2000 The Winston

2000 The Winston
Race details[1][2][3]
Date May 20, 2000 (2000-05-20)
Location Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina
Course Permanent racing facility
1.5 mi (2.4 km)
Distance Winston Open:
30 laps, 45 mi (72 km)
No Bull Sprint:
16 laps, 24 mi (39 km)
The Winston:
70 laps, 105 mi (169 km)
Avg Speed The Winston:
167.035 mph (268.817 km/h)
Winston Open
Pole position Jerry Nadeau (Hendrick Motorsports)
Winner Steve Park (Dale Earnhardt, Inc.)
No Bull Sprint
Pole position Mike Skinner (Richard Childress Racing)
Winner Jerry Nadeau (Hendrick Motorsports)
The Winston
Pole position Bill Elliott (Bill Elliott Racing)
105.932 seconds[4]
Showdown transfers Steve Park (Open winner)
Jerry Nadeau (No Bull Sprint winner)
Most laps led Bill Elliott (Bill Elliott Racing)
36 laps
Winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Dale Earnhardt, Inc.)
Television
Network TNN
Announcers Eli Gold, Buddy Baker, and Dick Berggren

The 2000 edition of The Winston was held on May 20, 2000, at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. This was the 16th running of the event. The race is remembered for Dale Earnhardt Jr. becoming the first rookie to win The Winston.[5] Drivers Steve Park and Jerry Nadeau advanced to the main lineup, with Park winning the Winston Open and Nadeau winning the No Bull Sprint race. This was the last All-Star Race of Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt; Waltrip retired at the end of 2000 and called the 2001 race from the booth for Fox Sports, and Earnhardt was killed at the season-opening Daytona 500. This was Kenny Irwin Jr.'s only appearance in The Winston, as he was killed in a crash during practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 7. In addition, this was TNN's final broadcast of The Winston.

The event is also remembered for one of the biggest disasters in NASCAR history: the post-race collapse of a pedestrian walkway that injured 107 people.[6]

  1. ^ "2000 Winston Open". Racing-Reference. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  2. ^ "2000 No Bull Sprint". Racing-Reference. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  3. ^ "2000 The Winston". Racing-Reference. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  4. ^ "Bill Elliott takes The Winston pole at Charlotte". Motorsport Network. May 20, 2000. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
  5. ^ Jensen, Tom (May 19, 2023). "10 Historic NASCAR All-Star Races". NASCAR Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference wcnc.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).