No miscount here — Reed makes trip to victory lane

Friday, March 2, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.

Mark Reed finally got to celebrate a win in The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when he won Thursday night's NAPA Auto Parts 300 NASCAR Winston West race.

Not that it was Reed's first win in Las Vegas.

The 32-year-old Winston West rookie won the NASCAR Southwest Series race at The Bullring last September, but it took five hours before Reed was declared the winner. A scoring error had given the win to Rocky Nash, who got the honor of celebrating in victory lane.

Reed left little doubt early on who would do the celebrating Thursday night, leading the 300-lap race three times for 144 laps. Reed took the lead under caution on lap 219 and held on through five late caution periods during the final 82 laps for the victory before a crowd of 5,500 at the newly remodeled Bullring.

"This is every driver's dream -- to win the pole and win the race," Reed said. "We fell back a little bit early in the race but the crew rallied right back and we made a few changes to car that just made it unstoppable the last 150 laps.

"I felt bad for the crew because they're the ones who work so hard and they're the ones who got shorted on the Victory Lane (celebration) back in September. But this more than makes up for it."

Reed outraced Mike Duncan for the final two laps after the 16th caution period of the race and beat Duncan to the finish line by half a car length. The win was worth $13,660 for the Bakersfield, Calif., resident.

Sean Woodside took third, Austin Cameron was fourth and Kevin Richards rounded out the top five.

The race was slowed by 16 caution periods for 98 laps. There were 12 lead changes among seven drivers and the average speed was 57.725 mph.

The Bullring wasn't very hospitable to the two NASCAR Winston Cup drivers who competed in the race. Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip dropped out of the race after 96 laps when he got caught up in a two-car wreck and finished 23rd.

Ron Hornaday was running in the top five when he bowed out with a blown engine on lap 196 and finished 20th.

Defending Winston West champion and Las Vegas native Brendan Gaughan was running fourth midway through the race when he and Johnny Borneman tangled in Turn 4 and Gaughan stalled his car.

Gaughan lost three laps while waiting for a push-start and managed to make up two laps before making contact with another car while he was racing back to the start/finish line in an attempt to get back on the lead lap after the final caution period. He finished eighth.

Another Las Vegas resident, Wayne Jacks, got caught up in an accident early in the race and finished 24th.

In Thursday's support races, Spencer Clark won the 20-lap Legends Car feature and Randy Swalwell won the 30-lap Grand American Modified race.

Fox Sports Net taped Thursday's Winston West race for broadcast on a date to be determined.