By MIKE HEMBREE
The Greenville (S.C.) News

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. - If North Carolina Speedway loses its late-winter race to NASCAR realignment, history will record that the final Subway 400 was a zinger.

Veteran Dale Jarrett outran upstart Kurt Busch over the closing 10 laps in a volatile mix of fast traffic and slower lapped cars to win the race by 96-hundredths of a second.

Busch led 74 straight laps before Jarrett moved in front for five in a row. Busch reclaimed the lead on lap 389, then Jarrett jumped in front for the final four laps.

Jarrett and Busch swapped the lead in a confusing pack of cars that made passing very risky business. The lead group was mixed in with lapped cars and with others who had fresher tires, creating an unsettling flow of traffic filling virtually every lane on the track.

Busch took advantage to sprint in front of Jarrett five laps from the finish, but Jarrett returned the favor on the next lap and stayed in front the rest of the way.

"I didn't know who all was passing me," said Jarrett, referring to lapped cars with newer tires. "I didn't know it was Kurt who was coming by. I just tried to keep my car straight. It was a heck of a race. You know what kind of competitor Kurt Busch is."

Following Jarrett and Busch to the finish line were Matt Kenseth, Ricky Craven and rookie Jamie McMurray.

The race was contested on a cold, windy Sunday before a crowd estimated at 45,000. The speedway, which seats 60,000, has been a focus of speculation since NASCAR announced last month that it plans to realign the Winston Cup schedule for 2004 and beyond, moving race dates from smaller facilities to tracks in larger markets.

NCS is considered likely to lose one of its two dates, and Sunday's poor attendance - a number no doubt impacted by the cold, biting wind - won't help its cause.

"I certainly would hate to see us lose one here," Jarrett said. "It's close to home, it's a great racing facility, and you have great races. On the other side of it, I understand NASCAR's position.

"They have to look at the sport as a whole. The TV networks have put out a tremendous amount of money to help grow this sport, and NASCAR is sitting with them to see what's going to make this profitable for them and our sponsors."

Charise Fowler, who watched the race from a cold perch outside the fourth turn, said she'll be back.

"That was great racing," she said. "I don't know why they would talk about not racing here. You can go to bigger tracks, but you won't always see that kind of finish."

The abrasive nature of the track surface was a key factor in the frantic race to the checkered flag. Cars in the lead group were on old tires in the closing laps, making their "sticking" power considerably less. Jarrett said the driving conditions were like being on ice.

"Every 10 laps after about 46 laps you lose a little bit more and a little bit more," he said. "As soon as you try to put it to the floor, you break it loose and it turns sideways."

Busch, who scored his seventh straight top-10 finish, also said the conditions were risky at the end.

"We were real good (on tires) for about 70 laps, and that's when you'd have to pit in a normal sequence," he said. "So we had a little bit of understeer going into the corner, and the car was pushing. That elevated the loose (condition) off the turns and was just killing the momentum that you'd keep around this race track."