. "I know what it was like not having Dad there but I knew he was working for a championship to make his family proud and I think I was able to return the favor."

The win also meant a lot of guys returning lots of favor to a lot of fathers.

"We have so many people that most people don't know about, guys whose dads worked in racing," Jarrett said. "It's kind of neat. Almost everyone on this team has some type of tie to racing through their families."

Dale Jarrett's tie to his father is merely the most public.

"He has to realize that he is a huge part of this," Jarrett said.

The pair partied and celebrated with Yates and the team and the rest of the families Sunday night at a
motor coach inside the track, then flew back to Hickory to find Dale's house decorated by friends and
neighbors.

HOMESTEAD  Fla. - New champion Dale Jarrett may have taught rookie Tony Stewart a lesson
yesterday, even though it was Stewart who won the inaugural Pennzoil 400.  Jarrett, knowing he had only to finish eighth or better to clinch his first Winston Cup title, drove to a solid fifth-place finish at Homestead/Miami Speedway.

"He did exactly what he had to do and he did it with class," the 28-year-old Stewart said of Jarrett,
who will turn 43 on November 26. "He's a great  person. You can learn a lot from somebody   like
that.  He' s been consistent, and that's  what wins championships. He deserves it."

Stewart stood in the spotlight following  his second straight win.  No other rookie has done in done in
NASCAR's 52-year history but he shared it easily with Jarrett.

"Fantastic!" Jarrett yelled after emerging from his No. 88 Ford. "I've just got to thank God for the
talent on this race team and putting me here with such great people." He stayed in the top 10 through-
out the 267-lap race and goes into the season finale next week in Atlanta 211 points ahead of runner-
up Bobby Labonte, with a maximum of 185 remaining.

Jarrett's  consistent  performance this season - four victories, 23 top fives and 28 top 10's in 33 starts -
gave Robert Yates his first title since he became a car owner in 1989.  Jarrett led the championship race from the 11th race, May 11 in Richmond, Va.

"We were running well, we were consistent and we weren't having any problems," he said. "That's
when I knew we were kind of in control of our own destiny and if we didn't mess up and do crazy things that this could happen."

Jarrett admitted it was hard for him to keep his emotions in check as the season stretched on and the
championship came within reach. When the checkered flag waved, it was not elation he felt at first.

"There was a little relief that we had done it, it was over with," Jarrett said. "I think the feeling of
accomplishment hit me more than anything."

After he got out of the car and celebrate with his team, the excitement grew.

"It's just incredible," he said. "It's better than I ever thought it was going to be."

Jarrett and his father, Ned, who won two series championships, join Lee and Richard Petty as the only
father-son combinations to win NASCAR titles.  The younger Jarrett, who was considered simply a
journeyman early in his career, blossomed into a star when he moved into the No. 88 car in 1996. He had finished third, second and third in the last three years.  Stewart and Labonte, mates at Joe Gibbs
operation, exchanged the lead several times in the late going. Labonte had dominated most of the way,
leading four times for 174 laps.  Stewart who led four times for 43 laps, is the first NASCAR driver to
win three races in his rookie season, breaking the mark of two set by the late Davey Allison in 1987.

The 28-year-old driver took the lead from Labonte on a pit stop on Lap 187 during the only caution of
the 400-mile race, which resulted from Ricky Rudd's blown engine.  Labonte wouldn't let his teammate
get away, passing him for the lead on Lap 200 in the battle of Pontiacs.  Stewart regained the top spot
with a pass on Lap 229.  The race then came down to the last pit stops, with Labonte making his stop for a splash of gas and two tires on lap 244 and Stewart doing the same four laps later.  As Stewart raced off pit lane and back on to the 10-mile oval near the exit of turn two, he came out alongside Labonte. The two ran side-by-side for a few agonizing moments. Then Stewart's car slid up the track and bumped his teammate, who slipped behind.

"I apologize to Bobby Labonte," Stewart said. "I made a rookie mistake and drove into him. I just went in there too hard and couldn't hold my line but I was trying to win the race."

Labonte, who saw any possible hopes of catching Jarrett in the points disappear with that pass, accepted the apology.

"I don't think it mattered," he said. "I wouldn't have beat him anyway. I couldn't figure out my tires
today. That was my fault."

