|| *Comments on the 2000 Save Mart / Kragen 350:* View the most recent comment <#32> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. tquievryn posted: 01.02.2005 - 7:12 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Jeff Gordon's win was so dominating ESPN admitted later they made up that he might be low on fuel. It was Gordon's 7th career road course win, setting a record. Comments: R.K. Smith DNQed trying to make his first Winston Cup Start 2. Matt posted: 03.08.2005 - 3:53 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ward Burton flipped during qualifying for this race. 3. Darrell posted: 10.14.2005 - 10:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the last race that STP sponsored the 43 car, and it wrecked during the opening laps. Incidentally, R.K. Smith was not trying to make his first Winston Cup start. He had two Cup starts in the early 90's. 4. Thomas posted: 03.04.2006 - 1:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) What a dreary ass race. That's what my dad called it while watching it. 5. Miller4Prez64 posted: 07.31.2006 - 2:09 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) "This was the last race that STP sponsored the 43 car, and it wrecked during the opening laps." This has changed Darrell, Bobby Labonte drove the #43 STP Dodge at Talladega in April 2006 6. Brock posted: 01.18.2007 - 7:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sterling Marlin actually beat the Rainbow Warriors off pit road at one point. 7. Dan posted: 03.16.2007 - 6:22 pm Rate this comment: (3) (3) "What a dreary ass race. That's what my dad called it while watching it." I guess he called a lot of races that if he did it every time Jeff led and won a race, huh? *sniff sniff* Boo Hoo! 8. biffle16 posted: 06.02.2007 - 3:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (3) Typical Dan. If his driver is leading, he thinks it's a great race, and if a Roush driver wins, he'll think it sucks. 9. SK posted: 09.02.2007 - 3:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Brian Simo's Winston Cup debut. 10. Brock posted: 12.12.2007 - 6:13 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) So much bad luck was spread about in the early laps of this one. In the first 26 laps, one after the other, Kevin Lepage, Wally Dallenbach, and Boris Said hade mechanical problems that either dropped them laps back or took them out entirely. During that sequence, Jeff Burton's car also smoked heavily from a loose oil line, but Burton recovered nicely for a 16th place run. I was there at this race and it was EXTREMELY hot! A very dry heat had baked the track thoroughly and set up a couple driver changes. Boris Said, after his engine failure, stepped in for Robert Pressley, whose #77 ran very rough until its transmission failed. Tony Stewart, suffering from a similar stomach ailment to that which had been visited upon Jeff Gordon in the 1999 Sonoma race, turned the car over to John Andretti in the middle stages of the race. Andretti, taken out early in a fiery crash, performed admirably, climbing from 27th to 10th. Stewart was involved in perhaps the most exciting moment of the race, namely the incident which caused the final caution. Stewart was battling local boy Scott Pruett for the lead by going side-by-side into turn 1. Pruett checked up, smoking his brakes and spinning out Stewart. Jeff Burton got his lap back as a result. Then, Pruett himself spun out in turn three when a fast-closing Jeff Gordon knocked him out of the way. Damaged by the two incidents, Pruett limped around the track until he nosed hard into the tire barriers in turn 10, ending what had been a very promising day. Jerry Nadeau spun early in turn 11 and Robby Gordon pitted late in the final green flag run to the checkers, but both made their way back into the top 10. Sterling Marlin, who supposedly WAS close on fuel, just barely edged a hungry Mark Martin for second, edging Martin by a fender after the Roush driver got a better run off of turn 11. Marlin drove an excellent defensive run all day, at one point actually blocking Gordon while running in the lead. Elliott Sadler took an unexpected detour down the dragstrip late in the race after making contact with the late Kenny Irwin coming out of turn 11. Sadler had cut a tire in the incident and took the shortcut to get back to the pits sooner. Sadler finished 21 laps down, though I do not recall what penalty, if any, was given to the Sadler team. 11. Brock posted: 12.13.2007 - 3:14 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) And also, likely due to the brief amount of time it had on the track, John Andretti's STP Pontiac did, in fact, get raced once more in the 2000 season finale at Atlanta. 12. RaceFanX posted: 01.05.2008 - 8:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Racing can be very ironic, when John Andretti crashed the retro-painted #43 STP car, a small fire was started as the car was still rolling that made it look very similar to Richard's crash in his last race. 13. Mr. Big posted: 05.22.2008 - 3:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sterling actually doing good at a road course, that's pretty funny. How he somehow led 25 laps at a road course confuses me even more. 14. Frank posted: 06.20.2008 - 6:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Looks like there is a mistake with track length. Configuration will be changed before 2001 race http://www.infineonraceway.com/raceway_info/about_infineon_raceway/history 15. Art D posted: 06.26.2009 - 11:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 51st career win for J. Gordon 16. 18fan posted: 01.26.2010 - 1:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sterling also led several laps(14 or 15) and finished 7th in the 1998 running of this race. 17. RLB posted: 07.08.2010 - 11:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was Jeff's record tying 6th road-race win and all-time record 6th consecutive dating back to Watkins Glen 1997. 18. kevin posted: 10.19.2011 - 11:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) dw still racing in 2000? 