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April l7, l999 Goodson Wins Slim-Jim All Pro Winn Dixie 200 St. Augustine Speedway - The NASCAR Slim-Jim All Pro
race, their last race in Florida for the year l999, almost did not happen.
It rainned but the track was not ready to cancel the race that fast and
waited until 3 o'clock before making their decision as to whether they
would race or not. By 3, the rain had gone and they were busy drying
the track - the race was on.
Thirty three cars came to qualify for the Slim-Jim All Pro race. Last
week at Lakeland, 43 cars came for the 35 car field so a few were
obviously not ready to race this week after last weekend's wreck.
One car at St. Augustine went into the wall during hot laps and was
not able to make the field and Ron Young blew his engine during his
second qualifying lap knocking him out of the race. So, for this last
Slim-Jim race in our state, we had a 3l car field.
Two rookies had the pole and outside pole positions for the Winn Dixie 200,
Rodney Childers and Robbie Pyle. Out of the 31 cars taking the track for
this race, l3 were rookies. Before the race begun, Rodney Childers was
given the Bud Pole Award of $300.00 for his great qualifying lap and Wayne
Anderson's Crew Chief was named the Jasper Engine Crew Chief of the
Week from last weekend's race at Lakeland. The field was set, the order
to "start your engines" was given and the Winn Dixie 200 was on its way.
Rodney Childers took the lead from the beginning and on lap 16 the first
caution came out. A car in turn 4 had spunaround and caused the caution.
The race was restarted on lap 2l with Rodney still leading the pack. Then
on lap 31, Scott Kilby in the #45 took the lead and Childers was second.
Lap 35 brought out the second caution of the night when another car went
around between turn l and 2. Lap 39 the race was restarted with Kilby still
in the lead. Seven laps later, lap 46, Conrad Burr went into the turn 2
wall and the race was restarted on lap 49 with Scott Kilby in the lead and Rodney Childers in second.
Lap 61 saw quite a few cars turn around but none was out of the race. The
leaders took this caution flag to come into the pits and get new tires and gas
and make whatever adjustments their cars needed. The new line-up for the
restart was Scott Kilby, Hal Goodson, David Bonnett, Mike Franklin, Jr. and
Steven Howard. Lap 68 the race restarted and on lap 70, Hal Goodson took
the lead from Scott Kilby
The race stayed green until lap l32 when Larry Raines in the #37 spun around. The race was restarted on lap l36 with Hal Goodson, David Bonnett, Ronnie Burkett, Billy Bigley, Jr. and Wayne Anderson in the top five. On lap l70, the #14 of Josh Clemons took a spin around and the caution flag came out for the last time in the 200 lap race. The race was restarted on lap l72 with Hal Goodson, Ronnie Burkett, Wayne Anderson, Billy Bigley and Coy Gibbs as the top five. None of this changed until the closing laps of the race when Rodney Childers in the #54 took over the fifth place position from Coy Gibbs's #44.
When the race was over, Hal Goodson did donuts on the track and shared
his happiness with all. Also, Tina Gordon, the only female and also a rookie
in the NASCAR Slim-Jim All Pro race, had a reason to smile. She did not
qualify for the first race at Lakeland but she did make the race at St.
Augustine. She had her hands full most of the night but no matter what, she never quit racing.
And this was the NASCAR Slim-Jim All Pro Winn Dixie 200. Great race,
great fans and can't wait until 2000 and you come back to Florida.
TOP FIVE:
1. #16 - Hal Goodson
2. #31 - Ronnie Burkett
3. #86 - Wayne Anderson
4. #28 - Billy Bigley, Jr.
6. #54 - Rodney Childers |
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