-Jeff Gordon. No question about it, Gordon would gladly throw away the entire month of August. After a poor qualifying run he was involved in a wreck at Indy and finished 33rd; he was invloved in wrecks with Tony Stewart at Watkins Glen AND Michigan and finished 23rd and 36th, respectively (besides partially ruining his nice guy image after a profanity-laced confrontation with Stewart)...he then closed out the month with a ho-hum 23rd at Bristol. To summarize...zero laps led, zero top 20 finishes, and a drop down to 10th in points. So, a competitive 4th at Darlington where he led and seemed to have a winning car (at least for awhile) definitely has to be a shot in the arm for them. Gordon may not win a championship this year, but look for them to win another race or two with the eye on 2001.
-Ward Burton. Ward Burton's another guy who'd like to forget the month of August. In fact, he'd really like to forget the entire second half, with only two Top 10's and two races led since the first Michigan race back in June. During that span, he's had an average finish of 19th, dropped out of the Top 5 in points and way out of championship contention...he still failed to grab his first Top 5 since the first Bristol race (can you believe that!) but he led a lot, had one of the fastest cars at the end of the race, and would have placed higher if not for some so-so pit stops near the end. This finish leaves him in 8th in the standing, just 102 points out of 5th place. Ward could easily crack the Top 5 in points (seeing how inconsistent Rusty is) with a few good finishes toward the end of the year.
-Dale Earnhardt Jr. Alright, even though this guy has won two races, the Winston and races like someone we used to know (and still do), most of the writers are pretty much ready to write him off for ROTY and pretty much hand the title to Matt Kenseth (including me). Why? Kenseth has been much more consistent, is higher in WC points and leads Earnhardt by around 20 pts in the rookie of the year standings. Earnhardt Jr. hadnt been helping his cause: his last Top 10 was at Dover (11 races!), he fell back like a turtle when he won the pole a few weeks ago at Michigan, and had only led one race (that one, cause he was on the pole) during this span. He was struggling at Darlington, too, running around 20th until the wacky weather and some coy pit strategy put him up front. Suddenly, though, once up there he began to figure out Darlingtonand became the Dale Jr. everybody saw in the beginning of 2000. He struggled again late, but hung on with a strong 11th place, won rookie of the race, and closed the gap with Kenseth to 16 points. Dale Jr. knows he needs good finishes down the stretch to win the rookie title back...and we just happen to go back to Richmond this week, the site of the 8 teams last win. Looking good.
-Dave Marcis. Now, there were a lot of midpack teams that had decent finishes this week (Kevin Lepage was 7th amid rumors his team will fold in 2001, Rick Mast was 12th in AJ Foyt's car, Ted Musgrave 13th in the 01)...but this weeks pleasant surprise has to go to Marcis. Even though he caused 2 accidents, one of which took out the leader and the other took Rusty Wallace out of championship contention, and he wears those ridiculous wingtip shoes, you have to give him the nod. His season has been disastrous,as hes qualified for about 33% of races hes entered. But he was as high as 18th, had a Top 10 car at some stages (yes, hard to believe but true), and if he had a semidecent pit crew, would have had an outside shot at a Top 15 (he finished 23rd, 2 laps down). I still honestly believe this guy has it, anyone who watches him closely at Talladega and Daytona knows it. Here's hoping that running a limited schedule with his limited funds next year becomes the best decision he ever made, and gives him a shot at a few Top 10s.
Honorable Mention: LePage, Mast, Musgrave, Elliott Sadler, Tony Stewart, Steve Park.
-Jeremy Mayfield. The obvious pick. Mayfield was flat out dominating the race, leading from the get-go and building a lead of over 6 seconds. Certainly, he would have had a win if nothing went wrong. Then, when he tried to lap a decent-running Dave Marcis on lap 120, Mayfield screwed up. He got a little too impatient, acted a little too quickly, and forgot how Marcis is the hardest driver to pass on the circuit, no matter how he's running. Of course, Marcis could have been more courteous, but Mayfield has a history of driving a little too aggressively...im sure he will take this incident and learn from it (as he seemed to have in his ESPN interview following the accident, he was also very gracious and respectful considering the circumstances). Unfortunately, I dont think Marcis can get a lap back from him in the near future...
-Rusty Wallace. Mayfield may have lost the race, but Rusty flat out lost his championship. He came in the hottest driver on the circuit, and has easily been the most dominant driver of 2000 (his 4 wins lead the series, and he leads in most laps led, most races led, most miles led, etc.) So why isnt he leading the standings? Penske engines have once again been suspect, and Rusty has had 4 finishes of 26th or worse (now 5) to go with his wins, as well as some bad pit stretegy in other races (Martinsville and Talladega come to mind). Which brings us to Darlington; Rusty came in having won 2 in a row, but was 290 points out of the lead and needing to gain an average of 25 points a race in order to win the title. As it is, the biggest deficit anyone has overcome this late in the season to win a title was 278 points (the late Alan Kulwicki, 1992). So what does Rusty do? He's junk for most of the race, barely stays in the lead lap, and is just barely clinging on to championship hopes as it is, running 16th, before bad track position has him getting caught up in somebody else's mess. He loses 107 points to Labonte and puts himself in the position of defending 5th instead of chasing 1st. While I dont like changing the points sytem, its a shame the 2 team will have led the circuit in wins three times now (1993, 1994, probably 2000) and not have come close to another championship any of those years. But they're just too damned inconsistent.
