[Jerry Shaw]

Last night's race was a good one, but when everything was said and done, the theme and highlight of the evening was Shane Cottle's masterful performance. Running on the bottom the way he did, he created the optical illusion that he was ever so slowly catching the lead pack. And then after he caught them, your eyes were tricked into believing that was going slower than them, as he left them in the dust. It was a very orderly night. Very early in the race, you just knew that nobody had anything for the man driving the 74X car. And they didn't.

Then there was tonight. Brent Beauchamp went out early in the first qualifying session and laid down a lap that was so fast, that you knew that no matter who was on their game tonight he would at least be in the top very few, by the time this was over. Dave Darland came close, but Beauchamp's lap would stand.

Before the heat races would roll onto the racing surface, the track called an audible. They decided to do a pretty thorough track rework. You could hear some question the move. USAC, also opted for some flexibility and announced that everyone would run a heat race, meaning, that with out huge car count of 57, we would be seeing heats of 14 or 15 cars. Some also wondered how this was going to turn out.

The track was then ready, after letting the drivers run it in some and they lined up for the first one. Right off the bat, a front row incident and spin collected Chris Windom. His car was heavily damaged and he would leave, walking across the infield, not a happy camper. And following that, there were two incidents where fast qualifier Beauchamp was caught up in other people's incidents and would go to the tail, twice. Could the two game-time decisions made be backfiring, in a big way? Those questions would be answered very quickly, as the green flew again and Beauchamp began his tear through this lager than normal heat race field. Running low and high and threading the needle a few times, culminating in a dash to the flagstand with Thomas Meseraull, as he took the runner up spot from him. The crowd had been wowed by Beauchamp and cheered loudly as this one ended. Almost lost in this, was that Chase Stockon had won the heat race and because of USAC's new rule concerning heat race winners, had redeemed himself from his earlier less than Chase Stockon-like qualifying performance. Moving from the back, to the fourth or fifth row, come feature time. No way this could be topped, right? Surely this was the high point of the heats, tonight?

One thing that stood out when you saw the second heat was where Carson Short was lined up. He had qualified so horribly that he didn't even make the invert. He started in the 10th position. Like Beauchamp, he went to work early and made his way through the field. About half way through, he did this slider that stretched almost all the way across turns three and four, in front of at least two, maybe three cars. In all the years I've been going to LPS, I can't remember seeing a more crazy, yet perfectly executed slide job. He, then tracked down leader Kyle Cummins, engaged in a nice battle with him and then promptly pulled away and won comfortably. He had also earned himself a starting spot in the fourth or fifth row. After qualifying so terribly that I had wondered that if he merely transferred, would they have lined his ass up behind the provisionals.

Heat three, more of the same. After a less than stellar time trial session and winning a hard fought battle with CJ Leary, Brady Bacon would also earn himself a promotion, to line up right behind the invert starters in the A-Main.

And Justin Grant would sail to the Heat 4 victory.

The track rework and expanded heat sizes had been validated. The crowd had just been put through the wringer, by a wild set of heat races. Right after that and a few support class races, I looked up to the sky, above the turn three horizon. There was large and either full or almost full moon. Golden, almost orange in color. That explained it. The craziness that seemed to be tonight's theme.

And, then a little later, as time wound down to when the sprint feature would be ready to roll out, there was a heaviness in the air. The kind that's there, when you feel like something great's getting ready to happen.

And, from the very beginning, it did just that. Grant jumped out to the lead. Brady Bacon was quickly going to work, from his fourth row starting position. And CJ Leary was making early gains working the bottom. About halfway through, Brady reached Justin on the track. The exchanged sliders and Brady would be the new leader. Briefly, it looked like it might be like last night's race and we might have just seen a driver take over, that was going to dominate the rest of the race. But, that was very short lived, as Justin would come firing back and he would do that, again and again and again. Meanwhile, CJ was solidly continuing to work the bottom. And multiple times, both Brady and Justin would change the line they were running on the track, to negotiate in and out of traffic. These three were literally all over one another for most of the last half of this race. It was just one of those races that never let go of you. Never gave you a chance to catch you breath. And then, when you thought it could get any better, Chase Stockon enters the picture, running great, around the very bottom. There were a few laps, towards the end of the race, that I thought if he could get under CJ, Chase could possible steal second or even win. And, in the last few laps, although Brady still had the lead, you just felt like Justin wasn't done yet. By that point, he had obviously decided that he was going to live or die by ripping it around the top. And he made a few valiant attempts, but wasn't quite getting the bite he needed exiting the turns to propel him to the lead. And he very well might have gotten second, instead of third, had he came down a bit and raced CJ for that spot, instead of just going for broke, to try to steal the victory away from Brady.

Sorry for the longer than normal story, but this was one of those races that just grabbed you and didn't let go of you, until the checkered was thrown. And was still buzzing in my brain, when I was 40 minutes down the road! And unlike last night, I didn't know for sure who was going to win this one until Brady was about 10 yards from the flagstand.

Great job by the track, for setting the stage for these guys. Thanks to USAC and MSCS, for getting together to make this show happen. And thanks to all these great drivers, who brought the house down, when it was their time to take the stage. They all put on a show that is deserving to have the name Bill Gardner in it's title.

Jerry

[jim goerge]

Jerry I was there and you just made me feel like I was still there. Each move you described I remembered thinking Oh Yeah. Great thread and THANKS Jerry

[ronmil]

Well, as I recently said, when I don't attend the racing is epic and pretty routine when I go. I was in absolutely no condition to go last night and I am doubtful for tonight, but I am going to try it.

[tdt636]

Definitely one of the top five races I've ever seen at LPS!!!