POCONO RACE REPORT
- by Stenzo


DON'T YOU KNOW?! STENZO WINS POCONO!

Pocono Raceway (6/25/00) -- Stenzo dominated the field most of the day today to find his way back into Victory Lane for the 3rd time this season! After starting 6th in a brand new car, he quickly darted out to an early lead, where he stayed to lead a race-high 43 of 70 laps and earn 5 bonus points for leading the most laps. With 6 caution flags to slow the pace during the first half of the race, he was able to maintain the lead until he was forced to pit for much-needed fuel and tires. Once on fresh tires, he slowly marched back up into 5th place. Then with 2 caution periods late in the race, the field was bunched back up for a 3-lap shootout, with Stenzo in 3rd and Speed in 4th, and both fighting hard to grab the lead. With one lap to go, Speed bumped Stenzo as they raced the leaders into turn one, forcing Stenzo up and into the leader, while Speed shot up and hit the wall, damaging his fender. Stenzo brushed the wall as well, but recovered quickly to hold Speed off and claim his third win, ninth top 5, and ninth top 10 of the year.

Speed had another bad qualifying effort this weekend, and started from back in 23rd position. But at the drop of the green flag, he quickly demonstrated he had a fast race car, moving up through field with relative ease, and putting pressure on the leaders to take the lead, which he finally did for a total of 10 laps. And like the champion racer that he is, he put himself back in position again late in the race to reclaim the lead and steal the win for the 9th time in 15 races, but Stenzo was determined to take this one for himself, holding Speed back in 2nd place in a shootout to the finish. This marks Speed's 10th top 5 and 12th top 10 finish this season, and he only lost 10 points to Stenzo for the championship, maintaining a 238 point advantage. What an amazing year he's having!

Coyote had a poor qualifying run too, and had to start at the rear of the field in 25th place. Although he had a fast car, he passed cars patiently and methodically on his way toward the front, until he got tangled up with one of them, damaging his car and bringing out one of the 6 early cautions flags. After pitting to repair the damage, then short-pitting again later, he had fallen back in the pack, but was able to race his way back up into the top 10 late in the event. Then with a little help from a late caution flag, he fought desperately to get up to 5th, but fell back to 7th when the checkered flag flew. This marks his seventh top 10 finish of the season, and he closed the distance from 111 to only 53 points behind Bob for third place in the championship standings. Could this be the start of a turnaround for Coyote? Is his investment beginning to pay dividends? We'll all just have to wait and see!

Bob started from the 9th position, and ran up front all afternoon. At one point he challenged Stenzo for the lead over the span of several laps, but by then he had already used up his tires and couldn't ever make the pass. Then he slowly began to fade, and he started drifting back, when the first yellow of the day came out. He gave up 2nd place to come in for some new tires and so did Speed. On the restart, he was passed by Speed and a few others, then had difficulty working thought the traffic, bring out several more cautions. Later on, he would have more bad luck with only 9 laps to go, wrecking his car and almost ending his day. He ended up finishing in 25th.