Stewart moved in front for the final time on Lap 258. He took the lead when Mark Martin made his final stop and easily pulled away. He won by 5.289 seconds, nearly a full straightaway.  With only five laps under caution, Stewart's average speed was 140.335. He won $278,265.  His third victory of the season breaks the mark set in 1987 by the late Davey Allison, and his 12 top-five finishes is also a rookie best, topping the 11 by Dale Earnhardt in 1979.  The victory also solidified Stewart's hold on fourth place in the points - a finish which would be the best by a first-year driver in NASCAR's modern era dating to 1972.

Jeff Burton finished third, followed by Martin, Jarrett, Mike Skinner and Kyle Petty, the only other
drivers on the lead lap at the end.

HOMESTEAD, Fla - Bobby Labonte has nothing to lose in Sunday's inaugural Pennzoil 400 at
Homestead-Miami Speedway.  The runner-up in the Winston Cup championship trails Dale Jarrett by 231 points and has only a slim mathematical chance to make a race out of it with only two races remaining.  Jarrett, who has finished eighth or better in all but six of the 32 races this season, needs only to do it again Sunday to clinch his first series title.

"Mathematically, we're not out of it, but it would be hard for me to believe that Dale Jarrett is going to finish worse than eighth this weekend," Labonte said.

Labonte, who drives a Pontiac for Joe Gibbs Racing, just won't go away.

"Even if we can't win the championship, we would like to win the inaugural event," he said.

Since the nearly-flat, 1½-mile Homestead oval is new to the Winston Cup circuit, NASCAR gave its competitors a rare Thursday practice session to gain some familiarity and comfort.  Labonte was the fastest in the five-hour practice, turning a lap at 154.145 mph.

"I like flat tracks and we've had some success on them," Labonte said. "This track has a lot of different  characteristics, though. It's got long corners, not  like anywhere  else we go.  We changed just about everything from when we tested here. I had one fast lap and never had anybody else out there in the same corner as me, but J think it's going to be a good racetrack.  It's just going to take a while to widen the groove so we can do some passing."

Two other Pontiac drivers, Ward Burton at 153.592 and John Andretti  at  153,  were  close behind Labonte, followed by Ford drivers Rick Mast at 153.248 and Rusty Wallace at 153.178.

"It's going to be a challenging track because it's so different from any other place we race," Wallace said. "Unlike when we've been to other new tracks where you could use a chassis baseline from another track, that's not the case here."

The only Chevrolet driver in the top 10, Geoff Bodine, was sixth at 153.152, reawakening complaints  by  Monte Carlo drivers that they are at an aerodynamic disadvantage to the other makes on tracks like Homestead.

"It's not an even playing field," said Dale Earnhardt, whose Chevy was 37th among the 48 cars that took laps around the track yesterday. "Maybe the new (2000) Monte Carlo will make a big difference, but NASCAR may have to do something to keep everybody competitive."

Among other notables who participated in the opening practice, Jarrett was 10th at 152.616, while Mark Martin was 12th at 152.538 and three-time series champion Jeff Gordon, who has won three of the last five inaugural events in Winston Cup, was 15th at 152.456.  Jarrett and Martin drive Fords and Gordon a Chevrolet.

PHOENIX - The championship chase is really no contest any longer, unless Dale Jarrett forgets how he got around the track for the first 3l races of the season.  All he has to do to assure himself of his first Winston Cup title is finish 13th or better in each of the last three events on the schedule.

Jarrett will go into the Checker Auto Parts/Dura Lube 500K at Phoenix International Raceway on
Sunday holding a 246 point lead over runner-up Bobby Labonte and 319 over Mark Martin, the only drivers with any chance to catch him.  In fact, under the right circumstances, Jarrett, the son of two-time series champion Ned Jarrett, could wrap up the title in this 500 kilometer event. He would have to gain 126 points on Labonte and 53 on Martin, meaning the challengers would have to have a terrible race.  It could happen simply because Jarrett isn't ready to starting driving defensively to protect his lead.

"Our: job is to try and win the race," he said. "Certainly, we know we have a nice lead, but we want to win and we know that if we do win the race, then we're not going to lose any points to anybody.  We're more intent on trying to run up front and make it more difficult for those guys than just doing what we have to do to get by."

The 42-year-old driver has seen both  ends of the  spectrum in Phoenix the past two years.  He won here in 1997, coming from nearly a lap down to dominate the late stages of the race. Then, in 1998, Jarrett came to Phoenix feeling ill. He was diagnosed with gallstones and Michael Waltrip replaced him. Waltrip finished 32nd.  That kind of a race could put Labonte and Martin back into the title picture, but Jimmy Makar, Labonte's crew chief and Jarrett's brother-in-law and former crew chief, said he doesn't believe in wishing bad luck to anyone.

