Some races are defined by finishes: victory decided by a fraction of a fraction of a second, the last win by an aging champion, the first win by a kid with years in front of him.
Some races are defined by history. Records are set, championships are won and lost. Some races are defined by triumph, others by tragedy.
Some races are defined by moments: daring last-lap passes, breathtaking saves, celebrations. The moments people never forget. The ones that make the highlight reels for years to come. And sometimes, the ones they’ll never, ever live down.
The Race: 2000 Lysol 200
Road-course specialists have been a part of NASCAR for decades. They’re drivers who rarely, if ever, race on ovals and who step in for road races. They sometimes take over for a driver who struggled on road courses, sometimes in an additional car run by a team hoping to score some extra prize money.
Ron Fellows was the consummate road-course ringer. He never ran more than five races in a season in any NASCAR national series, but he found plenty of success, particularly in what was then the Busch Series (now NASCAR Xfinity Series), winning four times, three for owner Joe Nemechek. On this particular June Sunday at Watkins Glen International, Fellows led three times for a race-high 36 laps to beat another road specialist, Butch Leitzinger, to the checkers.
The race was slowed by five cautions, all single-car incidents. The first came on lap 12 when David Green slid into a gravel trap. Fellows, who led the opening 13 laps from the pole in the yellow and purple No. 87, gave up the lead by pitting for fuel.
PJ Jones took over the lead for seven laps before Tom Hubert took over on lap 20 after an aggressive pass going into turn 1. Fellows, who had to race his way from mid pack after the pit stop, was marching through the field. He then retook the lead from Hubert when Hubert ran wide in the first turn.
Three laps later, Hubert overdrove the same corner again, this time spinning off the track and into the sand trap, bringing out the second caution. This time Fellows stayed out to keep the lead, which he held until the next caution flew on lap 47 for rookie Jimmie Johnson, who’d been having a quietly solid race until a brake failure ended his day in violent fashion.
Ron Hornaday Jr. led the next 11 laps before Leitzinger took over under the next caution (for a spin by NASCAR Hall of Famer Mike Stefanik) on lap 59 to lead the next 13 laps, the only…
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