A bad day in the pits forced Ricky Rudd into a late gamble Sunday in the AC-Delco 400 at North Carolina Motor Speedway.
He remained on the track while the other leaders made a final pit stop, and the decision helped him extend a streak with his first victory of the season.The win, his first since Oct. 29, 1995 at Phoenix, extended Rudd's string of consecutive seasons with at least one victory to 14 - second among active drivers to Dale Earnhardt's 15.
The victory last year at Phoenix came in Rudd's next-to-last chance to extend his streak. This time, he drove his Ford to victory in the 29th of 31 Winston Cup races.
Rudd led 81 laps, including the final 74, and beat the Ford of Dale Jarrett to the finish line by 3.39-seconds - nearly a full straightaway on the 1.017-mile oval.
"In that last caution, we only had 12 or 13 laps on the tires, and I knew we had to have track position," said owner-driver Rudd.
The runner-up spot was a big disappointment to Jarrett, the pole-winner, who led 207 of 393 laps. But he lost the lead to Rudd when he pitted on lap 320 during the last of seven caution periods.
"We were actually as good as Jarrett, but we just had a bad day in the pits," Rudd explained. "We'd be second or third on the track, come into the pits and come out 13th. We had lug nuts falling off, all kinds of stuff. Everybody has a bad day, and my guys had one Sunday."
Terry Labonte never led, but finished third in his Chevrolet to wrest the series lead from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, who fell behind with an early handling problem. Gordon finished 12th, and fell from a one-point lead to a 32-point deficit. Jarrett remained third, moving within 76 points of the lead.
"The guys worked on the car all day and never got it quite right," Labonte said. "But that was a good third place, and I'm happy we're in the lead.
"I guess Jeff had a problem with a set of tires early in the race, but he'll be tough next week at Phoenix."
Rudd, who won $90,025, averaged 122.320 mph on the way to his 17th career victory and first at Rockingham.