19. Unser1 posted: 12.20.2011 - 2:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 2000 was DW's farewell season, he retired at the end of the year and moved into his gig with FOX Sports the following season when their coverage began. Minus a good run at the Brickyard 400 DW's final hurrah in Cup wasn't much to write home about, he was a non-factor all year and had several DNQs. 20. nate posted: 02.11.2013 - 5:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) So many Fords finished in the bottom 30 to 42 21. Evan posted: 04.25.2014 - 12:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor Revisions * #33 Joe Nemechek Oakwood Homes/Akzo Nobel Coatings/"ChromaFlair" Joe ran a scheme promoting Akzo Nobel Coatings and ran a Chromoflair scheme at Sears Point, 2000 Race Action, Hot Wheels Crew's Choice diecast, Jayski.com. * #43 John Andretti STP/"Thanks STP" Andretti ran a scheme painted like the Dodge Chargers Richard drove in his first year with STP sponsorship in 1976. This scheme was to thank them for their sponsorship, they ran it one more time, but the name of the scheme is "thanks STP". Source:Seen on "ESPN's Thrills, Chills, and Spills 2000" on fire and doing a barrel roll. * #44 Kyle Petty Hot Wheels/Kyle Petty Charity Ride Across America Kyle ran a car in this race with Hot Wheels but had a scheme of his Charity Ride Across America in this race, he did this for the next few years when the series came to Sears Point. Sources:Race Action, starting grid, Jayski.com 22. Anthony posted: 06.27.2014 - 2:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Jr was talking about this race about he and Stacy Compton getting together at Sonoma when Stacy was driving the 9 car. But im not sure and the reason is Junior was talking about Chad Knaus in this story, however, Jerry Pitts was crew chief. Chad was working with Stacy fully in 2001. So im not sure its this race. 23. RaceFanX posted: 05.08.2016 - 7:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sterling Marlin's runner-up run here was his best finish on a road course and his only top-5 of the 2000 season. Marlin and the SABCO team had an awful year, which would only get worse a few weeks later with Kenny Irwin's passing, but the team's partial sale to Chip Ganassi and switch to Dodge would change their fortunes in 2001. Ward Burton's qualifying flip occurred in the Esses. He spun, hit a tire wall backward, and ended up doing a single, slow side-over-side roll. Kenny Irwin, Jr. finishes on the lead lap in what sadly turned out to be his final road course race. 24. RaceFanX posted: 05.08.2016 - 7:41 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Johnny Benson, Jr. finishes in the top-20 as the Tyler Jet team runs its final race with Lycos.com sponsorship before logging off the Internet sponsorship amid payment concerns. The underdog sponsorship that came together at the eleventh hour before the Daytona 500 didn't make it back to Florida in July. 25. jensenators posted: 04.04.2017 - 12:09 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Jimmy Spencer's only race as a cup owner, with Boris Said finishing in 42nd place. 26. Cash posted: 04.04.2018 - 3:12 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Man I just re-watched this race, and it had some interesting moments: - The Broadcast started the race telling the story of how Kyle Petty was the garage favorite for the pole after losing his son Adam (not to mention his grandpa Lee) earlier that year. - Rusty actually started on pole and had a strong car early on, but he faded and seemed to get in 3-4 different incidents on the track before his day was done - Jeff Gordon's car was strong, but it was weird. He checked out once he was able to get the lead, but it didn't look as strong when it was caught in traffic. He was stuck behind Sterling Marlin (who had a good car) for most of the first run and struggled to get around Scott Pruett later in the race. - Tony Stewart might have gave Gordon a run for his money. He got around Jeff then tried to get around Pruett before Scott punted him out the way when he smoked his tires. Tony then gave up his seat for John Andretti, as he was dealing with a stomach issue. - This race summed up Bobby Labonte's consistency in 2000 to me. He started up front, but was nowhere to be found after the first set of pit stops. But he found his way in the top 5 right when the race mattered, all on a track that wasn't his strong suit. 27. RaceFanX posted: 06.24.2018 - 4:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 2018: Darrell Waltrip: "You won three straight here (at Sonoma)?" Jeff Gordon: "I don't know how I did that." Given how 2000 wasn't exactly Gordon's best year I don't think he's the only one. But he ran great in this one none the less. 28. Anthony posted: 06.25.2018 - 11:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jeff Gordon won his sixth consecutive road course race on the same day his future teammate miraculously survived a terrible wreck at Watkins Glen. Who would've thunk it? 29. Darrell posted: 09.24.2019 - 8:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Driver Change: Mark Simo qualified Robert Pressley's No. 77 car. Pressley would later be relieved by Boris Said later in the race. 30. bj posted: 04.02.2020 - 11:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Evan- Petty's deal with STP dates all the back to 1972. 31. Rich posted: 12.29.2020 - 7:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons were the commentators. Dr. Jerry Punch, John Kernan and Bill Weber were the pit road reporters. 32. Mile501 posted: 03.18.2021 - 2:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) There may not be an answer to this question since comment #1 was posted 16 years ago, but I am curious if there is any evidence to support that claim, that ESPN made up the idea that Gordon might be low on fuel. The last run was for 39 green-flag laps, which is a long way to go on fuel at this track. Several teams did, in fact, stop for fuel before the finish because they didn't think they could make it. So fuel had to be at least a bit of a concern, even if the #24 team was fairly confident they could make it. Rusty and his team had a great car but made all sorts of mistakes throughout this race. They pitted at least 2 extra times compared to what they should have done, and then Rusty spun out twice all on his own, likely frustrated by continually being back in the field when he could have easily still been up front. As far as I know, Matt Kenseth didn't crash or have any significant trouble during his first Winston Cup road course start--he was just slow. And while he would go on to have a successful career, he never was very good on road courses. He would never lead a lap at Sonoma in his career, and never finish better than 8th. His stats at Watkins Glen are only slightly better. The #32 team was penalized 50 points after this race for an unapproved brake cooling system. The team said it was not used during this race but was left in the car following a recent test. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: