Well, with the 2000 season finally over and done with, and with the onset of winter and NASCAR withdrawal insanity about to set in, there's only one way a fan can hold off the 90-day period of depression, snow, and gloom - hand out 2000 NASCAR season-ending awards!!!!! Maybe if writers make enough of these columns, and ESPN Classic shows enough old NASCAR races, we'll be able to sustain ourselves until January testing at Daytona...
DRIVER OF THE YEAR - Bobby Labonte would have to be the pick here. Only teammate Tony Stewart had more wins than Labonte's 4 and he led the circuit in Top 5s (19) and was tied for first in Top 10s (24). Two of his victories were at two of the most prestigious races of the year - the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis and the Southern 500 at Darlington. He also collected wins at Charlotte and Rockingham on his way to his first ever Winston Cup championship, winning by 265 points over Dale Earnhardt. Dale Sr. put up a formidable challenge, but in the end he was never able to match Labonte's consistency - he only had one finish outside the Top 25 ALL SEASON (a 26th place at Richmond). No question about it, Labonte's championship was hard fought and well deserved, and he'll be a threat for the title for years to come.
RUNNERS-UP: Dale Earnhardt Sr. (at 49, finished runner up in points with 2 victories and 24 Top 10s), Rusty Wallace (led circuit in laps led, and had 4 wins and 20 Top 10s, 7th in points), Tony Stewart (led Winston Cup with 6 wins, had 12 Top 5s and 23 Top 10s, finished 6th in points), Jeff Burton (outpointed everyone except Bobby Labonte in the 2nd half of 2000, finished career best 3rd in points with 3 wins, 15 Top 5s, and 22 Top 10s)
MR. POLE POSITION - (best qualifier) Easy one here, Rusty Wallace swamped the competition by winning 9 poles and accumulating an average start of 10th, which led all full-time drivers this year. Honorary mention to Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin, and Jeff Gordon, the only Cup drivers who made every race without using a provisional.
MR. MAGOO - (worst qualifier) This dubious honor goes to Jack Roush's #97 operation, who used a provisional to get into the race 15 times over the course of the season between drivers Chad Little and Kurt Busch. That's almost half the races (44% to be exact)!!! (and you thought DW's champions provisionals were a fiasco; he only used provisionals 8 times in 2000). How could the 97 team do this???? Well, in NASCAR, the rules say you can take as many provisionals as you want, as long as you're in the Top 25 in owners points. This loophole also allowed the 01 team (various drivers), the 4 (Bobby Hamilton), the 40 (Sterling Marlin), and the 5 (Terry Labonte) to take 10 provisionals or more each during the year. NASCAR better do something to fix this problem before they have a team that's in the Top 10 who doesn't give a damn about qualifying and doesn't even bother with it, starting in the back 20-25 times during the season. My suggestion is to cut back the provisionals to four (plus one champions) and limit every team to 5 provisionals the entire year, no matter where they stand in points. That should solve the problem, as only 4 teams in the Top 25 in points took more than 5 provisionals in 2000; it will crack down on the abusers of this rule.
MOST IMPROVED DRIVER - Steve Park. With new teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. upstaging him earlier in the year with 2 victories, there were rumors early in 2000 that Park would be out of the 1 car by the end of the season. However, Park's car owner (Dale Sr.) renewed his confidence in Steve by resigning him to a multiyear deal midseason, and Park responded beautifully, scoring his first career win at Watkins Glen and piling on 4 Top 5's and 8 Top 10's in the last third of the season on his way to a career best 11th in final points. While the 8 team struggled, Steve Park once again emerged as the #1 driver over at DEI, at least for the time being anyways.
RUNNERS UP - Joe Nemechek (3 Top 5s, 9 Top 10s, career best 15th place points finish in his first year with Andy Petree racing), Jerry Nadeau (notched first career win at Atlanta and finished 20th in points (career-best) in his first year with Rick Hendrick's 25 team).
