The 300 and More On a Wednesday

Much like King Leonidas leading his 300 Spartans into battle against Xerxes and his invading army of more than 300,000 warriors, track owner Roger Simon is taking on the uphill battle of keeping racing alive at the Farley Speedway. Okay, my mistake, it is now called the 300 Raceway that is located in Farley and I do have to admit that this announcement yesterday came as a complete surprise to me as I had not been fed a single rumor about it from my numerous sources.

There are many questions yet to be answered, but from the posts on the track's Facebook page yesterday we know that there will be a Season Opener on Friday May 10th with an interesting purse structure for the three divisions in action; Late Models, Modifieds and Sport Mods. IMCA rules will apply and there will be a $75 Entry Fee for the Late Models, while the Modifieds and Sport Mods will pay a $25 Entry Fee. The Late Model and Modified purse structures are the same from top to bottom though each paying $1,500-to-win, $160 for tenth, $100 for 19th and $75 for 24th, noteworthy that there is a pay difference for each position. The Sport Mods will pay $750-to-win and you can check out the full purse on Facebook.

The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, as previously scheduled, will be at the track on May 17th and we are also told to mark our calendars for September 20th and 21st for the 42nd Annual Yankee Dirt Classic something that I am sure will catch the attention of area tracks that have already scheduled special events for that weekend. The plan for what happens at 300 Raceway in between the two weeks in May and the return of the YDC remains to be seen, but you can bet that it will have everybody in the area talking and speculating once again.

I need to see what happened with my sources!

While we covered the Spring Extravaganza at the Lee County Speedway this past weekend our Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert made the long trip from Spooner, Wisconsin, to Humboldt, Kansas, for the big doubleheader event at the Humboldt Speedway. Make sure that you check out Ed's coverage of The King of America for the Modifieds won by Ricky Thornton Jr., and the Battle at the Bullring for the B-Mods won by Iowan Jared Timmerman at his blog "One Fan's Travels".

Thornton winning $12,000 was not necessarily a surprise, although it was just his eighth career win with the USMTS. What did catch my eye though was the fact that Kenny Wallace finished fifth in the finale after starting from the twelfth row. Reading Ed's account of the night reveals that attrition had a lot to do with that, but I still found it to be an impressive performance in what might have been Wallace's first attempt at running with the nation's premier touring series for the Modifieds. However, from a video that Kenny posted on Facebook this week revealing all of the changes that he had to make to his UMP car in order to be legal for this event, it might also be his last.

I agree with his premise, it is a shame that there are such differences in rules for the Modified class and it is not just between USMTS and UMP. Throw in IMCA, WISSOTA, USRA weekly and others and similar to the Late Models there are actually multiple divisions across the country. Having them all get together on one set of rules sounds easy, but it isn't. And in fact I can probably go as far as to predict that it will never happen in my lifetime.

In the B-Mods it was big win for Norwalk's Jared Timmerman who had four "state champions" finish right behind him. Runner-up Jackie Dalton was the All Missouri Modified Champion of 2016 and 2017, third-place finisher Ryan Gillmore was the All Missouri Limited Modified Champion in 2016 and 2017, the defending All Iowa Points Limited Modified champ Cody Thompson took fourth and fifth went to four-time All Missouri Limited Modified champion J.C. Morton. Talk about beating the best, Jared Timmerman did just that to win the Battle at the Bullring.

The "thrilling finish" of this past weekend happened at the finale of the four race Turnpike Challenge for the Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget League. Coming to the checkered flag on Sunday night at Tulsa's Port City Raceway Jonathan Beason was digging down low while Christopher Bell was charging off the cushion of turn four. As the two crossed the finish line nearly side-by-side, contact sent Bell for a tumble as Beason scored the win. SpeedShiftTV has a highlight reel of it out there somewhere so if you come across it, make a click and check it out.

Knoxville, Iowa's, Riley Goodno was the feature winner in the Micro Sprint division at Port City. Keep an eye on that name for future success at his hometown track.

Looks like the Webmistress is a couple of updates behind on the Specials schedule and as always we encourage you to check with the track before making any trips. Weather, both lingering and expected, is already taking down events for the coming weekend as the USRA Frostbusters that were scheduled for Salina, Kansas, and Winston, Missouri, have been canceled and will not be rescheduled.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for Saturday's opener for the Sprint Invaders at 34 Raceway and I know that many Late Model fans are looking to head to LaSalle for the Thaw Brawl this weekend. I noticed this morning that the heavier rain amounts that are forecast have shifted more to the south, so hopefully both events will be run as planned.

