SEASON IN REVIEW
Saluda, South Carolina driver Lyndon Amick picked up his second LASTCAR Busch Series Grand National Division title in 2000, scoring two last-place finishes in twenty-nine starts during a thirty-two race season. Amick became the first two-time LASTCAR Busch Series Grand National Division Champion by defeating Derrick Gilchrist in a bottom-five tiebreaker 6-3.
Amick improved from 34th to 28th in the point standings and scored three more Top Tens during the longest season of his career. However, he still failed to qualify for three races, including two of the last four, and suffered eight DNFs including two last-place finishes.
Amick’s first last-place finish of the season came in the series’ final appearance at the old Nashville Fairgrounds in Nashville, Tennessee, where his #35 Powertel / Mitsubishi Wireless Chevrolet lost the engine after 146 of the race’s 320 laps. The other finish came fourteen races later at Indianapolis Raceway Park, where his #35 got in a single-car crash after 59 laps of the Kroger 200 on August 4.
Derrick Gilchrest finished last at Fontana and Michigan driving for Andy Petree, but made just nine starts that season and lost the bottom-five tiebreaker.
Amick competed in just eighteen more Busch Series Grand National Division races through 2003, making his final series start for the same family-owned team at Talladega on April 5, 2003, where an eighteen-car crash left him 36th in the 43-car field. In that race, Amick drove a car with the words “Support Our Soldiers” on it, which proved appropriate - he joined the South Carolina Army National Guard and served in Afghanistan later that year.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Tony Raines was competing in just his second Busch Series Grand National Division season in 2000 when he scored his first last-place finish at Pikes Peak. Raines’ #3 Alka-Seltzer Plus / Aleve Chevrolet fell out with crash damage after 206 laps of the NAPA Autocare 250 on July 22. He also improved his career-best finish to a 2nd at South Boston on June 10, and, although winless, he has made 276 series starts through 2012.
Second-generation racer Bobby Hamilton, Jr. scored his first last-place finish at Darlington on September 2, when his #26 Carroll Racing Chevrolet suffered ignition failure after 3 laps of the Dura Lube / All Prop Bumper to Bumper 200. The 22-year-old Hamilton made his Cup debut driving for his father Bobby Hamilton’s team at Homestead on November 12, where he came home 33rd. His father finished 31st driving for Morgan-McClure the year he won the 2000 LASTCAR Cup Series Championship.
Two-time Daytona 500 Champion Sterling Marlin scored his first Busch Series Grand National Division last-place finish in 2000 when his #01 BellSouth Mobility Chevrolet was taken out in a three-car crash after 28 laps of the Autolite / Fram 250 at Richmond on September 8. Marlin also scored his second and final Busch win that year at Bristol, his first win in the series since Charlotte in 1990. Marlin was not expected to start the Bristol race, and was a last-minute substitution before the race started.
At Memphis on October 29, Dungannon, North Ireland’s Kieran Dynes became the Busch Series Grand National Division’ first foreign-born last-place finisher. Making his only NASCAR start in the #77 Lear Corporation / UAW Ford, Dynes fell out with crash damage after he completed 9 of the race’s 250 laps.
In the season finale at Homestead, the November 11 running of the Miami 300, Scott Wimmer scored his first last-place finish when his #20 AT&T Pontiac was involved in a single-car crash after thirteen laps. Just nine days later, with just three Busch starts in his career, Wimmer made his Cup debut in the rain-delayed NAPA 500 at Atlanta. Wimmer led nine laps and finished a respectable 22nd, ultimately paving the way to his rookie Cup season in 2004.
Jeff Green dominated the series in 2000, winning six races, scoring an impressive 25 Top Fives and 27 Top Tens in thirty-two starts, and running away with the title by 616 points over runner-up Jason Keller. Green also finished worse than 14th just twice all season, but both times they were multi-car crashes that left him 42nd, just barely averting last-place runs in each. In the NAPA Auto Parts 300 at Daytona, Green caught air in a terrible ten-car wreck after 13 laps, but was edged for last by Mike Skinner, another of the cars involved. The other 42nd came at Dover on September 23, where a four-car wreck took him out of the MBNA.com 200 after 30 laps. Jason Jarrett, also involved in the wreck, ran two fewer laps than Green and held onto 43rd.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Lyndon Amick [6 B5s], Derrick Gilchrist [3 B5s] (2)
2nd) Casey Atwood, Joe Bessey, Mike Borkowski, Chad Chaffin, Rodney Childers, Kieran Dynes, David Green, Kevin Grubb, Wayne Grubb, Bobby Hamilton, Jr., Lance Hooper, Matt Hutter, Jason Jarrett, Jason Keller, Anthony Lazzaro, Kevin Lepage, Sterling Marlin, Mike McLaughlin, Hank Parker, Jr., Scott Pruett, Jeff Purvis, Tony Raines, Jay Sauter, Ken Schrader, Mike Skinner, Jack Sprague, Mike Wallace, Scott Wimmer (1)
