NASCAR Winston Cup runs on road racing courses twice a year: once at Watkins Glen and once at Sears Point. Sears Point Raceway is located in Sonoma, California - in the wine country north east of San Francisco. This natural terrain road course makes good use of the California coastal hills with elevation changes and very technical sections including the famous esses. The traditional course layout is modified for NASCAR by the elimination of the Carousel section (turns 5 and 6) with a straight shot from turn 4 to 6 called "The Chute."

While the carousel is one of the great landmark corners of this course, the majority of fans cannot see it on the hillside above turns 2 through 4. The other rationale for the change was to provide fans with more laps for a given race distance (350km). The addition of The Chute eliminated a good passing zone in the carousel, and part of the track's $35m modernisation plan included a redesign of this section to lengthen the course slightly and add a better passing zone into turn 7. For more information on Sears Point Raceway, visit their website at http://www.searspoint.com where you can see many pictures of the modernisation in progress.

Coming into the event Jeff Gordon was the clear favourite. Not only has Jeff won the past three Winston Cup events at Sears Point but the track is also only 12 miles from his childhood home in Vallejo, California. At Sears Point the fans turn out to cheer the local NASCAR super-star on. This favourite status was further emphasised when Jeff took pole on Friday rather effortlessly.

The race started under partly cloudy skies and cooler than normal temperatures, but a great day for racing before a huge crowd. The race began with the usual rubbing and banging that NASCAR is famous for on road courses but was relatively clean until the first full-course caution on lap 31. One of the hired "road course specialists" Brian Simo (of Trans Am fame) stopped on the track just past the start/finish line requiring a tow in. This was in the window for the first round of pit stops so everyone on the lead lap came in for tires and fuel. Another of the road course specialists, Ron Fellows, had stopped the lap prior and remained on course to take the lead when everyone else came in for pit stops under caution. By doing so Fellows assumed the race lead over Jeff Gordon, Robbie Gordon, Rusty Wallace and Jerry Nadeau.

On lap 52 Steve Park's Pennzoil-sponsored car overheated resulting in an engine bay fire. This brought out the race's second full-course caution. Ron Fellows and Robby Gordon came in for tires and fuel during this caution period but 14 other leaders remained out to keep valuable track position. When the track went green on lap 55 the top 5 running order was Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Tony Stewart, Johnny Benson and Ward Burton.

On lap 63 Mike Skinner went off at turn 3 and was unable to return which brought out the race's third full-course caution. Most of the field stayed out this time since the pit window for the final stop for fuel and tires had not quite opened yet and two more stops was a loosing proposition.

The final pit window opened up at lap 72. On lap 73 Jeff Gordon came in from the lead for his last pit stop. Robby Gordon remained out and took the race lead for a few laps prior to his last stop. The running order for the top three at this point was Jeff Gordon, Robby Gordon, and Tony Stewart. On lap 86 Jeff Gordon overcooked his braking into turn 11 allowing Robby Gordon to slip past into the race lead.

On lap 92 Kevin Harvick made his last stop and entered the course with the race leaders. Robby Gordon, the race leader, went past Harvick putting him a lap down. Harvick was clearly faster than Robby Gordon at this point due to having fresh tires and he was desperately trying to get his lap back in case another caution came out which would allow him to get back in the pack on the lead lap. Meanwhile Jeff Gordon overcooked his entry into turn 11 once again allowing Tony Stewart past. The running order for the top three with 12 laps to go (lap 100) was Robby Gordon, Tony Stewart, and Jeff Gordon. Harvick and Robby Gordon touched a bit more aggressively and seeing his chance Tony Stewart pounced into the race lead. Robby Gordon remained on course in second spot. Around this time Ron Fellows and Bill Elliott came together coming out of turn 11 and Fellows wound up in the wall along the start/finish straight. This brought the race's final caution period. The track went green with seven laps remaining. The running order from this point on to the finish of the race was Tony Stewart, Robby Gordon, and Jeff Gordon.

Robby Gordon's post-race quote: "These road course races are tough to win. Last year's race was a battle with some hard racing. Guys were bumping and banging all day. If you get distracted, you start to make mistakes. You just have to keep your cool and keep your rhythm. With so many turns and shifts throughout the race, you are going to make mistakes. You just have to recover from them, put them behind you, focus on the next corner and get back into your rhythm."

1) Tony Stewart No. 20 Home Depot Pontiac 112 laps
2) Robby Gordon No. 7 NationsRent Ford -1.746
3) Jeff Gordon No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet -3.143
4) Ricky Rudd No. 28 Texaco Ford -3.808
5) Rusty Wallace No. 2 Miller Lite Ford -5.731
6) Ward Burton No. 22 Caterpillar Dodge -8.464
7) Bobby Labonte No. 18 Interstate Batteries Pontiac -9.899
8) Jeff Burton No. 99 CITGO Ford -12.264
9) Bill Elliott No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge -12.742
10) Mark Martin No. 6 Pfizer/Viagra Ford -15.211
11) Boris Said No. 77 Jasper Engines Ford -19.185
12) Scott Pruett No. 33 Oakwood Homes Chevrolet -20.525
13) Brett Bodine No. 11 Ralph's/Red Cell Ford -21.723
14) Kevin Harvick No. 29 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet -21.871
15) Bobby Hamilton No. 55 Square D Chevrolet -22.041
16) Ricky Craven No. 32 Tide Ford -22.267
17) Elliott Sadler No. 21 Motorcraft Ford -23.599
18) Ron Hornaday No. 14 Conseco Pontiac -24.623
19) Dale Earnhardt Jr. No. 8 Budweiser Chevrolet -26.558
20) Michael Waltrip No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet -27.031
21) Matt Kenseth No. 17 DeWalt Ford -29.569
22) Kyle Petty No. 45 Sprint Dodge -30.539
23) Kurt Busch No. 97 Sharpie/Rubbermaid Ford -31.134
24) Stacy Compton No. 92 Kodak Dodge -34.329
25) Dorsey Schroeder No. 01 Cingular Dodge -35.839
26) Dale Jarrett No. 88 UPS Ford -39.678
27) Jimmy Spencer No. 26 Kmart Ford -1:06.328
28) Sterling Marlin No. 40 Coors Light Dodge -1:06.544
29) Johnny Benson No. 10 Valvoline Pontiac -1:46.958
30) John Andretti No. 43 Cheerios Dodge 111 laps
31) Jerry Nadeau No. 25 UAW/Delphi Chevrolet 111
32) Dave Blaney No. 93 Amoco Dodge 111
33) Todd Bodine No. 66 Kmart Ford 111
34) Mike Skinner No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet 111
35) Buckshot Jones No. 44 Georgia Pacific Dodge 111
36) Terry Labonte No. 5 Kellogg's Chevrolet 110
37) Ken Schrader No. 36 M&Ms Pontiac 104
38) Ron Fellows No. 87 Nortel Chevrolet 101
39) Jeremy Mayfield No. 12 Mobil 1 Ford 97
40) Steve Park No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet 93
41) Casey Atwood No. 41 Dodge/UAW Dodge 41
42) Brian Simo No. 90 Hills Bros Ford 30
43) Kevin Lepage No. 4 Kodak Chevrolet 2