This just in, LaSalle's Thaw Brawl has been rescheduled to a Saturday and Sunday event with both shows getting started in the afternoon.

The Frostbreaker originally scheduled for this Sunday March 31st at the Quincy Raceways has been canceled.

Looking ahead to next week, the weather over the next two days will likely tell the story on the IMCA Frostbusters as well with the possibility that the four night swing might get pushed out another week. Keep an eye out for any announcements and hopefully we will simply see a confirmation that the shows are on as planned! After the good racing that I saw this past weekend, I am itching to get back out to the track and see more of my friends on the Back Stretch.

Capone's Vault Empty, Long Distance Travelers and More

Pardon me while I step away from racing for a moment to vent.....

As I was getting ready to head out to my first race of the 2019 season on Friday the big news broke, The Mueller Report was complete and had been given to the Attorney General for his review. Oh my gosh, after more than two years of nearly daily updates on what tawdry details this investigation was sure to uncover it was finally here, you could sense the giddiness of anticipation in so many people. What was it going to be? Would Trump be forced to resign due to the fact that the only reason that he was elected President was because he had enlisted the full cooperation of the Russians to sway the 2016 election in his favor?

I watch the first twenty minutes of Good Morning America as I do my morning workout each day and I swear that Pierre Thomas has been like a kid in a candy store every time that he reported on the investigation over the past two years. Of course nearly all of his segments included the phrase "if true", so if that didn't tip you off as to the validity of what he was reporting, I don't know what would, but yet there he was three to four days a week building the anticipation of the indictments that were sure to come.

And then on Sunday, a four page summary of the Mueller Report was given to Congress and it specifically said: No Collusion. It was the political equivalent of Geraldo Rivera's much hyped opening of Al Capone's Vault back in 1986, but that dud did not cost the American tax payers 25 million dollars to produce.

BUT WAIT, say the Democrats and the general media, the Report does not exonerate the President on the charge of Obstruction of Justice and that will be their rallying cry now in order to try to salvage something from this empty vault.

Visit MarthaStewart.com for some great recipes!

ABC's legal analyst Dan Abrams summarized his thoughts on this today by noting that it is hard to find obstruction when there is no underlying crime, "but tell that to Martha Stewart." So there you have it, the next push will be to punish the President of the United States in the same manner as the notorious homemaker and entrepreneur.

For those of you who are reading this and thinking that I am just some right winger who has finally revealed my stripes, you are wrong. I didn't vote for Trump and I often cringe on how he handles himself in such an un-Presidential manner. What I do have a problem with is the general media and how they "report" the news of the day anymore. On this day I am the one that is giddy that Pierre Thomas looked depressed during his segment this morning and in knowing that Martha Raddatz is likely shedding some tears as she did while on air the night of the 2016 election.

If you are in the media and want to take sides, go do it on CNN or Fox News, anybody who tunes in  to those so-called "news channels" knows what they are going to get. But if you are on ABC, NBC or CBS, it is time to get back to the days of Walter Cronkite and just give us the news of the day in a factual manner without any kind of slant. Now that would be a breath of fresh air, wouldn't it?

The one thing that the Mueller Report did reveal, that I am guessing that most will not even notice, is that it confirmed that the Russians used social media in an effort to create political discord. So take a moment, check your news feed and if you have a Facebook friend who is sharing biased political stories from the left or the right more than once a day, reach out and congratulate them on being influenced by the Russians. I'm sure that it will make their day!

Oh yes, and just one last note on this, any political comments on the Positively Racing Facebook page, no matter from what side, will be deleted.

Now back to what you come to the Back Stretch for, some thoughts and news on auto racing!

Just two weeks ago I would have told you that the chances of the Pepsi Lee County Speedway being able to have their annual Spring Extravaganza on March 22nd and 23rd would have been slim at best. The last of the snow had just melted away and it was obvious that the frost was still in the ground, but with a stretch of four or five straight days of sunny skies and a strong wind the track, and the facility dried out enough for the show to go on. The fear of rough track conditions was likely the primary factor in the car count being less than expected, but the hard work of Brian Gaylord, Dave Sapp and the entire LCS crew resulted in a surface that did chunk out some on the low line, but there was plenty of other smoother lines to choose from and the racing was pretty darn good all weekend.

