Even a sour note at the end couldn't keep Jeff Gordon from savoring the sweetness of his first Winston Cup championship.
"Yeah, I'd rather have finished with a win," the 24-year-old driver said after wrapping up the title despite finishing 32nd in Sunday's season-ending NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway."This is not the way we wanted to end it, but we wanted to end it as the champion, and we did that. I'm just elated," Gordon added. "... For me to be the Winston Cup champion is more than I even know how to comprehend. I'm so excited, I don't know what to do or say."
Series runner-up Dale Earnhardt, who chopped a deficit of 305 points to just 34 in the final five races of the 31-race season, had no such problem. Earnhardt, 44, sent a message to the driver he calls "Wonder Boy," trampling the field by leading 268 of the 328 laps on the 1.5-mile oval.
Taking a shot at the youngster, Earnhardt said, "I guess milk will be flowing in New York (at the awards banquet Dec. 1) instead of champagne."
Then he tempered his crack.
"But he'll be up there drinking that milk at the front table," he said.
Earnhardt was trying to become the first driver to win eight Winston Cup titles. He and the retired Richard Petty have seven apiece.
This was his record-tying seventh victory at Atlanta, his fifth of the season and 68th of his career. Asked if that made a statement for next season, Earnhardt said "Hell, it made a statement for today, I'd say. Yeah, we're looking forward to next year.
"I would say I have several more years of racing left," he added. "We're going to go out there and try to win (championship) No. 8 next year. And maybe we'll even win the Daytona 500."
Meanwhile, Gordon had one of his most frustrating races of the season, struggling with handling and finishing 14 laps behind Earnhardt's black No. 3.
It didn't matter, though. The championship he had put himself on the brink of with season-long consistency officially became Gordon's when he led a lap early in the race.
Gordon came into the event leading runner-up Earnhardt by 147 points and needed only to finish 41st or better in the 42-car field, or to lead at least one lap, to become the second youngest driver to win the Winston Cup title in NASCAR's 47-year history. The only younger driver was Bill Rexford, 23, in 1950.
"I have no idea what happened today," Gordon said. "We weren't that great in practice yesterday and we tried some things and I honestly felt like something broke. I couldn't figure out what was going on.
"It was loose, loose, loose. I was about to spin out every lap. I wanted to be here for this celebration, so I just tried to keep it going in a straight line.
"It wasn't a great day, but it's been a great year. I can't believe magnitude of this sport. I never thought it would ever happen to me."
Gordon took the lead during a series of green-flag pit stops, following radio instructions from the Hendrick Motorsports team to stay out longer than the other leaders. He moved to the front when Sterling Marlin drove to the pits.
Ray Evernham, Gordon's crew chief, told his driver: "That's it! That's it! That's the championship. Pit! Pit! Pit!"
The multi-hued No. 24 car rolled into the pits the next time around the oval just as a banner proclaiming Gordon's championship was unfurled over the team's pit stall.
The title comes with a $1.3 million bonus from series sponsor R.J. Reynolds and close to another $1 million from the series point fund, making Gordon the first driver to earn more than $4 million in a single season.
It is also the first championship for team owner Rick Hendrick, who also fields Chevrolet Monte Carlos for Terry Labonte and Ken Schrader.
Marlin, who began the season by winning the Daytona 500 for the second straight year, finished strong, taking second place Sunday. Rusty Wallace was third, followed by Bill Elliott, Ward Burton and Jimmy Spencer.
Ernie Irvan, well into his comeback from nearly fatal injuries in 1994, had another strong run, falling out of the top five with six laps to go when he had to pit for gas. He wound up a lap off the pace in seventh.
There were only two caution flags for a total of 11 laps as Earnhardt averaged a track record 163.632 mph, breaking his own mark of 156.849 set in the March race in 1990. He beat Marlin by 3.74 seconds, about a quarter of the track.