Somewhere around five laps in, Jadon Rogers, who had started in the 3rd row, drove around the outside of Dakota Jackson to grab the lead. He then preceded to drive away from the rest of the field. After the first yellow waived, AJ Hopkins had passed a few and a lot of eyes were on him, because he had flipped while leading his heat, came from the back of his B Main, to win it and everyone knew that he wasn't going to be in the back of this feature field for very long, either. Rogers drove away again, as the green came back out. And after another yellow, somewhere in the middle of the race, when they started to line back up, Hopkins had substantially improved his position. He was knocking on the door of the top ten, lined up directly Thomas Meseraull, who was sitting right behind Jake Scott.
They went back green, Rogers took off again and I immediately focused my attention of the on previously mentioned trio. Because I knew there was a pretty good chance a real good battle was getting ready to happen there. And that it did. For a bunch of laps, those three went at it tooth and nail. Just all over one another. Meseraull would eventually emerge from that melee' and set his sights on Ty Mihocko, who had driven a real good race, despite the fact that he looked to have a left rear going down.
Rogers continued to dominate, screaming around the very top of the track, as Chris Phillips was under the radar, sneaking his way up through the field, on the very bottom. As the laps wound down, Rogers continued to be the fastest driver on the track. Even more impressive was that he was doing so while driving just about the longest path you could around this track. And Phillips' stealth drive had put him into the position of trying to pry second place away from Dakota Jackson, who had fought and battled for position, the whole race.
Then, there was that last yellow, with 4 laps left. Jackson and the others would have one last shot at stealing the win away from Rogers. I think the prevailing wisdom was that if Dakota had any chance to turn the tide in this one, he had one shot and one shot only. He had to make a quick move on the restart, because if Jadon still had the lead when he got to turn 2 and had another chance to launch himself out of that turn, just like he had done almost every lap of this race, then it was going to be lights out, over, finished, etc. When the green flew again, he took his shot. He threw a turn one slider. But just that quick, he skid up the track, there was contact and the driver that had dominated to race, up to that point, was on his lid. His night was over. And for the moment, the crowd was stunned and quiet. But, once everyone started talking with one another, you just didn't get the sense that many were that upset at Jackson. I think most everyone realized he had one chance, he took that chance and things just didn't work out. They went bad in a hurry. Jackson having a good reputation, one as a clean competitor, bought him a lot of leeway, IMO. And it's Paragon. Long straightaways, tight turns and a long history of nights ending, without everybody being absolutely pleased with everybody else.
And the green would fly one last time and Jackson would close the show out and get the win. And even though the finish may have been a bit anticlimactic, considering the circumstances, Jackson really had fought his ass off, the entire race, to even be in the position to take his shot.
There was a real nice crowd tonight and so many race cars had checked in, that the pits had overflowed into the part of the parking lot, closest to the pit gate. It had a real successful event atmosphere to it. It was a real good feature, with tons of great battles. And they have a core group of drivers here that should be capable of producing these kind of races, on most nights.
And even though he didn't win, Jadon Rogers looks more and more, nearly every time you see him, like one of the future stars of the sport. One that's going to have to be dealt with for a long time.
Jerry
The finish was, according to MyRacePass (which is an excellent app, btw):
Pos Start Driver Hometown Car
1 1 Dakota Jackson Elizabethtown, IN 3
2 10 Chris Phillips Plainfield, IN 6
3 3 Tye Mihocko Peoria, AZ 5*
4 17 AJ Hopkins Brownsburg, IN 04
5 7 Brayden Fox Avon, IN 53
6 8 Jake Scott Morgantown, IN 33
7 13 Josh Cunningham Spencer, IN 17
8 21 Jesse Vermillion Greencastle, IN 5
9 12 Cole Bodine Rossville, IN 57
10 18 Ricky Lewis Oxnard, CA 07
11 15 Travis Berryhill American Canyon, CA 77S
12 14 Max Guilford Auckland, NZ 79
13 4 Critter Malone Greencastle, IN 77
14 6 Jadon Rogers Worthington, IN 14
15 9 Thomas Meseraull San Jose, CA 00
16 2 Joey Parker Plainfield, IN 16
17 5 Brandon Spencer Nashville, IN 22
18 19 Braxton Cummings Bedford, IN 71B
19 20 Parker Frederickson Kokomo, IN 34F
20 11 Harley Burns Brazil, IN 16B
21 16 Ben Knight
A man is about as big as the things that make him angry.
Winston Churchill
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