[Jerry Shaw]

Sometimes, you go to a race track to see a big event and from the time the green is thrown on hot laps, a driver sets a certain tone. Aggressively attacks a race track in a way that sends a message to fellow competitors and race fans alike, that says "I showed up to win tonight and I'm going to do exactly that!" Such was the case tonight with Jadon Rogers. During warmups, he was charging down the straightaways with great speed and either driving right at the wall, in the apex of the turn, then cutting a diamond pattern so he would head right back into the the next straightaway. Or on the next lap, riding the rim all the way around.

Then when it was time to qualify, he laid down 2nd quick time in this deep and talented field.

And after that, he took a position in his heat race away from Chase Stockon with such an aggressive move, that it inspired post race, cool down lap retribution from Chase.

Come feature time, I don't think anybody doubted that Rogers was one of the favorites and would have to be dealt with by anyone else who had ideas about taking home the trophy.

Starting in the 3rd row, he was quickly in 3rd place. Then 2nd. And then, after a short battle with the aforementioned Stockon, took the lead and then just took off. Dicing in and out of traffic in a very impressive manner on his way to taking a four and a half second lead, before the first yellow came out. Stockon was still in second when this caution came, but low and behold, after having mechanical trouble for most of the night, Kyle Cummins was sitting in third or fourth. Then, during the next yellow, he was sitting right behind Chase, who still held the runner up position. And when yellow fell again it was Cummins that was lined up behind our leader. And here's where the gamesmanship began. During this yellow, Kyle pulled up beside Jadon twice, just to let him know who was there. After this caution, Jadon fought off the challenges and started to pull away again. Then another yellow. This time, he didn't get away quite so well and was clearly under attack. Kyle took the lead, then Jadon took it back, before Kyle regained the lead and never lost it again. Once again, Kyle Cummins was victorious at Tri-State Speedway. But, you could tell by the level of emotion in his cage stand and victory celebration that this one sweet. He had had to battle so much harder to pry this one away from another driver, than he had in so many of the other dominant wins at this track.

And Jadon has no reason to to hang his head over not winning this one. There is only one non-winged driver in the country that could have bested his effort, here tonight. And that driver is a force of nature at this track. One that every great driver has been getting his ass kicked by, at this place, for several years now. Great race! Great racing surface, as always and everybody got their money's worth. It was cold, but there wasn't a person in the house that was even aware of the temperature during those 30 laps.

Jerry