RUSTY STRUGGLES TO FINISH 27TH IN PEPSI 400
-Handling Woes Take Their Toll As He Falls To 16th In NEXTEL Cup Standings-

Miller Lite Dodge driver Rusty Wallace fought an ill-handling racecar to finish 27th here at Daytona International Speedway in tonight's rain-hampered Pepsi 400.

Rusty was very fortunate on Lap 17 when he barely missed the only major accident of the night, when Ricky Craven, Matt Kenseth, Ward Burton and Ken Schrader crashed in Turn 2, but that was possibly the high point of the race for the No. 2 team.

The car was extremely tight for the first two-thirds of the race. When the team took drastic measures in installing two spring rubbers during the caution flag stop on Lap 70 - that freed the car up considerably. A wedge adjustment during the next pit stop on Lap 109 saw the car become too loose, with Wallace almost crashing on two occasions.

"It was just a tough night and we were off from the very start," Rusty said after the race. "The car was just really lacking downforce. We dodged the bullet several times tonight, though. We barely made it through that crash at the beginning. All I could see was smoke and I know that we came within inches of hitting Schrader there on the flat of the track. We had a tire go down once when we came in to pit. Somehow a brake rotor got imbedded in the front end of the car and the guys had to tape up that hole. Then, there close to the end, the car was so loose that I almost looped it out there. It was just another bad night for us and that's about all I can say about it."

The chief story lines of the evening concerned the weather and then the battle for restrictor-place racing prominence between the Dale Earnhardt Inc. teams and Hendrick Motorsports.

Heavy storms hit the speedway at 4:45 p.m. and the scheduled 7:30 p.m. start was delayed by some two hours. The race began at 9:35 p.m. under the green and yellow flags. When the race finally went to full green, the battle up front for the vast majority of the race was between the Hendrick cars of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers and the D.E.I. duo of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip.

Waltrip, Earnhardt and Gordon shared the lead throughout the first 100 laps of the 160-lap race. Gordon led after the first round of green flag stops cycled around on Lap 113, but Earnhardt and Tony Stewart hooked up to draft up and challenge.

The final round of green flag stops cycled around with 18 circuits remaining. Stewart held the lead then, with Kevin Harvick second, Gordon third, Kurt Busch fourth, Greg Biffle fifth, Mark Martin sixth, Johnson seventh and Earnhardt eighth.

Gordon got around Busch for second with 12 laps to go as Earnhardt was up to fifth. Gordon got around Stewart with seven laps to go and got drafting help from teammate Johnson to hold off Earnhardt and post his second win in a row. It was also Gordon's second consecutive restrictor-plate race win.

At the finish, it was Gordon winning, with Johnson second, Earnhardt third, Busch fourth, Stewart fifth, Martin sixth, Bobby Labonte eighth, Vickers ninth and Joe Nemechek 10th. Casey Mears, Ryan Newman, Waltrip, Harvick and Dave Blaney rounded out the top 15 finishers.

Johnson continues to lead the point standings over Earnhardt by a 2,545 to 2,518 margin. Gordon is back up to third with 2,313, Stewart fourth with 2,203 and Kenseth fifth with 2,189. Bobby Labonte (2,164), Busch (2,153), Elliott Sadler (2,152) Newman (2,112) and Harvick (2,095) complete the top 10 in points. Rusty fell to 16th after tonight and has 1,835 points. He is now 260 points out of 10th.

The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup circuit now moves on to Chicagoland Speedway for next Sunday's running of the Tropicana 400. Live coverage of the race will be provided by NBC-TV and MRN Radio.