[Jerry Shaw]

This could have not been a very good race. By the end of hot laps, there was a lot of dust (after having tons of rain yesterday) and the turns and their entries in turns 1 and 3 were slicking off and starting to look worn. The prospects were looking dim. But then someone made a decision. One that would change the entire evening. The program was stopped. They threw a ton of water on the track, dug the whole thing up and brought one of the stock car classes to wheel pack, then do hot laps to run it back in. As they started packing the track, the turns (especially on the 1 and 2 end) were very greasy and the cars would easily slide right up the banking, anytime anybody would give it the gas at all. And throughout the crowd, you could hear some of the second guessers starting to grumble. But, little by little, with each successive group on the track, you could see it starting to take shape. By the time the last hot lap group left the racing surface, even the grumblers had to know, it was now "game on". They had done a great job and we had a new and very fast Lincoln Park Speedway to enjoy the rest of the evening with.

The first couple of sprint heats were very fast, but passing wasn't very easy at all. The third was a little bit better. Then in the fourth and fifth heats, Thomas Meseraull and Kevin Thomas Jr, not only passed several fast competitors, but they then checked out on the field in each of their heat races. A very clear statement was made by both.

Come feature time, when the lineup was read, we had the closest thing to a written guarantee that we were in for a great race, that you're going to get. In the very back end of this thing sat The Mad Man Robert Ballou, Ryan Bernal, Carson Short, Hunter Schuerenberg and Chase Stockon. There was going to be a lot of passing, tonight.

Right from the drop of the green, the first one to take control was AJ Hopkins, in the Ottinger #4J. He was the leader after the first 2 very early yellows. One with 29 to go, when we went back green. The other with 28. But it was obvious to anybody that was there, that once we had a decent run of green flag racing, Hopkins' lead was in serious jeopardy. Because Thomas Meseraull in the new Chase Briscoe Racing #5 was a ROCKET and was not going to be denied. And just a lap or two after we went green TMez aggressively grabbed the lead and then just began to drive away from the field. And then by that point, Robert Ballou had passed a bunch of cars, including a spirited little battle between him and Shane Cottle just a lap or two before the next yellow came out. So, there we were with a lot of the race still remaining and we had Ballou, who had started 16th, restarting in 6th. As soon as the green came back out, Meseraull checked out again and Ballou went to work on the rest of the top 5. Ryan Bernall was on a tear, also and was just a few spots behind the top 5 or 6. Robert got as high as second for a brief moment before a bobble cost him several spots. We were green for quite a few laps and as the laps wound down you could see KT Jr starting to chip away at TMez's lead. But would he have enough time to catch him? By this time, Bernal had raced his way into the top 5 and was the car behind the leaders everybody was watching. Hopkins was hanging tough, also in 3rd. And Ballou was starting to make a comeback, but got involved in a very tough fight with Garrett Aiken (who's gotten real tough, real fast). Then, all a sudden, we had a yellow. The last yellow we would see. Meseraull's lead was gone, in an instant. So, it would come down to a restart with 7 to go, with the leader starting right beside KT Jr, who had been catching him prior to the caution and who has become in the last several years, a racer who has just developed a knack for winning features. And in the row behind them sat Hopkins and 18th place starter Bernal! Right off the bat, KT grabbed the lead, checked out and was gone. What happened behind the leader at that point can only be described as total chaos! Hopkins initially claimed the second spot, as he, TMez and Bernal were just all over one another for three or four laps. AJ bobbled or was bumped during this melee and got shuffled back to fourth and Bernal took the second spot away from Meseraull, although TMez fought back hard. And that's how they finished.

This was just such a great race. You had drivers coming from the back. A week before Sprint Week, you had a new team emerging with Chase Briscoe Racing paired with Thomas Meseraull, one of the best and most exciting drivers anywhere. You had Ryan Bernal giving Michael Dutcher's car as good of a run as you've seen this year. And you had trophy collector KT Jr winning another race, in yet another car. All things that lived up to the expectations for a race named after our friend Bill Gardner. And tonight, it was all made possible by the decision to temporarily pause the program and take the track back from Mother Nature. It was a roll of the dice, but it paid off.

Jerry