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The Winston, 99'


Texas Terry Tops the All-Stars........

Texas Terry Labonte took on four tires during the break before the ten lap shoot-out, and Tony Stewart only took two, which got him a second place finish worth over $150,000. Terrys' win paid $297,500. Jeff Gordon won the two 30 lap segments garnering him a check for $160,000, which was a nice finish for an evening filled with the glitz and glamour of an all-star night consisting of Winston Cup's elite.

The bad wreck on lap 11 of the first segment couldn't be blamed on a rookie mistake, and neither could the bad wreck on the re-start of lap 11. There was only one rookie in the race (Tony Stewart, winner of the Winston Open), and he almost won all the marbles. We'll have to keep this in mind for the rest of the season, when they blame the wreck on a rookie mistake. There were no rookie mistakes in the Winston.

One of the neat aspects of The Winston is the different paint schemes on the cars. Dale Earnhardt, who finished forth, was driving his No. 3 car with his old blue and yellow Wrangler paint scheme that he won almost 30 races with in the past. Mark Martin had a Mobile One paint scheme, while Jeff Gordon had Superman on his car and uniform. The paints and decals were all jazzed up to show up better under the lights, which they did beautifully. Even Jimmy Spencer had a different Winston scheme on his No. 23 Taurus. One thing that fascinated me were the shadows on the wall, that seemed to be moving close to 200 MPH at times. The lights coming from a low level in the infield caused this, and I wonder if the people on the stands sitting in the lower seats by the track were affected by these lights glaring at them.

This was the 15th running of The Winston. Three current all star drivers, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, and Ricky Rudd, have raced in all 15 events. Geoffrey Bodine, Terry Labonte, and Bill Elliott have raced in 14 of the all star events. Dale Earnhardt (87', 90', and 93') is the only driver to win the event three times. Davy Allison (91' and 92'), and Jeff Gordon (95' and 97') have the distinction of winning it twice. Two drivers have the distinction of placing second three times, Sterling Marlin (88', 94' and 95') and Ken Schrader (89', 90' and 91').
The copyright of the article The Winston, 99' in NASCAR is owned by Thomas M. Sampson. Permission to republish The Winston, 99' in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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