Seventy-six cars signed in on Friday night in the five divisions and that jumped to ninety-one on Saturday even though there was a threat of rain moving in during the evening. And while the radar did look a bit ominous as the night went on, only a few sprinkles fell during the Sport Mod feature, not even enough to warrant a caution.

I get it, if I had a race car and I thought that the track would be rough, I would probably have kept it in the garage as well, but thank goodness that the drivers of this past weekend did not. There was a nice crowd on hand both nights, race fans who are obviously eager to get back out to the track and they were treated to some good action. Now granted I did not talk to many, but I did not hear anybody complaining about the car counts and for me with the cool Spring evenings the car counts were just right as both nights were completed in right around three and a half hours from the first hot lap session to the final checkered flag.

I used to be a "car count" snob, but as I have aged I have found that it isn't the car count at a special event that matters to me as much as does the "mix" of the drivers. You know? I love seeing drivers from different areas compete against each other at special events and we definitely had that at the Spring Extravaganza.

Dustin Bluhm towed his beautiful #45 Late Model all the way down from Herman, Minnesota, 538 miles and after spinning while leading on Friday night, he found redemption on Saturday fighting off Tommy Elston in a thrilling finish to take the win. Bryan Berger traveled 577 miles from Ortley, South Dakota, to drive one of Todd Frank's three Late Models and after winning the heat on Friday he finished fifth in the main event.

Derek Green pulled 334 miles from Granada, Minnesota, and Dan Mackenthun came 382 miles from Hamburg, Minnesota, to compete in the Stock Car division with Green scoring a second-place finish on Saturday night. It was even a 255 mile pull for Adam Klocke from Carroll and a tip of the hat to Saturday's winner Damon Murty who makes the 133 mile tow often to Lee County. Heck, even Albion transplant Jeff Mueller had to make a 172 mile trip back south to his former home track and you can tell that he has adjusted to his new "northern climate" as he roamed the pits in shorts and flip flops both nights.

It was a 180 mile trip for Sherrill's Tyler Soppe who won the Sport Mod feature on Friday and then finished second to Austen Becerra on Saturday. It was good to see Jeremy Mills in attendance as well, a driver who was a big supporter of my NKF Tour that started a four year run twenty years ago. Mills pulled his Modified 265 miles down from Britt and ran strong both nights. And how about that beautiful Modified car number 442 of Aaron Johnson who made the long tow of 498 miles from Brainerd, Minnesota? Johnson finished fifth on Friday and sixth on Saturday.

The division that you had to really be impressed with though were the Sport Compacts as not only did several of them come from a long ways away, but they also provided the diehards with some clean and competitive racing as the last event of each night. Burlington's Jacob Houston scored the clean sweep, but check out some of the travel distances of this field who were more than 150 miles from home.

5th, Chris Vannausdle, Villisca IA 217 miles
6th, Oliver Monson, Humboldt IA 265 miles
8th, Nathan Wahlstrom, 9th Zach Bohlmeyer and 21st Drake Bohlmeyer, all three from Beatrice NE 375 miles assuming that they were able to take the most direct route due to flooding
13th, John Gill, Marshalltown IA 161 miles
15th, Kyle Roose, Allison IA 188 miles
17th, Nathan Forey, Waverly IA 172 miles
20th, Jake Smith, St. Joseph MN 444 miles
23rd, R.J. Esqueda, Madelia MN 360 miles
25th, Zach Jackson, Bemidji MN 587 miles
26th, Dustin Forbes, Rock Falls IL 163 miles

Thanks to all of the drivers, whether you came from near or far this past weekend as all of you put on two very entertaining nights of racing!

Checking the forecast for the week ahead I am not very optimistic at this point about when or where my next race will be. If all goes as planned it will be at 34 Raceway west of Burlington this Saturday night where the Sprint Invaders are scheduled to kickoff their 2019 campaign along with the I-Smile Silver Late Models. Then the following week I have Tuesday April 2nd circled on my calendar for the Caleb Hammond Memorial at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa followed by two of the IMCA Frostbusters on Wednesday at Stuart and Thursday in Vinton. I will have to take a break for another commitment on Friday before returning to 34 Raceway on Saturday April 7th as the IRA and MOWA Sprint Cars converge on the 3/8th-mile highbanks for the opening event for both series.

