Jump start complete! In our sport there are very few things that can compare to Dave Darland running the wall at Kokomo! In this car, especially. When he's on his game and the top is there, he's damn near impossible to beat. The first ten laps of tonight's feature looked like a rerun of the last Smackdown, as Dave quickly sawed through the Top 5, from his 6th starting position and just began the checkout process. Kevin Thomas, at that time was in 2nd place, Hunter Schuerenberg in 3rd. The obvious other car on the move was Justin Grant. After Grant cleared Hunter and Kevin, he set sail for the leader. A few laps after that, the Darland rout had hit a snag. Little by little, as they both darted through the back markers, he was being reeled in by Grant. Dave was just standing on the gas, but by that time the top had started to slick off slightly and several times it looked like the front runner might stick it in the wall. These close calls thwarted his momentum and it was obvious that Justin was going to probably have a shot at this thing, before everything was said and done. With less than 10 laps left, he caught Darland and at that point, it was on! As they both weaved in and out of traffic, Justin was just glued to Dave. With a few laps left, he took his first shot, a slider in turn one. Darland easily countered and grabbed the lead back. I think the second time was the lap after that and it looked like that one had stuck. What Dave Darland did after that just said he wasn't going to lose on this night. He charged down the backstretch and just sped faster into three than Grant did, diving below him and taking the lead back going into that turn. A lot of drivers would have ended up in the catch fence if they tried what he had just done! Grant wasn't done yet, though. He chased Dave down the backstretch after the white flag was thrown. As they went into 4, Dave bobbled a little bit, Justin made a dive for the flagstand and was just barely edged out by Darland. What a race!! Dave Darland's very tough to beat here, when he's on his game, but Justin Grant is an exciting driver to watch and just flat went after Dave Darland, tonight. If he could have completed 30 laps in a little less than a HALF A SECOND less, he would have gotten the job done.

As I was driving away, I realized I was just covered in dust, as I was sitting just to the left of the flagstand, in the 3rd row. For the previous handful of minutes I had no idea I was even being hit by dust. Such is the power of focus.

Jerry