Fireworks On Short Tracks and the Big D
Here’s something you may think is crazy – fireworks shows can be superfluous.
But if they are at racetracks, then the races can have more spectacular
fireworks than the real thing. On the weekend before the 4th of July short track
shootouts raged on, and there were plenty of fireworks without the literal ones.
Richmond International Raceway kicked things off with the Featherlite
Modifieds, and Todd Szegedy started 15th and rocketed up the field. He took the
lead at Lap 45 and led 26 laps before halfway rains interrupted things for 90
minutes. Szegedy retook the lead with 54 to go and bagged his first Mod Tour
win, in only his 11th start. The win was also the first for team owner Don
Barker, and the first of the year for Ford.
Szegedy’s win put pride in one of his home tracks, Stafford Motor Speedway.
While their grad was at Richmond the speedway once again had plenty of fireworks
– a week after one of their best SK Modified features in years, Stafford ran a
100-lapper for the SKs and Mike Christopher, who has not raced at Stafford all
season, drove Ted’s Mystique Motorsports Chevrolet to the win after starting
deep in the pack.
The fireworks came in caution after caution – so many the race felt like a
500-lapper. But they didn’t quite match the fireworks in the Late Model feature,
as Carl Holmgren bagged his first career Late Model win after racing three
abreast for over a full lap with Marc Atkinson and Ryan Posacco; that three-wide
battle lasted even longer as Craig Collins roared into second and Atkinson was
passing cars up the middle, and Tom Butler tried to go four-wide for fifth in
Turn Four, and wound up sideways in the front stretch grass.
All of this made Stafford’s literal fireworks show between the Late Model and
SK features a little superfluous.
And as if that wasn’t enough, north of the border at Cayuga Speedway in
Ontario, Canada, CASCAR’s Canada Day Shootout 100-lapper invited Tony Stewart,
Ken Schrader, Ted Musgrave (on the heels of his fifth place finish in
Milwaukee’s Truck 200), Johnny Benson, Dave Blaney, and Matt Kenseth for a good
time on a Canadian short track. It turned out to be a mini-brawl; during a
50-lap qualifier, Ken Schrader tagged Stewart into the grass. Stewart, already
furious because the Peter Vanderwyst #20 wasn’t to his liking, roared through
the field and blasted into Schrader hard enough to cut down a tire. Schrader
brushed off the whole incident as just part of the show the 15,000 fans at
Cayuga expected to see from the NASCAR guys.
Kenseth, for his part, roared Kevin Dowler’s Ford from fifth to gun down
CASCAR point leader Don Thomson with six to go in the feature. "It was fun
to race him and he raced me awful hard, but I didn’t have any car left,"
Thomson said.
And short track mayhem continued up and down the USA, from USAR’s Hooters
ProCup bash at Kenly, NC won by Bobby Gill despite smashing into a clump of
backmarkers, through Butch Miller’s clutch win at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway
in West Salem, WI over rookie phenom David Stremme, and on bullrings all over.
THAT’S WHY THEY PLAY THE GAME.
Chris Berman’s truism about pre-competition predictions applied to Richmond’s
Indy 250 weekend. The USAC Silver Crown cars kicked things off on Saturday and
David Steele got into it for the win with Ed Carpenter. Carpenter grabbed the
lead on Lap 88 but Steele shot him down on the last lap. "I thought once I
got past him I would be able to get away," Carpenter said afterward.
"The car just kept getting tighter and tighter." Carpenter made no
effort to block off Steele, because "I just wanted to race him clean."
After sweeping the IRL front row, Penske Racing appeared ready to beat up the
competition as they’ve done on the one-milers this year. Gil De Ferran appeared
destined to do just that, but instead Sam Hornish gunned him down with two to
go. Combined with Helio Castroneves’ Lap Two crash, and the IRL point race
suddenly becomes heated entering the superspeedway swing of the season, a swing
in which the Penskes have so far not shown the speed to beat Hornish; it is also
a stretch in which Al Unser Jr., after his stellar effort at Texas, can get
something going as well.
Tomas Scheckter’s fourth after team owner Eddie Cheever’s crash was a
breakthrough for the rookie. Having gotten the blinding speed bit down, now he’s
working on finishing, and once he gets that down he’ll be a force for victories
by year’s end. Team owner Cheever is also looking forward to the next round, at
Kansas Speedway, where he is defending champ.
Also displaying gumption were A.J. Foyt’s drivers. Greg Ray led for the first
time this year and led quite handily, while Airton Dare started near-last and
finished in the top ten.
Buddy Lazier’s season went from bad to worse to downright frightening with a
scary pit fire, while Sara Fisher’s season kept plummeting with another crash.
So now the Winston Cup guys head back to Daytona for the Firecracker 400.
With the point battle closer thanks to dismal finishes at Sears Point by four of
the top five, Daytona may be another pivot point in the title chase. If the
draft kicks in (a big if given the aero-clean configuration of the cars) the
racing should be among the best of the year.
A look at some key players –
#40 STERLING MARLIN – Once the king of the restrictor plate, Marlin’s last
top tens on plate tracks have been in the last two Daytona 500s. Also his
overall season has slipped with just one top ten since Fontana.
#8 DALE JUNIOR – His only win this year was at Talladega, so he’s the
favorite.
#21 ELLIOTT SADLER – Second in the Daytona 500, Sadler’s sixth at Sears Point
was his first top ten in some five races. His plate record has been uneven.
#17 MATT KENSETH – He’s been hot everywhere this year – except the plate
tracks.
#97 KURT BUSCH – In contrast, his Roush teammate has been hottest on the
plate tracks with top fives at both events this season.
#22 WARD BURTON – In near-total freefall since Atlanta, Ward Burton wants to
use Daytona to get his team back on track.
#24 JEFF GORDON – Has led laps but not been able to finish off the effort
lately.
#88 DALE JARRETT – Pocono restarted his season and he’s looking for another
Firecracker win.
#28 RICKY RUDD – Largely MIA on plate tracks this year, the last two months
have been the launch of a new season for Rudd, and he is now among the hotter
drivers in the game.
#15 MICHAEL WALTRIP – Perhaps the strongest car at the end at the Daytona
500, he pushed Junior to the Talladega win and has seen his entire career saved
by Richard Labbe.
#41 JIMMY SPENCER – One would think he’d be a strong runner on the plate
tracks, but with Ganassi he hasn’t. He was strong in the Daytona 125 but crashed
and failed to make the 500, and at Talladega he was simply slow all day.
#29 KEVIN HARVICK – Abysmal all season and never really competitive on the
plate tracks, Harvick is still working out the change of crew chiefs at RCR.
#20 TONY STEWART – Pontiac’s only realistic chance in the Firecracker.
So Daytona, Kansas, and the weekend bullrings beckon. And while we race,
remember this –
God Bless America.