-The championship contenders. Other than Rusty, the other championship chasers were feeling the pain. Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt, and Dale Jarrett finished 2nd, 3rd, and 5th, respectively, but all lost points to Bobby Labonte on a day they needed to gain, and gain big. Each was in position to win the race at some point, but weather played havoc with their plans. At least all of them continues their hot streaks, as Jarrett now has 14 straight Top 10s, Earnhardt has his second Top 5 in a row after some subpar runs, and Burton has now closed to within 10 of Earnhardt. It's not over, but they really need the 18 to start stumbling.
-Jimmy Spencer. While Travis Carter's other entry struggled and exited early (DW had electrical problems and finished 42nd), Spencer was a man on a mission, running solidly in the Top 10 and had the fastest car in the latter stages before getting a little too excited and pretty much running over Brett Bodine. I hope Jimmy looks at the tapes after calming down and apologizes to Brett, because it seems to me that Mr. Excitement just got way too excited. Has had a frsutrating season though, so it's understandable.
-Mike Skinner. I don't think he would have beaten Mayfield, but Skinner was obviously upset after his best car ever at Darlington blew up real early in the race. Every time he seems like he has a winning car something happens, this guy really has no luck. Being 11th in the standings though, one can't really complain.
Honorable Mention: DW (another disaster), Johnny Benson (outside polesitter was just plain run over), Kenny Wallace (well at least he has a new deal).
On to Richmond.....
Final Results - Darlington
1. 18 - Bobby Labonte, Pontiac, 328 laps, 180 pts.*#
2. 99 - Jeff Burton, Ford, 328 laps, 175 pts.*
3. 3 - Dale Earnhardt, Chevy, 328 laps, 170 pts.*
4. 24 - Jeff Gordon, Checy, 328 laps, 165 pts.*
5. 88 - Dale Jarrett, Ford, 328 laps, 160 pts.*
6. 22 - Ward Burton, Pontiac, 328 laps, 155 pts.*
7. 16 - Kevin Lepage, Ford, 328 laps, 146 pts.#
8. 28 - Ricky Rudd, Ford, 328 laps, 142 pts.
9. 20 - Tony Stewart, Pontiac, 328 laps, 138 pts.
10. 1 - Steve Park, Chevy, 328 laps, 134 pts.
11. 8 - Dale Earnhardt, Jr, Chevy, 328 laps, 135 pts.*
12. 14 - Rick Mast, Pontiac, 328 laps, 132 pts.*
13. 01 - Ted Musgrave, Chevy, 328 laps, 124 pts.
14. 6 - Mark Martin, Ford, 328 laps, 126 pts.*
15. 5 - Terry Labonte, Chevy, 328 laps, 118 pts.
16. 36 - Ken Schrader, Pontiac, 327 laps, 120 pts.*
17. 40 - Sterling Marlin, Chevy, 327 laps, 112 pts.
18. 21 - Elliott Sadler, Ford, 327 laps, 109 pts.
19. 75 - Wally Dallenbach, Ford, 327 laps, 106 pts.
20. 93 - Dave Blaney, Pontiac, 327 laps, 103 pts.
21. 97 - Chad Little, Ford, 327 laps, 105 pts.*
22. 4 - Bobby Hamilton, Chevy, 326 laps, 97 pts.
23. 71 - Dave Marcis, Chevy, 326 laps, 99 pts.*
24. 32 - Scott Pruett, Ford, 324 laps, 91 pts.
25. 94 - David Green, Ford, 324 laps, 88 pts.
26. 44 - Steve Grissom, Pontiac, 324 laps, 85 pts.
27. 11 - Brett Bodine, Ford, 324 laps, 82 pts.
28. 27 - Mike Bliss, Pontiac, 323 laps, 79 pts.
29. 25 - Jerry Nadeau, Chevy, 315 laps, 76 pts, engine.
30. 2 - Rusty Wallace, Ford, 308 laps, 73 pts, running.
31. 33 - Joe Nemechek, Chevy, 306 laps, 70 pts, engine.
32. 26 - Jimmy Spencer, Ford, 305 laps, 72 pts*, running.
33. 17 - Matt Kenseth, Ford, 286 laps, 64 pts, running.
34. 90 - Hut Stricklin, Ford, 268 laps, 61 pts, engine.
35. 55 - Kenny Wallace, Chevy, 264 laps, 58 pts, engine.
36. 77 - Robert Pressley, Ford, 245 laps, 55 pts, running.
37. 43 - John Andretti, Pontiac, 223 laps, 52 pts, accident.
38. 10 - Johnny Benson, Pontiac, 175 laps, 49 pts, handling.
39. 60 - Geoffrey Bodine, Chevy, 171 laps,46 pts, accident.
40. 7 - Michael Waltrip, Chevy, 123 laps, 43 pts, engine.
41. 12 - Jeremy Mayfield, Ford, 120 laps, 50 pts**, accident.
42. 66 - Darrell Waltrip##, Ford, 113 laps, 42 pts*, electrical.
43. 31 - Mike Skinner, Chevy, 15 laps, 34 pts, engine.
* - led a lap, 5 pts
** - led most laps, 10 pts
# - used backup car in the race
## - made 800th career start, third all time behind Richard Petty and Dave Marcis
