[Jerry Shaw]

Kyle Cummins just took off when they dropped the green and built him a nice lead. But just when it looked like he might not be touched, here comes KT Jr. and he reeled him in surprisingly quick, as Jerry Coons was in a solid third. While this was unfolding, behind them there was a multi-car bar room brawl going on between Chase Stockon, Jon Stanbrough, Brady Short, Robert Ballou and Daron Clayton. Clayton had started 11th and had already jumped three or four spots just to put himself in this free-for-all. After many, many laps of slide jobs and other passes in very tight quarters executed by most in this group, Clayton was the first one to emerge and set sail for the lead pack. When he had fought his way into 4th place, Thomas spun and the restart order was Cummins, Coons and Clayton. Once Daron had wrestled second away from Coons, Robert Ballou had waded his way through the swamp and was making the statement that he would have to be dealt with before this was all over. But he had to win a spirited battle with Short on his way out of that pack. Daron got around Jerry Coons, who was tough as nails in the GBR #2, all night and then made a bee line for the leader. In just a few laps he would seize the lead. Kyle didn't go down without a fight, though. A hell of a fight, as a matter of fact. Clayton then opened up a decent sized lead, as Cummins entered into a battle with the surging Ballou. Robert, with a whole lot of effort, pried second place away from Kyle, but then the yellow came out, so he had to give it back. When the green came back out, those two went back at it, with Ballou eventually earning the spot back, again. Then as Robert started to reign in the leader, he had to fend off additional charges from Kyle. All the different parts of this scrap, collectively were the best of this race, IMO. And that's saying a lot, because this race had some pretty good ones. And Robert got close to Daron several times, but close is all he could muster and Daron closed the show. And of course the crowd was on their feet, because as everyone knows, it's the house of the Modern Day Cowboy. And as part of the post race interview, DC said this $10,000 meant he would be able to get an engine refresh and that meant he would be able to return next year. Which also got a big cheer.

There were a couple of other sub-plots to tonight's action that occurred to me. First off is the current state of the MSCS. Which is very strong, IMO. As their regulars more than held their own with the USAC power teams. In fact, they kind of dominated tonight. The second was that at one lull in the action late in the race, it was obvious that everything was going to come down Daron Clayton, Robert Ballou and Kyle Cummins. Three drivers that have all at one time or another, had to scale back their operations due to lack of money. Maybe an indomitable spirit is just as important as being well funded in this whole deal.

Jerry