[darnall]

Kind of unrelated...but you know what I think is awesome?

In the many years since I first heard of Bryan Clauson I have never ever not once seen or heard one bad comment about him.

I saw him win an open class micro race in a stock class legal car at Pittsfield, IL just minutes after he almost won the feature in the stock class....he was probably a 12-13 year old kid that day racing against a field full of adults who were some of the fastest in a micro in the Midwest at the time. Watching him work traffic that night made me think he was something special. Talking to him and Tim in the pits that night confirmed it.

I was at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, MO the night he went cage first into the catchfence and had his neck injury at a USAC sprint show. He was in Keith Kunz cars that season. Before the races started I told Keith that he had a heckuva shoe in that car. Keith said "I have a bunch of good shoes in my cars, but yeah this kid is something special." The fact that he not only came back from that injury, but came back possibly faster than he was before it speaks volumes about the talent and desire he has.

Tell me how many racers out there have been as successful as BC without ruffling lots of feathers of other drivers and fans. Tell me how many youngsters have come on the scene at that level without having hordes of people screaming about daddys money being the reason he is successful. I can't think of very many that fit either case, and until Larson and Bell popped up I darn sure can't think of anybody who fit both.

The fact that BC has done as much as he has and we still never see any keyboard commandos talking smack about him is something rare.

Hey Tim....you've done a great job raising that boy.