Richmond International Raceway (5/5/00) -- Bob was a man on a mission this weekend, as he dominated the field to capture his first win of the 2000 season at his hometown track! After qualifying 3rd with a blistering lap, he quickly darted into the lead, where he paced the field for 84 (of 140) laps, easily earning the 5 bonus points for leading the most laps. This is only the third race this year that Bob has led, but it's the second in which he's led the most laps, proving that once he puts the Castrol GTX Ford Taurus into the lead, he plans to keep it there! The win marks his third top 5 and fourth top 10 this year, as he moves into third place in the points race, a mere 14 points ahead of Coyote. After the race, Bob dedicated his first win to his hometown fans, who came in droves to support their favorite driver.

Speed qualified 11th, and patiently passed cars in a steady march to the front, where he managed to lead a total of 31 laps. Although he ran strong all day, but with only 20 laps to go he bumped a lap car and spun and was unable to hold off the determined charge of the “Hometown Hero”, and fell back over 4 seconds behind to finish 2nd for the third time in five races here at Richmond. This marks the seventh top 5 and eighth top 10 finish for Speed this season, as he extended his points lead to 119 points over Stenzo.

Stenzo started from the 17th position, and slowly struggled into the top 10, but got together with another car and spun out of the groove, bringing out the first of nine cautions as he fell to the back of the pack. After the restart, he made it up to 16th position before wrecking again, this time damaging his car, bringing out the second caution. The two wrecks clearly rattled him, because he wrecked two more times, causing considerable damage to his car, and fell off the lead lap. Several pit stops and caution periods later, he was finally able to get back on the lead lap, and struggled for several positions late in the race to finish 13th, marking only the fourth time this season he's finished out of the top 5.

Coyote was all smiles last week, but was “anything but...” this week. After starting from back in 24th position, he patiently motored his way up toward the front, where he ran most of the day. He briefly challenged Speed to get back on the lead lap at one point, but after giving up track position while pitting under yellow, he was never able to return to the front. While working through traffic after one of the many restarts, he got tangled up with another car and wrecked. After pitting to repair the damage, he resumed his gallant charge, but wrecked again and fell off the lead lap. He eventually finished 21st, very hot under the collar, and one lap down.