Of course weather could force a change of plans along the way, but I do hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch!

Long and Houston Repeat, Bluhm, Murty and Becerra Post Second Night Wins at Spring Extravaganza

As hoped for the car count jumped up by fifteen to a total of 91 as the Pepsi Lee County Speedway hosted night number two of the annual Spring Extravaganza Saturday night with several of the competitors making a long trip to the track nestled in the far southeast Iowa community of Donnellson. Once again drivers had to navigate some rough spots around the bottom line of both sets of turns, but considering what this facility looked like just two weeks earlier the surface held up quite nicely for the first weekend of racing in this section of the country.

Late Models were again first on the docket for feature racing with Minnesota's Dustin Bluhm starting from the pole position and looking for redemption in the twenty-lap main event. Last night Bluhm was solidly out front when he spun sideways on lap nine and had to restart from the back. Jay Johnson would again pick up the chase of Bluhm while running second, but tonight it would be in his own car #93 instead of Blair Barton's #7 that he drove on opening night.

The caution would wave on lap six when Chris Morefield pounded the turn four guardrail head on and on the restart Friday night's winner Tommy Elston would takeover the second spot. Bluhm was able to keep Elston a few car lengths back as the laps clicked away until Tommy found a faster line just a few car widths higher than the leader in turns three and four. Coming to the white flag Elston was able to pull even with Bluhm on the outside and the two drivers then drag raced into turn one, neither of them wanting to be the first to lift.

Elston was the first to hammer the brakes hoping to turn under Bluhm as he slid up the track, but the leader was able to do the same and then close the door off the bottom of turn two to keep Elston behind him. Tommy would again try that higher line through three and four only to have Bluhm beat him to the line by less than a car length for the win. Johnson was not far behind in third, Denny Woodworth was fourth and Sam Halstead finished fifth with Mike Smith sixth in Barton's #7. My understanding is that Smith will drive the car on the Deery Brothers Summer Series in 2019.

The Stock Car feature was up next for 22 laps and once again it was a tight pack racing up front throughout, but unfortunately a couple of late incidents left several cars with damage to repair before they can go racing again. Todd Reitzler and Damon Murty would bring the field to green with Reitzler holding the advantage on lap one before yielding to Murty on the second trip around the 3/8th-mile D-shaped track.

A caution waved on lap five for a two car incident involving Chad Krogmeier and Michael Bilyeau and on the restart Murty was able to pull away a bit as a three car battle for second between Reitzler, Abe Huls and Jeremy Pundt raged on behind him. Huls finally claimed the second spot mid-race and quickly closed in on the leader challenging Murty on the inside several times before the caution waved for a Pete Stodgel spin in turn one.

With the field tightened up again for the final six laps Cayden Carter was now in the mix for the lead as he worked the low line and Huls tried to find some grip another car width up. Murty held his ground though and took the white flag in the lead, but going into turn one Carter charged in on the bottom looking to take it away. He could not get the car to stick though and when he slid sideways Carter collected the local favorite Pundt who appeared to have another top five finish in the bag. Huls also suffered front end damage to his car even though he kept going and would restart the race again in third.

On this attempt at a green-white-checkers finish the field would race hard for a lap only to see contact between Adam Klocke and Huls in turn two cause a seven car pileup that saw several of them unable to restart for the second "overtime". With most of his primary challengers now eliminated Murty would hold off a stout bid from Derek Green to finally take the win as John Oliver Jr., Jay Schmidt and Kyle Brown survived to complete the top five.

Twenty laps for the Sport Mods would be up next and after going green to checkers last night, they had a few incidents to slow the field tonight. Brandon Jewell would lead lap one by a nose before pole-sitter Brandon Dale would take the point, but the man on the move was Austen Becerra who charged from tenth to second in just four laps.

