1998: 'Incredible' victory for Martin as Gordon falters

Jeff Gordon rarely makes a miscue. But he handed certain victory in the 1998 Winston to Mark Martin because of a tactical blunder.

Using pit strategy to grab the lead between the second and third segments, Gordon appeared headed for his third The Winston victory in four seasons. But as the field took the green flag to begin the final 10-lap shootout, NASCAR officials ruled that Gordon jumped the restart. And the extra laps needed to reset the field were just enough to cause Gordon's car to run out of fuel on the final lap.

Martin

As the No. 24 Chevrolet's engine went quiet and his car began slowing, Martin's No. 6 Ford roared by in Turn 1, followed by the rest of the field.

"It's a tough break for those guys," Martin said. "They deserved to win it, but we'll take it.

"They had it won. We lucked out. I don't think that we would have ever caught them, but that doesn't matter."

When Gordon began to slow, Martin was incredulous.

"The first thing I thought was, 'He's going to let me catch up so we can put on a show,' " Martin said. "That would never happen, but what other logical thing could shoot through your mind? When he never started going again, I couldn't believe it."

Martin, celebrating his first The Winston victory, was nothing but complimentary about where his career has taken him.

"This is pretty incredible," he said. "I'm so blessed with the career that I have, the success I've had in the past and really with what I have going on right now. It's just priceless.

"I've never dreamed in my lifetime that I'd be working with a race team that feels like this right now. The high of my life is to go to the racetrack and be with my guys or to go to my race shop right now."

While Martin, who dominated the second segment, took four tires, Gordon and four other cars went with two -- and thought they had just enough gas in the car to go the distance. It turned out they miscalculated by the distance it took following Gordon's hasty start.

"At the white flag we started sputtering, and there was nothing I could do," he said. "Everyone did a great job. We just ran out of gas."

Instead of taking the checkered flag, Gordon rolled his car directly to the garage area, where he went directly to his hauler and pondered what might have led to his 12th-place finish.

"It's pretty embarrassing," Gordon said. "There's nothing more disappointing than when you do something like this.

"No one is going to be harder on themselves than these guys and this entire team. I make mistakes out there on the race track and nobody gets on me. We're all disappointed right now."

Gordon led twice for 36 laps and Martin led all 30 laps in the second segment -- and the final one in the shootout. Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Jeff Burton and Rusty Wallace rounded out the top five.

All-Star Race

SPEED will again broadcast the Sprint Showdown and All-Star Race. Tune in at 7 p.m. ET on May 17 to watch rivals race for $1 million -- and the fireworks!

• All-Star coverage

Attrition, mainly the result of two multi-car accidents, sidelined eight of the original 20 starters.

Dale Earnhardt wound up making a trip to the hospital for precautionary X-rays after being involved in a three-car accident set off when Darrell Waltrip -- subbing for the injured Steve Park in a DEI car -- lost an engine directly in front of Earnhardt and John Andretti, who slammed hard into the outside retaining wall after spinning in the fluid.

Earnhardt climbed out of his car and walked to the ambulance, slumped over and clearly in pain as he clutched his side. X-rays of Earnhardt's ribs were negative.

Waltrip also was involved in the first caution of the night. On Lap 3, he made contact with Ernie Irvan in Turn 2, sending Irvan spinning into the wall and out of the race.

Rookie Kenny Irwin lost control on Lap 31, and as Terry Labonte slowed to avoid the spinning car, Ricky Rudd rammed him from behind, sending Labonte out of control. His car slammed rear end first into a concrete barrier, rupturing the fuel cell and engulfing the Texan in flames. Labonte quickly unbuckled his belts, was able to release the window net and scrambled out unhurt.

"I was going to drive it in until it caught on fire," he said. "So I thought I better get out."

• 1988 Winston | 1988 Open | 1993 Winston | 1998 Winston | 2003 Winston