This photo is not from the second race that was run but from the first race ran. Were Coyote tried to make it three wide, key word (TRIED). he he

DAYTONA RACE REPORT
- by Stenzo



WHAT A SURPRISE! SPEED WINS DAYTONA, AGAIN

Daytona International Speedway (7/7/00) -- Well race fans, when it comes to racing at Daytona, it should really come as no big surprise to anyone that Speed once again managed to work his way to the front to capture the win this weekend. It seems that's just about all he does at this track, not to mention half of all the other tracks he's been to this year. In six career starts at the famous “World Center of Racing”, he has posted 4 wins, five top 5s, and six top 10s. It seems clear that Speed simply has what it takes to run this track! This time, however, he had to work just a little bit harder for it. After starting from 4th, he only managed to lead 4 of the first 65 laps. But he patiently ran among the top 5 all day before finally making his move with 5 laps to go to grab the lead, and the win from Bob. This marks Speed's 9th win in 17 races this season, tying the total number he had back in 1998 when he easily won the inaugural SPEEDLAN Championship. With the win, he extended his points lead to whopping 321 points over Stenzo.

Bob appears to have “turned the corner” in his sophomore season, and seems to be running with a lot more consistency lately, and is making his presence felt by contending for the win with a lot more regularity than he had at the start of the season. He started the race from the outside pole position, and quickly jumped into the lead, where he would stay for a total of 31 laps, earning the 5 bonus points for leading the most laps for the third time this year. After swapping the lead back and forth several times with his three SPEEDLAN teammates, he had positioned himself late in the race to take the win, until Speed flexed his muscles and passed him with only 5 laps remaining, leaving him to settle for second place for the third time this season. This marks Bob's sixth top 5 and seventh top 10 finish of the year, as he closed the points gap from 214 to 151 points behind Stenzo, while extending his third-place advantage to 158 points over fourth-place Coyote.

Stenzo started the race from the 6th position, and moved quickly toward the front to challenge for the lead early in the event. After a slight fender-rubbing incident with Coyote, and all the other position-swapping commonly seen at restrictor plate race tracks, he managed to grab the lead for a total of 27 laps when the first of two caution flags flew for a wreck caused when slower cars were reentering the race track after a round of green flag pit stops. After the restart, he was unable to avoid getting collected in a wreck that happened in front of him, damaging his car and killing any chances he may have had for a win. He managed to finish on the lead lap in 17th place, marking the eighth time this year he's finished out of the top five.

Coyote qualified in 7th position, and at the drop of the green flag, he followed Stenzo toward the front, where he managed to lead for a total of only 3 laps. Then he briefly got together with Stenzo in turn one, forcing him high on the track and into the wall, wrinkling his front bumper. The damage slowly forced him backward through the field, putting him in danger of falling a lap down, when the first caution flag flew, allowing him to circle the track ahead of the leaders and back on the tail end of the lead lap. After the restart, he got together with another car, causing a wreck which effectively ended his chances of a good finish. He ended up finishing in 23rd place for the fourth time this season, one lap down.