Debris would bring out the first caution with four laps completed and on the restart Becerra completed his charge to the front powering past Dale. Colton Livezy was running a solid third when he went into turn three a little hot on lap eight and spun. Then, on the restart, Brandon Lambert would loop his car in turn two collecting three other cars including Brandon Tharp. One last caution would be needed on lap nine when Bob Cowman spun in turn two and after that it was all Austen Becerra as he pulled away for a convincing win over last night's winner Tyler Soppe and third-place finisher Brayton Carter. St. Louis area driver Earl Pryor would finish in the fourth spot with Nathan Bringer completing the top five.

Twelve Modifieds would do battle for 22 laps next on the card with pole-sitter Mike Van Genderen setting a swift early pace. Michael Long started fourth and was soon in second giving chase to the leader, but with Van Genderen running a steady line that kept him from jumping around in the holes, Long was unable to mount a challenge. That changed quickly at the mid-race mark though as Long finally imitated the leader's line through three and four giving him a big run down the front stretch and with Van Genderen leaving that inside open Long charged under him in turns one and two to take the lead. Van Genderen was able to keep pace with the new leader for a couple of laps before Long started to pull away for his second victory of the weekend. Van Genderen followed up from a DNF on Friday to take the runner-up honors tonight ahead of Austin Howes, Jeremy Mills and Derrick Stewart. Aaron Johnson who made the 500 mile trip from Brainerd, Minnesota, for the weekend finished sixth tonight after running fifth on Friday.

Johnson wasn't even the long distance traveler of the weekend though as that honor went to Zach Jackson who towed his Sport Compact 587 miles from Bemidji, Minnesota, only to retire early from the Saturday finale that saw twenty-seven cars take the green for fourteen laps. Jacob Houston started third, but had the lead when they completed lap one with two-time defending All Iowa Points champion Barry Taft in hot pursuit. The leaders would run single file until lap eleven when Cody Staley spun out of turn four and with the double file restart things got pretty interesting over the final three laps.

Nobody could touch Houston though as he would race away to his second win of the weekend, this one much less dramatic than his win on Friday night though where he did a Joie Chitwood-like two wheel drive before make a final lap pass for the win. The victim of that last lap pass on Friday, Jason Ash had to charge from a sixth row start tonight to again finish in second while Taft hung on for third. Jeffrey DeLonjay would finish in the fourth position while Chris Vannausdle would make the long pull over from Villisca to complete the top five.

Despite an ominous looking radar only a few sprinkles fell during the Sport Mod feature and the racing action was complete at 9:40 p.m. A big thank you to promoters Brian and Marcie Gaylord for their hospitality for the weekend and to announcers Tony Paris and Dan Workman for mentioning our work at Positively Racing.

With the Spring Extravaganza now in the books, the Pepsi Lee County Speedway will open its regular season on Friday April 12th.

Spring Extravaganza Openers To Elston, Long, Huls, Soppe and Houston

The quantity may not have been what was expected, but the quality of drivers that made their way form near and far to the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson Friday was top notch as the 2019 racing got underway with the track's annual Spring Extravaganza. And perhaps after hearing that the racing surface held up quite well despite the rough winter, that driver list might grow for Saturday's finale of the two night show.

The Late Models would be the first feature to the track with Minnesota's Dustin Bluhm bringing the field to green from the pole position. Bluhm would race out to a big early lead before a series of cautions put a damper on the action. On lap four it was for debris and on lap five Bryan Berger nosed into the turn four guardrail. Todd Frank would spin in turn two to slow the field again on lap seven and once back to racing Bluhm now faced a challenge from both Jay Johnson and Tommy Elston.

Entering turn one on lap nine though Bluhm slid sideways and could not recover before stalling the car for yet another caution and on the restart Johnson would assume the lead. Elston would stay within four car lengths of the new leader, but was not able to mount a challenge until Johnson slipped wide exiting turn four with three laps to go. That was the opening that Elston needed as he pulled even with Johnson down the front stretch and the lead duo raced side-by-side for an entire lap before Elston nosed ahead and then pulled away to take the win. Johnson who was driving the car that will be wheeled by rookie driver Blair Barton this season gave it a good "shake down" run in second, Sam Halstead finished third with Bluhm and Berger recovering to complete the top five.

