I can't remember the last time I saw a happier winner. After Chase took the checker, on the cool down lap he was pumping his left fist so hard in the air outside of the car, while he was driving down the backstretch that I was wondering if he would throw his shoulder out of the socket. This was a hard earned win, too. A couple of times when it looked like Jerry Coons was checking out, here came Chase back, again. He had to fight off Hunter a couple of times, too. Jerry spun late, but Chase had already reeled him back in at that point and had even inched ahead of him at a couple of places on the track. He and Hunter were both racing Briscoe from the top side, as he ran a disciplined race on the bottom. And after the Coons spin, Hunter gave up on trying drive around Chase from the top side and went down and tried to beat him at his own game. That really didn't work out, because Chase only pulled away to win by a comfortable margin after that. Holtsclaw battled his way from the fourth row to third and nearly took second away from Hunter as the laps wound down. Kevin Thomas, Jr. held his ground and fought off many challenges to finish fourth and Kevin Chambers came from the seventh row to grab the fifth spot.

I know Chase won a weekly feature at Paragon once, but this one was different. He came into a place that had a talent-laden field, loaded with past USAC champions and feature winners from all over and left the king of the hill. Top dog. A long time ago, another Briscoe left some track the man of the night and ended up winning over 200 before it was all said and done. Now, this Briscoe knows for sure that he can win. Only time will tell how his story plays out.

Jerry