After a one-day delay because of rain, America got to witness one of the most exciting races of the year. Of course, no one in the south got to see it, because they don't honor Yankee holidays like Columbus Day. Stand by your principles, y'all. I'll take the day off, thank you.

Texas Thunder dominated the race for all but the last three laps, which means he ended up being first loser. His tires went away from him in the waning laps, and Jeff Gordon was able to make up the two-second deficit created by Labonte's incredible driving ability. By the way, you shouldn't think much of Gordon not having Evernham anymore. Doesn't matter who's in that chair in the pits - Gordon calls his own stops. He knows what he needs, and he tells them what to do before he even gets there.

But now you're asking, why did Bobby's tires go away? Because Chad Little is an idiot. Here's the deal: Bobby gets out to a huge lead with about 80 laps to go. I mean he's way ahead of second place Dale Jarrett, by about 7 seconds. A few more laps go by and there's a caution. So there goes Bobby's lead, everyone's tightened up, everyone pits. Bobby comes out of the pits in front, but his car is clearly not handling as well as it was. He and DJ drop back to third and fourth place, respectively, as Mike Skinner and Jeff Gordon jump out ahead of the pack. Gordon and Skinner trade for first place for a few laps, and DJ keeps dropping back. But Bobby stabilizes in third, and the next thing you know he passes Skinner and Gordon in one Texas-big move. He blasts past them and starts picking his way through lapped traffic. Skinner and Gordon are strong, but they're no match for Bobby. Things continue this way until about 10 laps to go. Gordon is now stronger than Skinner, and he leaves him behind in third. Gordon is ever-so-slightly faster than Labonte, but what with their only being 10 laps to go, and what with Labonte having an huge 2.2-second advantage, there was no way Gordon could catch him unaided. Well, Gordon got all the aid he needed from Chad Little. Little was ahead of Bobby, and the bonehead kept trying to pass Bill Elliott. And I'm not talking about Little trying to pick up 4th place or nothing. He was a lap behind Elliott, so the move had nothing to do with position. Anyway, Little hogged up the outside lane for several laps, and Bobby had to burn up a lot of rubber getting around him and Elliott. By the time he got around the jerk, his tires were gone and his lead was cut to 0.7 seconds. You know about the rest. What a nightmare.