By lap 280, three serious contenders had emerged: Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, and Tony Stewart. Each man dominated different segments of the race, but it appeared that Gordon had the car for the remaining quarter of the race. At 280 some chucklehead got in trouble (I think it was Steve Park), and everybody pitted. They emerged from the pits in much the same order they went in: Gordon leading, then Stewart, Martin, and Bobby. Bobby had stayed close all race, but he didn't have the horsepower to put any moves on the front three.

Then, at lap 292, Kenny Wallace wrecked his car into the next dimension. Everyone had just pitted, so everyone planned on staying out. At the last second, Texas Thunder darted into the pits for a splash and go (that's where you just go in and get gas and then get back out in just a few seconds). No one knew what was going on: how could any one go over a hundred miles on one tank of gas? Well, Bobby did. As the losers kept having to drop out to get gas over the next hundred miles, Bobby calmly picked up spots. Finally Gordon was the only one left ahead of Bobby, but Gordon was no match for Mr. Atlanta that day. The Interstate Battery team made a gutsy and risky call with the long run, but it paid off.

Not much else of interest happened. Our favorite wreckers, Irvan, Nemechek, Rudd, and Bodine, all made it through the race without a single trip to the wall. Dick Trickle made his team proud by panicking and crashing at lap 6, but that was the only fun wreck. The rest of the race was all about Bobby.