The ringer and the crash make for an unforgettable Watkins Glen race

Some races are decided by the finish: victory decided by a split second, the last victory of an ageing champion, the first victory of a boy with years ahead of him.

Some races are defined by history. Records are set, championships are won and lost. Some races are defined by triumph, others by tragedy.

Some races are defined by moments: daring overtaking maneuvers on the last lap, breathtaking rescues, celebrations. Moments that people never forget. Moments that will be in the movies for years to come. And sometimes moments that they will never forget.

The race: 2000 Lysol 200

Road course specialists have been a part of NASCAR for decades. These are drivers who rarely or never race on ovals and fill in for road course races. Sometimes they take over for a driver who has struggled on road courses, sometimes in an extra car fielded by a team hoping to earn extra prize money.

Ron Fellows was the consummate road racer. He never raced more than five times per season in any NASCAR national series, but was very successful, especially in what was then the Busch Series (now the NASCAR Xfinity Series), where he won four times, three of them for owner Joe Nemechek. That June Sunday at Watkins Glen International, Fellows led three times and set 36 laps, the fastest lap time of the race, beating another road racer, Butch Leitzinger, to the finish line.

The race was slowed by five caution periods, all of them single-car accidents. The first occurred on lap 12 when David Green slid into a gravel trap. Fellows, who had led the first 13 laps from pole in the yellow and purple No. 87, relinquished the lead by pitting for fuel.

PJ Jones led for seven laps before Tom Hubert took the lead on lap 20 after an aggressive overtaking move at Turn 1. Fellows, who had to fight his way up from the middle of the pack after the pit stop, marched through the field, then took the lead back from Hubert when the latter ran wide at the first corner.

Three laps later, Hubert over-exaggerated the same corner again, this time going off the track and landing in the sand, prompting the second caution period. This time Fellows stayed on track and kept the lead, which he held until the next caution period on lap 47 for rookie Jimmie Johnson, who had been driving a calm, solid race until brake failure ended his day in brutal fashion.

Ron Hornaday Jr. led the next 11 laps before Leitzinger took the lead during the next caution period (due to a spin by NASCAR Hall of Famer Mike Stefanik) on lap 59 and led the next 13 laps, the only laps he would lead in NASCAR competition.

Fellows, however, was the best in the field. He caught Leizinger with 11 laps to go and passed him in the backstretch chicane to take the win. After a solo crash with Lyndon Amick, he held on until the restart with one lap to go. Fellows had some damage to his car that slowed him in the final laps, but Leitzinger and Kevin Harvick were unable to get by before time ran out. It was Fellows' second Busch Series victory at age 40; a year later, he won two consecutive Busch Series contests at The Glen.

In numbers

Race winner: Ron Fellows

Second: Butch Leitzinger

Pole sitter: Scholarship holders

Victory margin: .901 seconds

Race time: 2:13:04

Caution: five for 11 rounds

Change of leadership: six out of five drivers

Leading round participants: 27 of 44

Run at the finish: 39 of 44

DNQ: Michael Ritch, Dale Quarterley, Jamie Guerrero, John Preston

Noteworthy: The race was part of a standalone weekend on June 24-25 for what was then the Busch and Craftsman Truck Series. Trucks raced on Saturday and Busch on Sunday. The Cup Series ran the same Sunday at Sonoma Raceway. Fellows also finished third in the CTS race that weekend. Drivers included future Cup champions Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson (as well as Kurt Busch in the CTS race). Eventual series champion Jeff Green finished 10th, his ninth consecutive top-10 finish in a 14-race series, his only finish outside the top five during that span. Current Cup Series Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer finished seventh.

Why fans still talk about it

The Fellows rode a beautiful race. It's a shame that most people hardly remember it.

Why? Because a rookie driver, a relatively unknown driver with only two top-10 finishes at the time, crashed so spectacularly that the accident is still featured in Watkins Glen highlights more than two decades later. The boy was thrilled to be alive at the end, climbed onto the roof of his car and celebrated.

Twenty-four years later, everyone knows the kid's name because he's a seven-time Cup winner. But that day, Jimmie Johnson was just a rookie who had one hell of a scary ride.

Johnson's No. 92 suddenly veered to the right as something on the car apparently broke and fell into the grass on the inside of the first corner.

As any driver can attest, sliding through the grass doesn't reduce speed at all. And with no brakes, Johnson just rocketed through the grass, getting just enough airborne as he crossed the track to clear the deep sand that's designed to stop cars leaving the track before they hit the barrier behind.

Johnson hit the Armco barrier so hard that it bent a few feet. What saved the boy was a double row of giant Styrofoam blocks in front of the metal Armco. Johnson's car was buried in the fence almost up to its rear quarters, but the foam and Armco barrier did their job.

As he flew toward the white Styrofoam blocks, what must have felt like the blink of an eye and an eternity at the same time, Johnson thought it was a concrete wall. Terrified, he crashed into it, sending foam flying everywhere. He later said his spontaneous celebration was fueled only by adrenaline and sheer gratitude for surviving the accident.

Not unlike the poor skier who every week on the old The wide world of sports To illustrate the agony of defeat, Johnson, an 83-time Cup winner, has had to endure that crash every year since, which looms like a bad penny. He can still be seen on television when the Cup Series goes to Watkins Glen.

After a Hall of Fame career, Johnson is still, at least for a moment each summer, the kid with the silly haircut who starred in “that accident in the Glen.” And everyone knows exactly which accident that is.