The 2000 UAW-GM Quality 500 was the 29th stock car race of the

2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series file:MattKenseth&KevinHarvick.jpg, Matt Kenseth, (pictured in 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, 2007) was the NASCAR Rookie of the Year. The 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series was the 52nd season of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, professional sto ...

and the 41st iteration of the

event Event may refer to: Gatherings of people * Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion * Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest * Event management, the organization of eve ...

. The race was held on Sunday, October 8, 2000, before an audience of 140,000 in

Concord, North Carolina Concord ( ) is the most populous city in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 105,240 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Concord is the second-most populous city in the Cha ...

, at

Charlotte Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009 due to sponsorship reasons) is a quad-oval Oval track racing#Intermediate, intermediate speedway in Concord, North Carolina. It has hosted various major races since it ...

, a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) permanent quad-oval. The race took the scheduled 334 laps to complete. In the final laps of the race,

Joe Gibbs Racing Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is an American professional stock car racing organization founded by Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs. His son, J. D. Gibbs, ran the team with him until his death in 2019. Founded in Huntersville, North Carolina, ...

Bobby Labonte Robert Allen Labonte (born May 8, 1964) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver and current analyst for ''NASCAR on Fox''. He also currently competes part-time in the SMART Modified Tour, driving the No. 18L for Hermie Sa ...

managed to make a late-race pass for the lead, assisted by a late four-tire pit stop. The victory was Labonte's 15th career

NASCAR Winston Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

victory and his fourth and final victory of the season. To fill out the top three,

Penske-Kranefuss Racing Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship and FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Day ...

Jeremy Mayfield Jeremy Allen Mayfield (born May 27, 1969) is an American former stock car racing driver. He drove cars for the Sadler brothers, T.W. Taylor, Cale Yarborough, Michael Kranefuss, Roger Penske, Ray Evernham, Bill Davis, and Gene Haas. In 2009, he d ...

and

Robert Yates Racing Yates Racing was an American stock car racing team that competed in NASCAR through the 2009 season, after which it merged into Richard Petty Motorsports. Previously known as Robert Yates Racing, the team was owned by Doug Yates, who has offici ...

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finished second and third, respectively.

Background

Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious

Coca-Cola 600 The Coca-Cola 600, originally the World 600, is an annual NASCAR Cup Series points race held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, on a Sunday during Memorial Day weekend. The first race, held in 1960, was also the firs ...

on Memorial Day weekend and the

NEXTEL All-Star Challenge All-star game, All-Star events are annually held in the NASCAR Cup Series at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Beginning in 2008, NASCAR began the practice of using Roman numerals to identify each race, but ended one ...

, as well as the UAW-GM Quality 500. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith (son of

Bruton Smith Ollen Bruton Smith (March 3, 1927 – June 22, 2022) was an American motorsports executive and businessman. He was best known as the owner of two public companies, Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI) and Sonic Automotive. Smith held the positions ...

) as track president.

Entry list

* (R) denotes rookie driver.

Practice

First practice

The first practice session was held on Wednesday, October 4, at 3:00 PM EST. The session would last for three hours.

set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 29.292 and an average speed of .

Second practice

The second practice session was held on Thursday, October 5, at 2:30 PM EST. The session would last for two hours. Team SABCO's

Ted Musgrave Theodore David Musgrave Sr. (born December 18, 1955) is an American former stock car racing driver. Pre-NASCAR Musgrave's father, Elmer, was a famous short-track racer in the Midwest who raced for over 25 years at Soldier Field, O'Hare, Waukega ...

set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 29.962 and an average speed of .

Third practice

The third practice session was held on Saturday, October 7, at 9:00 AM EST. The session would last for one hour.

Hendrick Motorsports Hendrick Motorsports is an American professional auto racing organization that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded in 1984 as All-Star Racing by Rick Hendrick. Hendrick Motorsports has won a NASCAR-record 316 Cup Series ra ...

Jerry Nadeau Jerry Anthony Nadeau (born September 9, 1969) is an American former stock car racer. He competed in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. He started racing go-karts before moving up to car racing, driving in the 12 Hours of Sebring, the European Formu ...

set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 29.697 and an average speed of .

Final practice

The final practice session, sometimes referred to as Happy Hour, was held on Saturday, October 7, after the 2000 All Pro Bumper to Bumper 300. The session would last for one hour.

set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 30.093 and an average speed of .

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Wednesday, October 4, at 8:00 PM EST. Each driver would have two laps to set a fastest time; the fastest of the two would count as their official qualifying lap. During the first round, the top 25 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Thursday, October 5, at 6:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have two laps to set a fastest time; the fastest of the two would count as their official qualifying lap. Positions 26-36 would be decided on time, while positions 37-43 would be based on provisionals. Six spots were awarded by the use of provisionals based on owner's points. The seventh was awarded to a past champion who has not otherwise qualified for the race. If no past champion needs the provisional, the next team in the owner points was awarded a provisional.

Jeff Gordon Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American stock car racing executive and former professional stock car racing driver who currently serves as the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, d ...

, driving for

, would win the pole, setting a time of 29.101 and an average speed of in the first round. Seven drivers would fail to qualify.

Full qualifying results

Race results

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings * Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

Notes

References

{{NASCAR on TBS 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series NASCAR races at Charlotte Motor Speedway October 2000 sports events in the United States 2000 in sports in North Carolina