"Those guys have worked hard through the years, and they've put themselves in that position," Makar said. "If they do continue on and win the championship, then it will be well deserved.  It's much more gratifying to know you beat guys' heads up racing against them instead of them having a series of problems that took them out of the race. It's a little less gratifying that way, but obviously, you take it anyway you can get it."

Makar indicated Labonte won't be doing anything different on Sunday, either saying, "The only thing we can do is what we've tried to do all year long, go out and win races, lead races, and get the points we can get.  If we go home knowing we did all we could do, that's all there is for us to do."

Although they probably have no real shot at the $2 million prize for winning the championship, Makar pointed out his team is still racing with Martin second place, which is worth $630,000, $290,000 more than third.

"We obviously don't want to do anything stupid to jeopardize our position as far as second place in points," he said.

Martin, a three time series runner-up, has finished in the top 10 in nine of the 11 races on the nearly flat, one mile desert oval.

"It's not a track that is one of my favorites since it is so flat, but I can run well here," Martin said. "As long as I don't see any snakes or spiders, and have a good enough finish to gain some points on Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte, it will be a successful trip."

PHOENIX, AZ - Jeff Burton expected to be in the middle   of a championship race right now.  He isn't, but he and the rest of his Roush Racing team are finishing up what most organizations in NASCAR® would consider a great season.  He has a career high six wins, yet is a disappointing
sixth in the Winston Cup standings heading into the Dura Lube 500 on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway.

Team owner Jack Roush isn't analyzing results, though. He's looking ahead, and figures that 2000 could be the year Burton and crew chief Frank Stoddard give him his first championship.

"This has been a year that Frankie Stoddard and Jeff Burton came of age," said Roush, whose team fields Fords for five Winston Cup drivers, including Mark Martin.

Mechanical trouble and other problems kept Burton's team from establishing a foothold near the top of the standings, Roush says. He doesn't figure it will happen again.

"I look forward to going into the first year of the millennium and being able to enjoy a run at the championship, which, by all rights, they should be having now," Roush said.

Stoddard, completing his second year as crew chief for his old friend, understands the setbacks and takes them in stride.

"Nobody gives you anything in this sport," he said. "You have to earn it. So it's no good to say that we should be ' doing this or doing that by now. You just have to go out and do it."

Having said that, though, does Stoddard believe the team is ready to make a title run?

"You bet," he said, smiling. "We've got the best driver out there, a great crew, great equipment but you have to have a lot of consistency and some luck, too. You've got to avoid the kind of problems we've had at times this season."

Burton got his first three career victories in 1997 and finished fourth in points under Buddy Parrott, who then became team manager for Burton and Martin.  Stoddard succeeded Parrott, one of the great crew chiefs in NASCAR® history, but the performance didn't fall off much. Burton won twice last year, and wound up fifth in the points.  Martin expected his teammate to be part of the championship fight in 1999. They are extremely close, sharing the same race shop.

"You know," Martin said, pursing his lips and shaking his head, "there isn't any reason other than luck that a team like the 99 isn't in the championship race.  I don't know if I'll ever win a championship but I expect Jeff Burton to win more than one. Those guys have what it takes."

Martin is third this year behind Dale Jarrett and Bobby Labonte. Last year, he finished second for the third time in his career.  Still, he would love another shot at it, and the car number of his principal opponent won't make any difference.

"What I would love to see is for the 6 and the 99 to go right down to the end next year, fighting for the championship," Martin said. "I'd be happy if he won and I'd be happy if I won. Wouldn't that be great?"

It could happen but Burton, coming off a victory two weeks ago in Rockingham, N.C. and second only to Jeff Gordon in wins this year, has more work to do with three races remaining this season.

"First, we have to try to get a couple more wins to keep the momentum going and to make everybody feel good going into the off season," he said. "After that, I know Frankie and the rest of the guys on our team are going to do everything they can to get ready for 2000."

Burton expects the team to continue to improve, and he's excited about the new Ford he'll drive next year.  Excited enough to expect even a better run at his first championship?

"What kind of a driver and a team player would I be if I didn't think we had a good chance to win the championship going into every season?" he asked.