SEASON IN REVIEW
Shickshinny, Pennsylvania driver Ryan McGlynn picked up his first LASTCAR Truck Series Championship in 2000, scoring three last-place finishes in eighteen starts during a twenty-four race season. McGlynn beat defending LASTCAR Truck Series Champion Phil Bonifield for the title in the series’ first bottom-ten tiebreaker 12-8.
McGlynn was competing in his third Truck Series season. He often failed to finish, but his team wasn’t quite a “start-and-park” operation. Coming into 2000, his best finish was a 24th at Nashville in 1999, a mark he improved in four other races in 2000, including a season-best 16th during the wild season-opener in Daytona. However, with three DNQs and ten DNFs, McGlynn still secured his first LASTCAR title.
McGlynn’s first last-place finish of the year came on the road course at Portland on April 22, when his #00 Howes Lubricator Chevrolet broke the transmission after 23 laps of the Line-X 225. The next finish came seven races later at another road course, this time at Watkins Glen, where his #00 Buyers Choice / Howes Chevrolet lost the brakes after the opening lap of the Bully Hill Vineyards 150 on June 24, to date the most recent Truck Series race held at that track. McGlynn’s third finish came at the inaugural race on the short-lived Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero, Illinois on August 27, where his #00 Howes Lubricator Chevrolet crashed 9 laps into the Sears Craftsman 175.
In McGlynn’s entire six-year, 44-race career, the July 1 running of the Sears DieHard 200 at Milwaukee, where he finished next-to-last due to brake problems 35 laps into the race, was the only time he didn’t drive his self-prepared #00 Chevrolets. His best finish came at Kentucky in 2001, where he finished 11th, and he made his final series start at South Boston on October 4, 2003.
The McGlynn team competed briefly in the Cup Series in 2004 through 2006 with a best finish of 32nd with Carl Long at Bristol and Atlanta in 2005. In 2006, McGlynn’s #74 Dodges carried Derrike Cope to his record-breaking third LASTCAR Cup Championship, setting a single-season last-place record that stood for three years.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
LASTCAR Championship runner-up Phil Bonifield lost the bottom-five tiebreaker to McGlynn, but his three last-place finishes raised his career total to nine, allowing him to take the overall Truck Series last-place record from Mike Hurlbert. Bonifield would hold the record through 2007, when he was tied by Wayne Edwards. Edwards, who scored his first Truck Series last-place run in 2000 at Mesa Marin on March 26 when his #93 WorldBestBuy.com Chevrolet lost its brakes 57 laps into the Dodge California 250, would not hold sole possession of the record until 2009.
The Truck Series made its debut at Daytona for the Daytona 250 on February 18, the first unrestricted NASCAR race at the superspeedway since 1987. The race produced a thrilling last-lap slingshot pass by Mike Wallace for the inaugural win, but also a terrifying thirteen-truck crash on Lap 57 that severely injured 1986 Daytona 500 Champion Geoffrey Bodine. Finishing last that day was David Starr, whose #35 Unified Office Network Chevrolet lost the engine after 10 laps.
Tragically, Tony Roper became the first Truck Series driver to lose his life when he crashed head-on into the outside-wall on Lap 32 of the October 13 running of the O’Reilly 400 at Texas. Finishing last that night was Tommy Croft, whose #71 Rowland Racing Chevrolet was involved in another serious ten-truck wreck on Lap 2.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) Phil Bonifield [8 B5s, 8 B10s], Ryan McGlynn [8 B5s, 12 B10s] (3)
2nd) Randy Tolsma, B.A. Wilson (2)
3rd) Kenny Allen, Brad Bennett, Mike Cope, Tommy Croft, Wayne Edwards, Chris Horn, Donny Morelock, Lance Norick, Randy Renfrow, Tony Roper, Lonnie Rush, Jr., Jack Sprague, David Starr, Rick Ware (1)