COMEBACK DRIVER OF THE YEAR - Johnny Benson. After a dismal 2 year stint with Jack Roush in '98-'99 that threatened to end his competitive Winston Cup career, Benson signed on to a single car effort (Tyler Jet Motorsports) with no sponsor for the 2000 season. How did he do? He nearly won the Daytona 500 before being passed for the lead with just a handful of laps left (finished 12th) and piled up a 2nd at Bristol and a 6th at Las Vegas with what we now know was an unsponsored team the entire first half of 2000 (Lycos signed on at Daytona, but they never paid). The highest single car effort in the points, Benson's outfit was point midway in 2000 by MB2 Motorsports, which paired Benson with Ken Schrader and gave him the resources he needed to be successful. HE finished the year strong, with 2 Top 5s and 5 Top 10s in the last half to put him 13th in the final standings, his best since he finished 11th in 1997 with the old Bahari Racing team.
RUNNERS UP - Dale Earnhardt Sr. (highest points finish (2nd) since 1995, when he lost the championship by 34 points to Jeff Gordon); Rusty Wallace (4 wins was his highest total since 1996)
LEAST IMPROVED DRIVER - There are a lot of choices here, but I'm going to go with Mark Martin. Pegged as a 2000 championship contender, and only 2 years removed from his career year of 1998, Martin finished a distant 8th in points this year with only 1 win, at Martinsville in the spring. His 8th place finish in points was the lowest he's finished since 1988, and arguably his stats were the worst he's had in a decade (he had 1 win, 14 Top 5's, and 17 Top 10's in 1991 compared to 1 win, 13 Top 5's, and 20 Top 10's this year). True, Martin's retirement in the Busch Series can be counted as a distraction, and it should be noted he won over half the races he entered in that series this year. 2001 will be critical to Mark's career; it will be interesting to see if he can bounce back, with his Busch Series commitment behind him.
RUNNERS UP: Terry Labonte (17th in points (worst finish since 1993) with only 3 Top 5's and 6 Top 10's; consecutive race streak ended at 655 when he missed 2 races due to injury; Jeremy Mayfield (2 wins but 16 finishes of 28th or worse, missed 2 races due to injury, 24th in final points); Bobby Hamilton (only 2 Top 10s in 34 starts, 30th in final points (worst of any team that made all 34 races in 2000).
BEST DRIVING PERFORMANCE - Earnhardt's miraculous run to come from 18th to first in the last 5 laps to win this fall's Winston 500 at Talladega. Nothing else even comes close.
MOST DISAPPOINTING DRIVING PERFORMANCE - This award, as much as I hate to give it, has to go to the yearlong performance of Darrell Waltrip. As ol' DW said himself, "Don't ever name your last year a Victory Tour unless you're fairly certain you can win a race." Outside of Indianapolis, where he started 2nd and finished 11th, the 66 team missed 5 races, had to buy a ride for Darrell to race in the Coca-Cola 600, and had only 1 other Top 20 finish.
BEST ROOKIE PERFORMANCE - Matt Kenseth, who edges Dale Earnhardt Jr. because of his consistency. Sure, Earnhardt Jr. had more wins (2 plus the Winston compared to Kenseth's 1) and certainly comes off as the flashier, more aggressive driver. However, Little E had a best finish of 11th place in the final 22 races, while Kenseth piled up 1 Top 5 and 6 Top 10s during that span to end up 14th in the final point standings, 2 positions ahead of Earnhardt Jr.
MOST DISAPPOINTING ROOKIE - Scott Pruett is by far one of the nicest drivers around, but there were times this year when he was a menace on the racetrack, spinning out or crashing in about half the races he was in while only collecting one Top 10 (Indianapolis). He also missed six races and was never a real factor in the rookie battle.
RUNNERS UP - Kurt Busch (2001 Rookie wasted no time bumping and grinding, causing several crashes in his 7 race stint in 2000); Dave Blaney (saved from this dubious honor by his strong 2000 finish, where he collected two Top 10s and was running in the Top 5 until the last 10 laps at Atlanta).
Well, that's about it. for those drivers who didnt make the list (or won the more dubious distinctions), everybody has a bad season (or two , or three...) 2001 offers them a new opportunity to make a name for themselves. Until next time...-TKB
