Dale Jarrett's 42 rivals in the Coca-Cola 600 never really had much of a chance.
"That's the best car that I've ever had - anywhere, anytime," Jarrett said after he put on a dominating display in NASCAR's longest race and put himself one victory closer to a $1 million payday.Sunday night's victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway means Jarrett becomes the fourth driver to ever have a chance at the Winston Select Million. The bonus goes to any driver who wins three of the sport's four jewels in a year.
Jarrett, who won the season-opening Daytona 500 and finished second in the Winston Select 500, can claim the bonus with a victory in the Southern 500 on Sept. 1 at Darlington, S.C.
Bill Elliott in 1985 became the only driver to go to Darlington and win the bonus. Darrell Waltrip failed in 1989, as did the late Davey Allison in 1992.
Jarrett likes his chances of cashing in at Darlington, especially considering the car he plans to use.
It's the same Ford Thunderbird he drove Sunday night, when he led 199 of the 400 laps on Charlotte's 1.5-mile trioval and wound up 11.98 seconds - more than one-third of a lap - ahead of Dale Earnhardt.
The car kept Jarrett up front for almost the entire second half of Charlotte's 600-mile race, the longest on the Winston Cup circuit. Jarrett led the final 62 laps, building his lead to more than one-half lap before carefully cruising through traffic over the final 10 laps.
"I'd like to take a lot of the credit, but a lot of people could have taken this car tonight and done well," Jarrett said. "The car was just terrific."
Earnhardt was impressed.
"Our car was about perfect," he said. "We were outclassed."
Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon were the only other drivers on the lead lap at the end.
As dominant as Jarrett was, he couldn't make a major cut into Earnhardt's lead in the season standings. Earnhardt came to Charlotte with a 115-point lead over Jarrett and left with a 105-point edge.
"We've got a lot of races between now and Darlington. Our biggest goal this year is to try and win the championship," Jarrett said. "I think I'm correct in saying that Earnhardt's finished in the top five in nine of 11 races. We're going to have to win to catch him at that rate."
Jarrett's second victory of the season and sixth of his career came on a night when Fords found a measure of parity, taking five of the top 10 spots.