by Kevin Kovac
CLOSE AGAIN: Defending World of Outlaws Late Model Series champion Darrell Lanigan made another impressive charge in a big-money race on Saturday night, rallying from the 15th starting spot to finish third in the UMP DIRTcar Racing-sanctioned 'Dream XV' at Eldora Speedway.
But pocketing $10,000 and ending up as the highest-finishing WoO LMS regular in the 100-lap A-Main was little consolation for the no-nonsense racer from Union, Ky., who is sick and tired of falling short in extra-distance specials this season.
Lanigan, who turned 39 on June 3, summed up his Dream effort thusly: 'We needed to start up front. If we would've been in front of Scott (Bloomquist, who finished second), I don't know if he would've gotten by us. (Jimmy) Owens (the eventual winner) ' well, he was good and would've been tough to beat even if we started up front, so I'm not saying we would've won it with a better starting spot. But I know that we could've run second.'
It took Lanigan until lap 40 to crack the top 10. He was up to eighth when the race's lone caution flag flew on lap 51, and by lap 63 he was fourth and closing on the lead trio of Tony Stewart, Bloomquist and Owens.
Alas, after Lanigan overtook Stewart for third on lap 78, he couldn't summon quite enough speed in his Fusion Energy Rocket to run down Bloomquist with the Dream running clean-and-green to the checkered flag.
'I ran 'em down like a straightaway and just about got to 'em,' Lanigan said of Stewart, Bloomquist and Owens. 'But once I got close my stuff (tires) was so hot, I was done.'
Lanigan's Dream run fits alongside his performances earlier this year in the Lone Star 100 at Battleground Speedway in Highlands, Texas, and the Circle K Colossal 100 at The Dirt Track @ Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. He started both events from the sixth starting spot, but flat tires ' on lap 40 at Battleground and lap 14 at The Dirt Track ' forced him to make spectacular rushes from the rear of the field in order to salvage a pair of hard-earned second-place finishes.
The low-key driver at least hopes that his outing in the Dream ' a race he finished among the top-10 for the 10th time in 11 career A-Main starts (including an '03 victory and two runner-up performances) ' gives him some momentum for the upcoming WoO LMS Great Northern Tour.
Lanigan is winless on the '09 WoO LMS but sits second in the points standings entering the Great Northern Tour, which features eight A-Mains and nine nights of action over a 10-day period. The swing kicks off on June 18 at Ohsweken (Ont.) Speedway and continues on June 20 at Quebec's Autodrome Drummond; June 21 at Cornwall (Ont.) Motor Speedway; June 22 at Can-Am Motorsports Park in Lafargeville, N.Y.; June 23 at Canandaigua (N.Y.) Speedway; June 24 at Big Diamond Racing in Minersville, Pa.; and June 25-27 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. (completion of a held-over program from May 5 on June 25 and the $30,000-to-win Firecracker 100 on June 26-27).
COOLED OFF: Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., didn't carry his WoO LMS hot streak to the Dream, finishing one lap down in 12th.
Early in the A-Main, however, it appeared that Francis just might be a serious factor. He hustled Dale Beitler's Rocket car from the 18th starting spot to eighth by lap 49, but the caution flag that came out two circuits later effectively sealed his fate.
'On the restart with all that dust flying, it was like somebody put water under my tires,' said Francis, who was ninth when the caution flew. 'I backed up to like 15th and I never got back up there in the mix. I guess we just overheated the right-rear tire.
'Starting 18th, we knew we had to gamble a little bit, so we did some things we probably wouldn't have normally done and we didn't hit it. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I can't be real disappointed, but I can be a little aggravated.'
LATE MOVES: At one point midway through the 51-lap stretch of green-flag racing that opened the Dream A-Main, Rick Eckert was within a couple cars of being lapped.
But the York, Pa., driver's Team Zero by Bloomquist mount gradually improved as the laps clicked off, allowing him to quietly secure an eighth-place finish in the race he won in 1999.
'At the beginning of the race I was terrible,' said Eckert, who started 17th. 'But just before the caution (on lap 51) I changed my line and found something through (turns) one and two that worked for me. I still struggled in three and four, but I kept running the same line in one and two for the rest of the race and I just kept picking off cars.'
MYSTERY MALADY: Chub Frank's Dream weekend went pretty well ' for the length of his heat race, which he finished in the second spot, and the first 10 laps of the A-Main.
After that the former World 100 winner from Bear Lake, Pa., found himself flailing around on the half-mile oval, unable to make any noise. He faded out of the top 15 by lap 40 and finished 19th after pulling off late in the distance.
'The car wasn't bad in the heat race and it started out good in the feature for about eight or 10 laps,' said Frank, who pitted for some adjustments to his Rocket mount during the lap-51 caution perioid. 'But then it just went away. I don't know what happened ' the thing just started bouncing, like it got bound up in the corners.'
OFF THE PACE: The Dream was a bitter disappointment for 21-year-old WoO LMS sensation Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., who fell miserably short of victory in a crown-jewel event after raising his hopes by setting fast time on Friday night.
Richards started seventh in the 100 after a second-place finish in his heat, but he lost six spots on the opening lap and never stopped free-falling. He was lapped by Bloomquist moments before the right-rear tire blew on his Seubert Calf Ranches Rocket on lap 51, sending him into the turn-one wall and leaving him 22nd in the final rundown.
