Sofa Sideline – Biffle Wins in Milwaukee
Greg Biffle managed to ‘beat the heat’
at Sunday’s running of the GNC Live Well 250 in Milwaukee this past Sunday.
Throughout much of the race, the number 60 was not the best, but great pit
stops, and just plain perseverance seemed to be the ticket that brought him home
a winner.
Jason Keller, a front-runner for much of
the day, gave it his best effort in an attempt to catch Biffle during the final
laps, but Biffle came off the corners stronger and was able to hang on for the
lead.
Finishing third, and what seemed the car
to beat, was the number 23 driven by Scott Wimmer. After Daytona, Wimmer will be
moving up to the Winston Cup series to run a limited scheduled throughout the
remainder of the season. It’s reported he will be running the #27 Siemens
Dodge in seven Cup events; still maintaining his rookie status for 2003. Best of
luck goes out to Scott as he makes his debut in the Winston Cup Series.
Rounding out the top ten in Sundays event
were; Ron Hornaday 4th, Tony Raines 5th, Shane Hmiel 6th,
Bobby Hamilton 7th, Mike McLaughlin 8th, Tim Sauter 9th,
with Randy Lajoie finishing in the 10th position.
Many people might say that Shane Hmiel had
a good run, but there more than likely were a number of drivers who had a few
words with him at the end of the day. He was all over the place.
Kerry Earnhardt was having a sold run –
running somewhere around the 9th position, when Hmiel just basically
took him out. Kerry did a nice job of saving his car from being totally wrecked,
but it pretty much ended his day at that point. Earnhardt finished in the 18th
position.
Jack Sprague, the points leader, ended up
in 14th position. He and Wimmer got into each other exiting pit road,
but Wimmer managed to recover and finish well. Sprague now has a lead of just 46
points over second place Greg Biffle, with Jason Keller moving into the 3rd
spot, 75 points out. Scott Riggs had engine trouble and fell out of the race on
lap 73 resulting in a loss of two positions in the run for the money.
Other notes:
Sam Hornish won the IRL race at Richmond
International Speedway this past Saturday. It’s reported that he will run a
limited number of races for DEI next year in the Winston Cup Division. Hornish
is a very skilled young driver and it will be interesting to see how well he
does in the Cup Series. Hornish, however, is saying that he will stay with IRL
and would like to stay with the series for years to come. We shall see; let’s
face it, WC is a much more lucrative series.
The Kyle Petty Charity Bike Ride
officially ended yesterday with a big concert at his farm in Trinity, North
Carolina. After reading Kyle’s diaries all week long, one sure got a sense of
the support this group received from people all across the country. What Kyle
and Patti are doing is way above and beyond the norm, and they should be
commended for their efforts. Kyle – my check is in the mail today!
The Ricky Rudd retirement saga continues
– will he leave, will he stay? Rumors had him talking to Andy Petree and Jerry
Jones (yikes – Giants fan status showing again); well they have him talking to
just about everyone. In the end, Rudd will do what he thinks best for himself;
for his family; we’ll just have to wait and see.
Next up; the Pepsi 400 in Daytona. But in
the meantime, if you’re looking for a good race, check out the ARCA RE/MAX
Series race at the short-track in South Boston, Virginia on Wednesday, July 3rd.
The race is scheduled to go off at 8:00 p.m., but if you can’t make it in
person, check it out "live" on the Speed Channel. Kenny Schrader is
listed among the drivers scheduled to run, as well as former Winston Cup driver,
Red Farmer, who will be driving the Bob Schacht owned number 75. These two,
combined with the heated battle for the points in this Series, should make for
some great racing. So, don’t miss the action!
That’s it for now.