The Sport Mods were up next and after a false start on the first attempt they would go twenty laps of non-stop action. Brandon Dale would use his outside front row starting spot to open up a big lead while Nathan Bringer did his best to hold off Tyler Soppe's bid for second. Soppe was finally able to clear Bringer at the mid-race point and the chase was now on as he tried to cut into Dale's lead. The gap closed quickly as lapped traffic came into play and on lap fifteen with Dale trying to choose his line around two cars that were racing side-by-side in front of him, Soppe dove to the bottom and made the pass for the lead. There would be no stopping the 2017 All Iowa Points and IMCA National Champion from there as he cruised to the win. Austen Becerra charged from seventh to finish as the runner-up with Dale settling for third. Daniel Fellows came from row five to finish fourth and Bringer completed the top five.

As usual the Stock Cars gave the fans a show with the top six running in a tight formation as Jay Schmidt had the lead by a nose over Abe Huls on lap one before establishing himself as the pace setter on lap two. John Oliver Jr. would shuffle Huls back to third and he would then go to work on Schmidt only to have Huls find the higher line to his liking bringing him back to the front. When Schmidt bobbled in turn four, Huls would dive under him to take the lead at the line on lap ten of the twenty-two lap event. That lead pack of six would continue to swap positions until lap sixteen when the fourth place car of Derek Green slowed with a flat tire and when he could not get to the infield the caution waved.

On the restart Damon Murty would move to second and he would keep the heat on Huls over the closing laps, but Abe would not yield as he claimed the opening night victory ahead of Murty, Schmidt, Oliver Jr. and Jeremy Pundt. Minnesota drivers Dan Mackenthun and Green would be next in line.

Twelve of the thirteen Modifieds that had signed in would then line up for twenty-two laps with Brainerd, Minnesota, driver Aaron Johnson setting the pace. Fellow front row starter Mike Van Genderen would take the lead though and he would start to pull away before slowing suddenly exiting turn four on lap two. This would hand the lead over to Chad Holladay who would set a blistering pace, but not too quick for Michael Long who was steadily coming to the front after starting from tenth.

After clearing David Wietholder and Jeremy Mills to get to second, Long would then reel in the leader and make a big move to the front with just three laps to go. Holladay would try to fight back, but there would be no catching the hotshoe out of Fowler, Illinois, as Long scored the victory. Holladay and Mills would earn podium spots with Wietholder fourth and the long distance traveler Johnson in fifth.

The Sport Compacts drew a solid field of twenty and they would put on a thrilling fourteen lap finale for those fans who stuck around on a night where the temperature dipped to forty degrees at the final checkers. Brandon Reu would lead the field early with Barry Taft and Jacob Houston racing each other hard for second. On lap four Houston caught a rut as he charged to the inside of Taft in turn four and the left side of his car rose up high into the air. Somehow Houston's car did not turn over and when he came back down to all fours, contact would flatten the left front tire on Taft's car ending the evening for the two time defending All Iowa Points champion.

Following the restart Jason Ash would charge into the mix and he would take the lead from Reu with just five laps to go. Houston would erase the memory of nearly rolling his car and would get by Reu into second, but he did not appear to have anything for Ash as the white flag waved. You want to talk about a gutsy final lap move? Houston was still two car lengths back from Ash entering turn three, but he held it to the floor and ran the same line that nearly sent him rolling earlier in the race. This time it stuck though as he was able to clear Ash and then shut the door on him coming out of four to take the checkers and an exciting victory. Ash would settle for the runner-up spot with Reu in third, Chuck Fullenkamp would finish fourth ahead of Beatrice, Nebraska's Zach Bohlmeyer and north central Iowa's Oliver Monson would come from eighteenth to sixth after having troubles in his heat race.

All in all it was a great way to kick off the 2019 season. If you are a "car count" fan, you would have been disappointed, but if you are a "race fan" it is a good bet that you enjoyed the show. And like I said in the lead paragraph, now that other drivers saw that the track held up pretty good for opening night, maybe those "car count" fans will be a little happier with Saturday night's show.

Hope to see you there!

Start It Up?

Will this be the week that I am able to get my first race in for 2019? As of now the forecast for Friday and Saturday is looking pretty good and now it all depends on just how much drying can take place over the next few days. The Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa, has their annual Spring Extravaganza on the schedule for two nights of racing this weekend and promoter Brian Gaylord told me yesterday that he is optimistic about being able to race. He is going to give the track, and the rest of the fairgrounds facility another couple of days of drying before going to work though so keep an eye on the track's Facebook page for updates.

