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The week that was in racing
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Location: Blogs Running Wide Open |
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| Posted by: Joe VanHoose |
6/15/2007 2:54 AM |
Looking back at the Powell Memorial, looking ahead to the TBARA at Ocala, and digesting Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s decision.
Perhaps Ocala Speedway owner Mike Peters should just give Wayne Anderson the deed to the track. After all, he’s owned the place for years.
Last Friday at the Powell Memorial, Anderson’s familiar No. 84 found its way to the top of the leader board at the right time, as he led the last dozen laps to take his sixth Powell win.
Thursday before the race, Anderson just smiled when I asked him how good his car was. Friday evening, he was all smiles again in victory lane when I went to interview him. I told him earlier that every year I’ve been to the Powell Memorial, he’s won the race.
“You better be out here next year,” Anderson smiled and said.
It’s a date.
Rich Pratt fell victim to circumstance at the Powell Memorial, getting tangled up in a lap 6 wreck. He qualified well and had one of the fastest cars on long runs, but he parked it after the accident.
It didn’t take Pratt long to rebound, however. The Ocalan cruised over to Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville Saturday night and won the late model feature. Not a bad consolation prize.
The Ocala Speedway gets an attaboy this week for handling the bad weather last weekend. Rain came and went, delaying the start of the racing action until about 8:30 p.m. The staff reacted by running only features for the track’s regular divisions instead of about an hour of heat races.
The features only-format made racing tighter as some fast cars had to climb up from the back of the pack, but it didn’t keep the usual suspects from getting to the front and winning. Here’s to the track going with this format more often.
And if one big weekend of racing wasn’t enough, the stars and cars of the TBARA sprint car series make their second stop of the year to Ocala’s 3/8-mile track Friday night. They’ll be joined by open-wheel modifieds, street stocks, thunder stocks, pure stocks and 4-cylinders. Racing starts at 7:30 p.m.
In case you missed it – and I don’t know how you could – Dale Earnhardt Jr. signed a five-year contract to drive for Hendrick Motorsports yesterday. Six weeks after announcing he was leaving Dale Earnhardt Inc., Earnhardt dropped an even bigger bombshell.
What does it all mean? For one, he’s now a teammate with Jeff Gordon, the man the Earnhardt fan base loves to hate. Does this mean Gordon will not be pelted with beer cans when he wins at Talladega next time? Probably not.
Regardless of what the fans think, Hendrick’s racing stables looks more and more like the New York Yankees lineup. He now fields cars for last year’s champion (Jimmie Johnson), the active leader in wins and championships (Gordon), the most popular driver with the holiest of NASCAR names (Earnhardt), and Casey Mears.
The only question is: who is A-Rod, and who is Derek Jeter? |
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