Sharing the Wealth in Winston Cup

FONTANA — Nine Winston Cup races, nine winners.

Will there be a 10th today in the NAPA Auto Parts 500 at California Speedway, or will one of the nine become the first repeat winner of 2000?

More than 110,000 stock car racing fans are expected to be on hand to learn the answer.

There are plenty of candidates for a 10th winner. Eight of the 10 fastest qualifiers have not won this year, including the front-row pair of Mike Skinner, in a Chevrolet, and Jimmy Spencer, in a Ford.

Skinner has never won and Spencer, known as “Mr. Excitement” for his devil-may-care style of driving, has not won a Winston Cup race since 1994. Spencer doesn’t believe it’s likely that he--or anyone else--will become winner No. 10 today.

“California Speedway is the kind of race track that tends to favor drivers who have won here before, or drivers who have been winners this year,” he said.

Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin are the only former winners of the NAPA race, while the list of winners this year includes those two as well as Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt, Ward Burton, Rusty Wallace and a rookie, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“I would love to be the 10th straight winner,” Spencer said, “but on this track you need a lot of horsepower to go 180 [mph] through the corners, and you need fast pit stops. That sort of scenario favors the 88 [Jarrett] and the 24 [Gordon] cars.”

Not everyone wants a 10th consecutive winner.

“Not having a dominant winner is not good for the sport,” said Darrell Waltrip, a three-time Winston Cup champion and Spencer’s K Mart teammate. “It’s like golf. Before Tiger [Woods], there was a different winner each week and you hard people ask, ‘Who are these guys?’

“It’s the same for us. We need good guys and bad guys. We need a dominator, someone who people either love or hate, but always watch. Every sport needs big names to sustain interest. Basketball ratings have been hurting since Michael Jordan retired.

“I think it hurt our TV ratings when Jeff Gordon quit winning so much. He was one of those guys everyone had an opinion of and when he wasn’t a contender, a lot of people tuned out.”

Waltrip, 53, surprised even himself when he qualified seventh in a Monte Carlo similar to Spencer’s.

Asked if he could be No. 10, old DW’s eyes brightened at the thought. “This track is good for me,” he said. “It’s tough, you have to be able to run hard all day and not break. If we’re around the leaders with 30 laps to go, yes, I think we could have a chance.”

Ah, what optimism. The last time Waltrip saw a checkered flag was Sept. 6, 1992, at Darlington, S.C. That was 231 races ago.

Gordon, after winning three championships before he was 28, failed to win in 13 consecutive races before breaking through two weeks ago at Talladega, Ala.

“Talladega was a great confidence-builder for the team,” said Gordon, the defending champion today. “We wanted to get to victory lane, and we got there. You look at how competitive it is this year, and it’s just unbelievable. Just to get to victory lane in the first nine races is pretty special for anybody.”

Gordon will start 26th today, his second-worst position this season. However, the worst was Talladega, where he was 35th, but that was the race he won.

Skinner, winless in four Winston Cup seasons while driving for Richard Childress, also Earnhardt’s car owner, is concerned that his race car might not be as sound as his car was in qualifying trim. His track-record lap of 186.061 mph Friday put him on the pole.

“The main thing is to get the car handling real well and the rest of it kind of takes care of itself,” he said. “I never thought I’d be this far in my Winston Cup career without winning a points race. This is a very, very humbling sport. It’s very tough here. It’s just an honor to be able to be competitive.”

Every lap Skinner runs and leads raises funds for Red Cross Disaster Relief. With Skinner driving the No. 31 Lowe’s Monte Carlo, the sponsor will pay $31 for every lap Skinner runs and $1,031 for every lap he leads. In four races, he has raised $42,620.

In Saturday’s final hour’s practice, Skinner was third-quickest behind Jeremy Mayfield and Dale Earnhardt Jr. as teams made their final adjustments before today’s 11 a.m. start.

If there was a favorite for a non-winner to become No. 10, it would probably be Ricky Rudd in the No. 28 car, sitting in the second row.

“I’m confident that we’ve got a car that’s capable of winning,” said Rudd, who gave up being an independent owner-driver to join Robert Yates’ team this season. “It’s great that we came here and we’re up front and starting third, but there is no guarantee that because you qualify well you’re going to race well. I wish that was the case, and it was maybe five or six years ago or even three years ago, but now the setups have become so unique just to qualify.”

Rudd has won 20 Cup races and before being blanked last year had a record of winning at least one race in 16 consecutive years.

Two-time champion Terry Labonte is starting far back, in 34th place, sandwiched between Jarrett and the elder Earnhardt, but his record at California Speedway indicates he could be a factor even though no Fontana winner has come from farther back than fifth.

Labonte and Gordon are the only two drivers who have completed all 750 laps run in the first three California Speedway stock car races. In 1997 he lost to Gordon by only one second after leading 41 laps. Two years ago he finished third behind Martin and Jeremy Mayfield.

“We’ll be OK for the race, I hope,” Labonte said. “This is the same car we won the pole with at Texas. We thought we’d be in pretty good shape with it out here, but we just got a little too tight.”

When Labonte takes the green flag, it will be his 646th consecutive NASCAR race, dating to the season opener in 1979 at Riverside International Raceway.

TODAY’S RACE

* What: NAPA Auto Parts 500

* Where: California Speedway

* When:

11 a.m.

* Television: Channel 7