'It felt like the right-rear tire just never touched the ground the whole time I was out there,' said Richards, shaking his head as he munched on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in his team's hauler following the race. 'Something was wrong from the start ' maybe something with how we siped the tire. It's very frustrating because we thought we had a car that could run up front.'
ENJOYABLE EVENING: Richards spent the second half of the race standing atop his team's trailer to watch the Dream victory bid of NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Tony Stewart, who entered his track's rich dirt Late Model event for the first time in a Rocket car prepared by Richards, Richards's father Mark and the Rocket Chassis crew.
Stewart, who shuttled by air between Eldora and his NASCAR commitments at Pennsylvania's Pocono Raceway, decided to run the event after his scheduled star-filled 'Prelude to the Dream' program was postponed by rain on Wednesday night.
'Mark (Richards) sent me a text message on Wednesday sometime after they had figured I hadn't hung myself (due to the Prelude's postponement) and asked me if I wanted to run the car (in the Dream),' said Stewart. 'They busted their butt to get the car ready (for the Prelude) and obviously we didn't get a chance to run it, so I said, 'Yeah, let's do it.''
Stewart's 24th-fastest lap on Friday proved to be perfect when Josh Richards picked a four for the heat-race invert number, putting Stewart on the pole for the sixth heat. He won that prelim to earn the pole position for the Dream, then led laps 10-37 and 61-72 before fading to a sixth-place finish.
'I guess we had the tires siped up too much,' Stewart said while unwinding in the Richards team's hauler after the 100. 'About 15 laps before Scott (Bloomquist) caught us the first time the tire gave up a little bit. The tire thing is such a critical game here so you gotta find the sweet spot (with siping), and we just missed it a little bit.'
Nevertheless, Stewart was riding high on adrenalin following his outing in his No. 14 car, which carried sponsorship from Old Spice, Office Depot and Bass Pro Shops.
'I had a blast,' said Stewart. 'If I didn't have to go to work tomorrow (at Pocono), we'd be here all night wide awake. I told (Josh and Mark) that my goal was just to be able to make the A-Main tonight, so we definitely beat that.
'I've been a nervous wreck the last two nights,' he added. 'This is something I've wanted to do for a long time ' and obviously if you're gonna do it, you wanna do it with Mark and Josh because you know you'll have the best opportunity to win. I have to thank them and the great bunch of people who helped us with this car tonight.'
'B' BOYS: Tim Fuller of Watertown, N.Y., and Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga., saw their Dream efforts end in Saturday night's B-Main.
After both drivers transferred to the last-chance event through the C-Main ' Fuller finished second and Smith was third ' they went opposite directions in the 20-lap B-Main. Smith remained mired deep in the field and finished 17th, while Fuller made a stirring charge from the 20th starting spot to finish sixth.
Fuller, who made his first career Dream A-Main start in 2008, fell short of qualifying for the second straight year by just two positions in the B-Main. He made his move forward without the benefit of a caution flag.
SOUTHERN ANGER: Shane Clanton's first visit to Eldora since his World 100 victory last September didn't go as he planned.
The Locust Grove, Ga., driver was running fourth ' one spot from transferring ' in the fifth heat when a hard shot from 67-year-old Delmas Conley of Wheelersburg, Ohio, sent him spinning into the wall between turns three and four on lap 11.
Clanton, who had swapped paint with Conley earlier in the heat, gestured angrily at the veteran driver as he passed by the accident scene under caution. He then sullenly rode back to the upper pit area to load up his damaged RSD Enterprises Rocket car.
DISAPPOINTMENT: First-year WoO LMS regular Brady Smith of Solon Springs, Wis., knows he let a golden opportunity for Dream success slip through his fingers.
Smith found himself blessed with an outside-pole starting spot in the sixth heat, the prelim that puts its winner on the pole for the A-Main. But he slipped to fifth at the initial green flag and found himself spun off turn four on lap seven, effectively ending his hopes.
Though the 32-year-old made a strong march forward from deep in the field during the C-Main, he never caught a caution flag to help his cause and finished eighth, two spots short of transferring to the B-Main.
DOUBLE TROUBLE: WoO LMS Rookie of the Year points leader Jordan Bland might have experienced one of the most frustrating weekends of anyone in the Dream field.
The 20-year-old from Campbellsville, Ky., brought plenty of confidence into the event after qualifying for last September's World 100 at The Big E, but he left with plenty of broken equipment.
Bland's problems started when his primary Team Zero by Bloomquist No. 12 was sidelined by engine maladies during Friday's hot laps. He jumped into his backup car ' a machine that still carried the orange Home Depot colors and No. 20 of NASCAR rookie Joey Logano, who was slated to drive it in Wednesday night's rained-out Prelude to the Dream ' and promptly crashed it into the turn-one wall on his first time-trial circuit.
Adding insult to injury, Bland lasted just a couple of laps in his heat on Saturday. His No. 20 car sustained significant body damage in a first-lap scrape and he retired for the night.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
This article was posted to the website on June 9th, 2009 • Click to view all related content in the following categories
