Monday, Nov. 9, 1998 | 10:48 a.m.
The time-worn axiom "Rubbin' is Racin'" apparently doesn't apply on the final lap of a race when a championship is on the line.
At least it doesn't in Jack Sprague's racing manual.
Sprague lost the 1998 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship by three points to Ron Hornaday following a last-lap bump-and-grind with series rookie Greg Biffle in Sunday's Sam's Town 250 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Sprague won the race, but his tangle with Biffle allowed Hornaday to pass Biffle for second place and clinch his second NCTS championship in three years. As a result, Sprague was in no mood to celebrate his second win in three races at LVMS.
"I could swallow it better, I think, if it was done right, but there was a little lack of class involved in this one," Sprague said of the final-lap incident with Biffle. "That's nothing against Ron by any means -- if I was Ron, I'd take advantage of the same situation.
"There will come a day when (Biffle) might be in the same position and he will have to remember the things he pulled. He doesn't have a lot of friends as it is and he's not making any more."
The 167-lap season finale was extended by two laps when Las Vegan Brendan Gaughan crashed into the wall in turn two on lap 165. The caution period set up a two-lap sprint to the checkered flag with Biffle leading, Sprague in second, Joe Ruttman third and Hornaday fourth.
As the leaders crossed the start/finish line and took the white flag on lap 169, Sprague passed Biffle for the lead and the two trucks made contact. Sprague was able to break away from Biffle, who dropped off the pace with front-end damage.
At the same time Sprague and Biffle were trading paint, Hornaday was passing Ruttman for third and was able to run down a slowing Biffle and take second -- exactly where he had to finish to win the championship if Sprague won the race.
As is the case with most racing incidents, Sprague and Biffle disagreed on who was to blame.
"We were dicing it out those last laps and we had a better truck than he did," Biffle said. "He was trying to get the air off me, I got down in the corner and he got his nose underneath me.
"He had a clean pass on me coming off the corner there but he just didn't want to run down along the bottom of the race track like we did for 165 laps. He wanted to run me out in the fuzz a little bit.
"It's just racing. It's the white-flag lap (and) anything goes, you know? If he says I intentionally got into him, we won't do that."
Hornaday, the 40-year-old former Southwest Tour regular who led Sprague by 13 point going into Sunday's race, may have had the best view of the incident between Sprague and Biffle, who clinched rookie of the year honors with his fifth-place finish.
"I don't know whether to thank him or congratulate him," Hornaday said of Biffle. "He raced Jack hard and when Jack went to come up, he didn't give him room and that's what it took to give us momentum to get back into the race.
"If (Biffle) didn't win, I definitely wanted to see him go back to third, that's for sure."
Shortly after Biffle and Sprague got together, Biffle and Ruttman tangled, allowing Jimmy Hensley to finish third. Jay Sauter took fourth and Ruttman, last year's race winner, wound up seventh.
The race was slowed by five caution periods for 17 laps, but Sprague was able to average a race-record 130.801 mph. Gaughan's was the only accident of the race and he walked away from from the incident without injury.
Hornaday, whose three-point margin over Sprague for the championship was the closest points battle in the series' four-year history, said this title is even more special than the first for car owners Dale and Teresa Earnhardt.
"I just can't put it into words," Hornaday said. "This is not even close to (1996), this is just the biggest high of my life right now, to win the championship. To have a run with Jack Sprague and be as close as we did come towards the end ... this right here is one of the biggest highs of my life, my career."
Despite a history of on-track incidents between the two drivers, Hornaday and Sprague celebrated their respective victories with a touch of class that belied their often contentious relationship.
Following the cool-down lap, the two competitors pulled their trucks into the LVMS infield grass, driver-door-to-driver-door, shook hands and simultaneously spun their trucks in a series of celebratory doughnuts.
"You've got two greats teams with Dale Earnhardt Incorporated and Hendrick Motorsports," Hornaday said, "and you've got two drivers like Jack and I who want to win and we start beating up on each other and, yeah, it had come to (a rivalry).
"We talked about doing doughnuts and it was getting old, everybody doing doughnuts, and Jack came up with that idea of doing that, no matter who won or who lost. I hope the fans liked it."
Unfortunately, there weren't many to witness the unique celebration; a sparse crowd estimated at 20,000 braved the chilly fall winds to watch the truck's season finale.
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