NASCAR Champion Outlines Astonishing Changes That Made NASCAR Lose Its Identity A NASCAR veteran expresses past and present changes in the sport, implying whether the series has strayed too far from i

In February 2025, Joe Gibbs Racing announced it would commemorate the 25th anniversary of Bobby Labonte’s 2000 NASCAR Cup Series championship, a milestone that also stands as JGR’s first Cup title. Labonte wrapped that season with four victories (including the Brickyard 400 and the Southern 500) and a dominant points margin, clinching the championship with a fourth-place run in the Pennzoil 400 at Homestead–Miami Speedway on November 12, 2000, while teammate Tony Stewart won the race. That Homestead moment, a quiet, assured champagne celebration with the team, captures an era when championship narratives were built across long weekends and sustained season-long runs; it’s the perfect hinge for asking, twenty-five years on, how the sport itself has changed.

At the same time, the sport that