If for whatever reason the plan changes at Lee County, the Scotland County Speedway in Memphis, Missouri, has indicated that they will step up and run their Spring Nationals event that was canceled for March 15th and 16th due to wet grounds. So either way it looks like chances are good for racing in this region this weekend, and if neither can run then you can bet that I will be looking for a road trip to perhaps Highland, Humboldt or another track that may or may not start with an "H".

At east I was able to check out some results and video from some racing that did beat the weather this past weekend. The Indiana Icebreaker lived up to its name as the thermometer struggled to get into the low 50's for a high before dropping quickly when the sun went down, but that didn't stop Brandon Sheppard from having another dominating performance as he won the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series event at the Brownstown Speedway on Saturday. The driver of the Rocket House Car led all fifty laps to win his fifth race in a row after dominating at Volusia in February. Devin Moran was able to get close enough to the leader to excite announcer James Essex in the closing laps only to have Sheppard clear traffic as needed to maintain a comfortable lead to the finish. Sheppard will have a chance to add to that streak when the World of Outlaws Late Model Series gets back to action this Friday and Saturday in Tennessee at Duck River and Smoky Mountain.

Peoria's Allen Weisser made his first ever LODLMS start at Brownstown, made the show out of his heat race and then posted a solid tenth place finish in the star laden field. Weisser will be one to watch in the Late Model class as the 2019 season gets rolling soon in the state of Illinois.

The Springfield Raceway in southwest Missouri was able to run their March Madness event this past Saturday after it was postponed for a week. Oddly enough the track has posted results for every division in competition except for the Late Models where Jesse Stovall made a final lap pass of Logan Martin to win the $2,000 top prize. Courtesy of CheeseWorks video, Martin was impressive passing both Stovall and early leader Tony Jackson Jr. and appeared to be headed for victory only to have Stovall come storming back using the high line around the quarter-mile red clay oval. Mexico, Missouri's Robbie Reed topped an 18-car field of Modifieds with some big names just behind him in Terry Phillips and Ken Schrader. Kenny Wallace finished sixth and the one long distance traveler on the list was Cole Anderson from Northfield, Minnesota, who obviously did not finish the race in 18th. Anderson started his career racing pavement Late Models with success both in the upper Midwest and in Florida at New Smyrna Speedway.

Familiar names were at the top of the pay sheet for the B-Mods in Kris Jackson, J.C. Morton, Cody Jolly and Jackie Dalton while Jerry Lankton was the best of the 28 Midwest Modifieds that signed in. Springfield will be back in action on Saturday April 6th.

The Red Dirt Cup looked like it was quite a success at the Red Dirt Raceway in Meeker, Oklahoma, on Saturday as it was headlined by four different racing series. I was a bit surprised to see that Wayne Johnson had won the Oil Capital Racing Series (OCRS) Sprint Car main event, well not surprised that the veteran racer had won, but that he was even competing as part of the 31-car field. This is a Sprint Car series where the engines are steel blocks with a 368 c.i. maximum and the top wings are smaller with a sixteen square feet maximum. It was the first time that I had noticed the former Knoxville 360 Nationals champion and current ASCS National Series competitor racing with this organization and he came out on top of a spirited battle with Zach Chappell to take the win.

Kip Hughes took the Sooner Late Model Series victory and then somebody had the bright idea to line up Johnson and Hughes side-by-side for a match race. They should have given Hughes a half of a lap head start to make it interesting as Johnson immediately pulled away for an easy "win".

Robert Elliott won the Sooner Limited Modified Series main event while Mark Smith was the winner of the Western Outlaw Pure Stock Series feature. Similar to the irony of having something called a "Jumbo Shrimp", is it even possible to have an Outlaw Pure Stock? That seems to be a total contradiction of terms right there.

Scanning through the early season Weekly Racing results at Dirt On Dirt gives us some drivers to add to our "All Name List". Arthur Conquest very fittingly was the winner the All-Tech Raceway in Florida Saturday night with Dusty Sparkman coming home third. Don Sniff was fifth at Hendry Motorsports Park on January 19th and Booger Brooks ran a strong second at Boyd's Speedway in Georgia Saturday night. Brian Grumbles probably should have been happier with his runner-up finish at Travelers Rest Speedway in South Carolina, but at least he had a better time of getting to the track than did Tommy Grimes this weekend. DoD reports that Grimes' Late Model rolled off the trailer, went through a ditch and a fence before ending up in a cow pasture on his way to practice on Friday night. No grumbling here though as Grimes and his crew made repairs to the car, double checked the trailer straps and arrived at the track late on Saturday before taking the win at the I-37 Speedway in Texas.

