MARTINSVILLE, Va., Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Ricky Craven, in a career that appeared to be over just last year, finally is a winner as he was able to hold off Dale Jarrett in a side-by side finish Monday and claim his first career NASCAR Winston Cup victory in the Old Dominion 500.
The race was scheduled for Sunday but was postponed by rain.
Craven had pulled away from the field on a restart 16 laps from the finish and edged Jarrett by 0.141 seconds in the final short-track race of the Winston Cup season.
While others were too busy beating and banging each other, Craven was able to keep his cool and used a four-tire pit stop with 53 laps left to fine-tune his Ford.
"I worked all of my life to hear someone say that," he said. "I have to admit, the last couple of years, I wasn't sure I would ever get that chance. It's one of the toughest tracks on the circuit and I want to thank Dale Jarrett for being such an awesome gentleman.
"Thank God for all the people who helped me get here. It got rough, but that's the window of opportunity we needed. I'm tougher today than I was two years ago. This gives us a lot to be thankful for."
Craven drove to victory at an average speed of 75.746 miles per hour after leading three times for 94 laps--the most of any driver in the race.
It also was the first career win for team owner Cal Wells, a longtime competitor in off-road racing and a former CART team owner. He scored his first win in that series in 2000 with Cristiano da Matta winning the Target Grand Prix at Chicago Motor Speedway.
"It's great to do it in Martinsville," Wells said. "This, Darlington and a few others are the bastions of NASCAR racing, and this is the only race that has been on the schedule for over 50 years."
Jarrett closed within one car length with two laps remaining when he tried to beat Craven on the outside of the second turn, setting up a side-by-side battle that thrilled the crowd.
"It was exciting," Jarrett said. "Ricky did a great job there. I thought I might have something for him. He did a great job. I thought I had my tires cleaned off good on that start. I started catching him. I wasn't going to spin him out. I had a good run on the outside and I thought I would give it a try. He did what he was supposed to do by running up high.
"Ricky Craven is a great guy and it's great that he is a Winston Cup winner now."
Ward Burton was third in a Dodge followed by defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte and Jeff Burton.
Despite starting 42nd in the 43-car field, Kevin Harvick was able to drive to the front in the late stages of the race.
It was a good run for Harvick, who had no practice time in his Chevrolet because of his commitment in the Sam's Town 300 Busch race at Memphis, Tennessee.
Harvick qualified his Busch car on Friday while Rick Mast qualified the Winston Cup car that day. But the Busch race was rained out Saturday and moved to Sunday.
Had this race been run as planned, Mast would have driven instead of Harvick, who is the Busch Series leader.
A key moment in the race came during the final pit stops on lap 447 with the field under caution after Joe Nemechek spun coming out of the second turn.
Kenny Wallace and Jerry Nadeau also were involved in the crash on lap 445.
Bobby Hamilton Jr. was the leader and pitted for two tires while Jarrett stopped for four. Craven also got two new tires but Harvick and Johnny Benson Jr. skipped the pit stop in order to gain track position. Benson was in the lead when the green flag waved on lap 451.
Harvick dove under Benson entering the first turn and finally was able to take the lead coming out of Turn 4 on lap 452. But on lap 473, Hamilton bumped Harvick out of the way in the second turn going down the backstretch.
By the time the leaders got to the fourth turn, Harvick ran into the back of Hamilton, spinning him around to bring out the yellow flag on lap 473.
Harvick was penalized one lap by NASCAR for rough driving, much to the objection of team owner Richard Childress.
"I don't know what that's for," Childress said. "NASCAR is just in a different world. That's all I can say."
The green flag flew on lap 484 with Craven leading Jarrett, Burton, Labonte and Benson. Craven was able to get a good start to pull away from Jarrett's Ford and hold on for the win.
