| | Associated Press
LONG POND, Pa. -- Just when it looked like Jeremy Mayfield was going to pull off a summer sweep at Pocono International Raceway, his run in the Pennsylvania 500 ended with a bang.
A little more than a mile from the end, with eventual winner Rusty Wallace and Jeff Burton letting him get away by racing side by side, Mayfield's right front tire exploded.
Asked what he said to his team on the radio, Mayfield laughed.
"You don't want to know," he said after a 10th-place finish.
Mayfield took the Pocono 500 last month when he nudged aside Dale Earnhardt on the final lap, so he felt like a little bad luck might be appropriate.
But, after a week off, Mayfield will be a confident driver when
he goes to Indianapolis for the Brickyard 400.
"This will be the car we take, so it should be a good one," he said of his Ford.
Earnhardt also unlucky
Dale Earnhardt, back at the site of
perhaps the greatest humiliation of his career, was again a force
Sunday in the Pennsylvania 500.
The seven-time Winston Cup champion was leading on the final lap
of the Pocono 500 last month when Jeremy Mayfield nudged him and
went on to win. Ironically, both were eliminated from contention by
blown tires.
Earnhardt's blowout relegated him to a 25th-place finish and cost him second spot in the standings. He now trails leader Bobby Labonte by 107 points and series champion Dale Jarrett by 54 after 19 of 34 races.
"That was one of our biggest worries, taking a hit in the
points," said The Intimidator, who is seeking an unprecedented
eighth series title. "We were running too good to have that kind
of day."
Profitable day
Bobby Labonte was hoping for a return to the winner's circle for the first time in five months, but finished sixth Sunday in the Pennsylvania 500.
The victory enabled the 36-year-old driver from Corpus Christi,
Texas, to increase his lead in the Winston Cup standings from 45
points over Dale Earnhardt to 53 over Dale Jarrett.
"Every little bit counts," said Labonte, who has been atop the
standings after all but three of the first 19 races, but has not
won since Feb. 27 in Rockingham, N.C.
Last year, Labonte won both races on the mountaintop for the first sweep on the 2{-mile triangular track in 13 years. Last month, he struggled to a 13th-place finish after a problem with the exhaust system slowed his Pontiac in the Pocono 500.
Bad decision
Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett, hoping to end a 17-race drought with his first victory since opening day, had the strongest car in the Pennsylvania 500. He led 73 laps -- 24 more than winner Rusty Wallace.
But a decision to take four tires when the other leaders were
taking two on a late-race pit stop proved his undoing. Despite
that, he rallied to finish fourth Sunday.
"We thought more than that would take four and we wouldn't be
so far back," Jarrett said of the decision that cost him valuable
track position. "It might have been OK if that last set hadn't
been so tight."
Still, Jarrett moved up a spot to second in the standings, and
trails points leader Bobby Labonte by just 53 with 15 of 34 races
remaining.
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