I had some feedback on last week's post in regard to the situation at the Interstate Speedway. It came from a driver in the area and essentially said that the threatened boycott was an excuse for some bad business decisions made by the prospective new promoter. His suggested solution was that he "should have listened to the drivers." Now that all sounds pretty easy, but my experience over the years from all of the different roles that I have taken in this sport tells me that it isn't. First of all, what drivers should the promoter have listened to? From a distance it sounded like the Modified drivers had the biggest complaint since they had been cut from the weekly roster. So if the Modified drivers are saying "hey, you need us to put on a show" and the promoter says "okay, but to have you means that I will have to trim $1,000 a night from the rest of the purse structure to make it work", I'm not real sure that the Stock Car, Hobby Stock and Sport Compact drivers would all agree with that. Also from my experience, the drivers who are the most successful (i.e. win the most) are often the most vocal so typically their biggest beef is about the lineup procedures which under IMCA are inverted by average points. Those most vocal drivers would likely make a case for dropping the sanction and going to a draw and redraw format so that they can have a chance to start up front for awhile. It all sounds like that is what "all the drivers" want, but not really because you see who wants to be the guy, or gal, who stands up and says "I really want to keep the invert because it gives me a chance to beat you fast guys once in awhile, plus it puts on a better show for the fans". Seriously now, when is the last time that you heard a driver say that out loud? But it's the truth.

Other areas of driver disagreement would be which class gets to run first, who packs the track, and on and on and on. I'm not saying that a promoter shouldn't listen to the drivers, but drivers need to understand this......I love you all because you spend the money and put in the hard work to put on the show for all of us fans every race night.....but y'all rarely if ever truly agree on much. And that's the truth.

All of the memes on Facebook poking fun at Kyle Busch winning his 200th NASCAR race yesterday need to stop. Is he really comparing himself to Richard Petty? I hope not because it is two completely different eras. Those who want to diminish his accomplishment need to realize that the breadth of competition that Petty raced against was nowhere as deep as it is now, and for Kyle's fans to equate 200 wins across three divisions to what Petty did is a little off-putting as well. I am glad that it was a Cup race win that got Kyle to the 200 mark though and it will be interesting to see if he cuts back on his Xfinity series and Truck racing now that he has reached this milestone. The King is still "The King" and Kyle Busch is a pretty damn good driver in his own right as well, he should be congratulated on his achievement.

The sad thing was the overhead camera shots of the stands at Fontana on Sunday where except for the center section there were twice as many empty seats as there were full ones. Other than their flagship events NASCAR has a big problem with attendance right now and I am not sure how they solve it. I have said for years that they were being over-exposed with practice and qualifying being televised live and of course they priced themselves out of the budget of the average fans. Once the horse is out the barn though it is hard to pull it back in. Short track racing needs to take heed and not go down the same path.

I attended the 34 Raceway Car Show yesterday that drew around 25 cars and was held at the Deery Brothers dealership in West Burlington. It was a good show with some nice looking cars and there was a nice sized crowd that filed through over the six hour period. When I called my colleague Danny Rosencrans on the way home to discuss our possible travel plans in the coming weeks, we also talked about how car shows just don't get the participation that they once did, and then it dawned on me. Could it be that the drawback of the shopping mall is the reason why you don't see 40 or 50 cars at a car show anymore? Twenty years ago you had to reserve your spot ahead of time just to get your car on display in Westland Mall for the 34 Raceway show and while a large crowd shuffled through to look at the beautiful new rides for the upcoming season, many of the drivers and their friends would be down at Diamond Dave's enjoying a cold one and watching NASCAR on the television nestled up in the corner.

Diamond Dave's has been shuttered for several years now, along with many of the other stores in the Mall making it just as likely to draw in a good crowd at the local car dealership with less the hassle.

Oh well, the car show is in the book, it is now time to see them on the track and I hope to see you soon somewhere on the Back Stretch!