[Jerry Shaw]

I saw something amazing with my own two eyes tonight, yet still pulled out of Tri-State Speedway not sure that I believed what I had just seen. Bryan Clauson had caught Jon Stanbrough once, was fought off by the future Hall-of-Famer, regrouped and was chasing him down, again when he caught the cushion and rolled it, in turn 2. And this wasn't one of those gentle, garden variety Tommy Tipovers, either. He dumped it kind of hard. Hard enough where you thought "Surely there has to be some kind of damage that will effect the performance of the car." His night seemed to be over. But, watching BC after the wreck, not once did I see any indication that he was thinking about unbuckling and getting out of his race car. They quickly got him on the hook and had him in the work area. Then, just a short time later, you looked and the black machine was sitting in the exit of turn two, waiting to be pushed off. What a noble quality to not give up, but there was no way in that short of a period of time he would be ready to be competitive in this deep, talented field. Especially on a track this fast. As soon as the green was thrown, that type of thinking was shattered, as he just started sawing through the field at a furious rate. A few laps in he was in the top 10, had broken into the top 5 a couple of laps after that. It was just unbelievable! Not only was this a virtuoso performance, but it also took someone with a pit bull mentality to even think about pulling it off. Only a few minutes earlier, this same guy was flat on the canvas, getting counted out.

As thankful as I am to have been there to have witnessed this, I left there wishing that he had made one pass less, than he did, though. He took third from Chase Stockon, who had driven his guts out, from his 20th starting position all the way up to third. I really wanted to see him make it to the podium, because he's pretty much been driver and crew chief all rolled into one, for this whole series and has been holding his own against the best out there, on a low budget team. That's why I'm such a huge Chase Stockon fan. This kid's a fighter. He doesn't make any excuses (and God knows he could if he wanted to), he just shows up, straps in and just races his a55 off. Week in and week out. If Chase has t-shirts in size XL, I'm going to own one tomorrow.

As great as those two drivers were tonight, the one man who took on all challengers and left the king of the hill, was Jon Stanbrough. Clauson took some good shots at him, led briefly, but then was passed back. And after the Clauson flip, Levi had nothing for Jon and settled into second, as the winner checked out and drove off into the horizon.

And another great job by Tommy and his whole crew. It was a tricky track during qualifications, but they broke it back down and turned it into another racy surface that yielded another great night of racing at Tri-State Speedway.