Not long after Jeremy Pringle announced the banning of bump stops for 2022, the Goodyear tire company announced the "tread that never dies" campaign as the second big change for next season. They will use the Extravaganza Series as the primary "market of demonstration" for their branding at the gratification of the smaller teams, hoping the new tire will even out the playing field. These tires have been rumoured to be dipped in a "Dr. Pepper like solution" prior to their entrance to the speedways. They will also be softer than any Extravaganza tire in it's 70-year history, increasing the speeds to cataclysmic levels. "This new tire may save my Extravaganza career" says Michael Henson, who has struggled with the squandering Shake N' Bake Racing team all year. "The short tracks will be a free-for-all in 2022". Tim McDonnell doesn't agree with the consensus. "It's like pouring a bottle of Fresca over your favorite lamp. We've worked hard for the setups we have, so we'll have to endure the same growing pains that rookie teams do. It's a huge disadvantage for the established organizations such as Top Geer". Rumours have the average draft lap time at Daytona over 210 miles per hour. Fans expect the residual effects to be on the positive side, bringing faster and more competitive racing to the masses!

Ken Joynt will start on the pole for the first time in his career, with points leader Ken Pettit on the grid in 10th. Pettit led 91 laps in the Rockingham spring race and looks to pull away from John Battista and Scott Jackson for the fan-favorite Championship.

Race Results

Points Standings

Schedule

Bill Werkheiser crawled from 7th to first to take the lead on lap 7. Not long afterwards, the points leader was already up front, swapping the lead with Bill three different times before the first round of green flag pit stops.

A frontstretch spin by Alex Crapser brought out the caution flag during the pit cycle. Most of the field was trapped a lap down, ad Johnny Reed Foley, William Perry and Zakk Miller battle three-wide for the top-spot.

Alex Crapser went from spinning to the lead, flying through the abundance of lapped traffic. He would make an unscheduled pit stop halfway through the fuel run, giving Dan Johnston the lead for 30 laps in a miracle run for the Allstate machine.

A Dalton Lucas spin brought out the second caution flag, again in the middle of green flag stops. Johnston had just pitted, while Crapser nabbed his lap back with the fresher tires. There were now seven cars remaining, with a full field ready to pounce on the leaders to get back in the race.

Tim McDonnell led the restart after falling to 30th place earlier in the event. Excellent fuel mileage had brought him and Matthew Dominique to the front of the pack, battling for the lead while Ryan Heuser and Crapser lurked from behind.

Heuser took the lead several laps into the run and pulled away by ten full seconds. A run-in with John Battista put him into the outside wall, though the #138 kept on trucking. An accident on pit road, combined with this accident and an unscheduled pit stop found Battista in 36th place by the end of the event. He would drop from 10 points behind to 103 back in the standings with two races left.

Despite a 17-second advantage by Heuser, Alex Crapser was attempting a three-stop tire strategy that looked to steal the victory away. Crapser was over a second faster than the rest of the field with the fresher tires, but the last set proved to be his setback. Crapser managed to pass the leader as many times as Rick Jackson did at Darlington one year ago, but to no avail for the victory. Heuser still maintained his 17-second lead.

An enormously competitive race for second place between Matthew Dominique, Johnny Reed Foley, Tim McDonnell and Zakk Miller stole the show from behind, McDonnell would eventually race to the spot and keep it, while Heuser battled lapped cars who were getting their lap back from behind with slightly fresher tires during the final laps.

Matt Raboin and Dave Miller blew up Quick-Silver Motorsports engines early in the go. A Craig Lee explosion coming to the final lap caused an enormous melee directly in front of the leader. Jimmie Stevens ran into his oil, spinning directly into Dalton Lucas and flipping the #2 machine into the air. leader Heuser slammed into the rear of Donald Stewart attempting to avoid the accident, severely destroying a racecar that would be deemed unwinnable if the race went back green.

Heuser limped his decimated racecar across the track at caution speed, crossing the finish line battered and bruised on the pit lane with the checkered flag waving. It was his seventh victory of the season, and easily his most dominant of 2021. He would crawl to 2nd in the standings, only 22 points behind Ken Pettit. Congrats to Ryan, crew chief Mustard Mahoney, and the entire Quick-Silver Racing crew for an excellent victory! ... Read more »