Thoughts from Thirty Thousand Feet

My business trip to Las Vegas came a week too early as the dirt track there will have a Late Model show this coming Saturday, and I was about a month too early for the Duel In The Desert for the IMCA Modifieds. Oh well, maybe next time….

It was my best Vegas visit ever as far as gambling was concerned as I put three dollars into play on a Wheel of Fortune machine and cashed out at $10.25. I’m such a risk-taker! Past experience has proven that I am not usually lucky when it comes to the casinos.

I am in the “Ron Barker seat” on this flight; 37B…..speaking of Barker he still has a good shot at winning his eighth All Iowa Points Modified Championship as he trails two-time defending champ Ryan Dolan by just three points. With points paying events still on the schedule in Maquoketa and Donnellson this weekend and with a two-day finale in Memphis, Missouri, the final weekend of October both the Modified and Stock Car titles for 2012 are still up for grabs. In the Mods, Dolan’s performance at the Liberty 100 has put him back out front by that slim margin over Barker, but with a maximum of 25 points still on the table for a driver that would win all five nights there are still six drivers with a chance. Jimmy Gustin is 11 points behind Dolan, but Jimmy doesn’t seem to do much racing after the end of September. Former champion Mark Schulte is 14 points out of first and he just might be in Donnellson for the three nights of racing coming this weekend as Mark has been known to “chase” the All Iowa Points in the past. Dylan Smith and Chris Abelson are both mathematically in contention, but it would be shocking to see either of them in Donnellson or Memphis.

In the Stock Cars Donavon Smith holds a 9 points lead over Luke Sathoff and has a 16 point cushion on Damon Murty. It would be a long trip for both Smith and Sathoff to be at the remaining races, a trip that I doubt either would make and Murty rarely races after the IMCA points season ends in September. The wild card here though is Abe Huls who is 24 points behind the leader Smith. Huls is very familiar with the tracks in Donnellson and Memphis and has been a winner numerous times on each. To by-pass Smith though he would need to win the feature all three nights this weekend in Donnellson as well as both nights next weekend in Memphis. If he pulls that off he would be the AIP champion by just one point and if he has four wins and one runner-up finish Abe would end up in a tie with Donavon Smith. Can he do it? Theoretically yes, although I thought I saw that he had his car up for sell and so he might not even be racing still. I guess we will find out this weekend.

I have been rattling on about Points possibilities, but haven’t really mentioned the events that are still on the schedule. The Lee County Speedway in Donnellson will be busy this weekend hosting the Fall Extravaganza on Friday and Saturday night, then on Sunday afternoon the rack will host the annual “Shiverfest” event that was rained out from last weekend. The Jackson County Speedway in Maquoketa, or as it is now known as “The Darkside” will be racing this Saturday night as well with a Modified special that was postponed due to the cold weather back on October 6^th. With NASCAR at the Kansas Speedway this weekend you can catch some short track racing around Kansas City as well with the MLRA Late Models at Lakeside Speedway on both Friday and Saturday night, plus Valley Speedway will host the ASCS Warrior Region Sprints along with the non-wing WAR sprints on Friday night before coming back on Saturday with their “Fall Fast Series” that will continue through Saturday November 3^rd. And if you are out in eastern Nebraska the annual McCool 100 is on the schedule at the Junction Motor Speedway this Saturday and Sunday.

Next weekend October 26^th and 27^th the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, roars back to life for their only race weekend of the season with those two nights being the final point paying events for the 2012 All Iowa Points. Of course those two events will also award All Missouri Points and the final event scheduled for that point chase will be on Saturday November 17^th with the annual Turkey Classic at the Springfield Speedway. Yes, you might have to travel a bit, but there is still some dirt track racing to take in here in the upper Midwest before the snow flies.

Will Dale Earnhardt Jr. ever race again? Hopefully he will return after taking a second weekend off due the effects of a concussion, but the possibility remains that NASCAR’s most popular driver may not come back and the speculation is that such a scenario would be devastating to the sport. What do you think? Will crowds drop off dramatically if Junior hangs up his helmet for good?

If we can get this rain out of here on Thursday night I am looking forward to being at Donnellson on both Friday and Sunday. Hope to see you there on the Back Stretch. (Follow up note: The Friday night portion of the Fall Extravaganza at Donnellson has been rained out so they are now going to run this two-day event on Saturday and Sunday and Shiverfest is now "postponed". Of course this now takes away the inrtigue of Abe Huls winning five straight to take the All Iowa Stock Car title....)