Miami
300 - Homestead-Miami
Speedway
Qualifying-
Jeff Gordon will start
his final Busch Series race from the 6th position, after a
solid qualifying run in Bud Pole Qualifying. Bobby Hamilton,
Jr. won his first Bud Pole.
Race-
In his final Busch series race, Jeff Gordon held off a late
race challenge from Mark Martin to win the HotWheels.com 300
at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Gordon started sixth and worked
his way into the top 5 early in the event. He was running
second to Jeff Green when a caution flag for debris in
turnfour slowed the field on lap 128. On the ensuing round
of pit stops, the Rainbow Warriors turned a 16.1 second stop
allowing Gordon to leave pit road with the lead. Over the
final 70 laps, his interval over Green and Martin widened to
about a full second. However, Martin mounted a late charge
in the closing stages to close within two car lengths.
Gordon used lapped traffic to his advantage and held off the
all-time Busch series winner for the victory. In winning his
final BGN start, he denied Martin a final going away present
in a series that he has dominated over the years. Gordon
leaves the BGN series to focus solely on Winston Cup in the
years ahead with a total of 5 Busch wins for 3 different car
owners.