Mike Skinner held off WC Champion Jeff Gordon to take the checkered flag at Motegi for the second year in a row. In jest, there are those who are referring the title of "Emperor" on Mike, who has won both on the road course and the oval at Motegi. So now Mike has two career wins, but they are both in exhibition races, he has no points race wins in 61 starts. Never the less, Mike was tickled to death to win, and did donuts and a Polish victory lap that thrilled the Japanese crowd in the stands. Also full of joy was crew chief Larry McReynolds, this being his first win with the Lowes team and driver.
The feud for the race ended up happening between Bobby Hamilton, and Darrell Waltrip. Waltrip made the comment that they were both on the same flight back, and it wasn't going to be a very pleasant one. It seems that Hamilton ran into Waltrip and took him out, in one of the many wrecks during the race. Waltrip was driving the 88 Quality Care Yates car for Dale Jarrett, who is recovering from Gall Bladder surgery, and wanted to make a good showing for the Yates team.
The Japan trip isn't on the WC schedule for next year, and I'm sure that the team owners are just as happy that they don't have to go through the hassle of shipping their cars, equipment, and employees across the Pacific. Not all of the teams were able to field a car for the race, or else they just didn't want to bother with it. Due to shipping restrictions, teams were only allowed to take one car, meaning no back-up. Normally in a WC race, there are 43 WC driver entries, but at Motegi, there were only 14 regular WC drivers in the race. That's less than half of the normal field of WC drivers.
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