The Quest For the Holy Grail has finally found it's seven knights after the events of Tuesday evening came to a hault. Coming into last night, QSM had a considerable four-race winning streak. The streak was extended to five and six after Ryan Heuser fought his way from the rear of the field in the first two events to win them both. R2W's Ken Pettit won the career stats race, giving R2W their first Shootout Series win in 15 races. The first third of the season was dominatied by no one driver. Six of the first seven events this season had different representitives in victory lane. The points leader after the first 15 races was Tim McDonnell. He started the season off with a 13-race top-5 streak, which is the longest in Shootout Series history. Timmy extended his points lead through the middle third of the season and only ascended from there. Through races 16 to 30, Tim and Ryan Heuser won 11 of them, ensuring their top chase seedings. The most poles, most wins (tied with Ryan), most top-5's, most top-10's (tied with Craig), most laps led, and least DNF's all belong to Tim McDonnell. Ryan Heuser has the highest average finish of the season (1.91), which will also shatter the record books if he keeps the pace up. He also has an 11-race winning streak of his own, two away from the record that Timmy set earlier in the season. The most Driver of the Knight's this season belongs to Ryan Heuser with three. Speedy grabbed his inagural Driver of the Knight award on week 5, grabbing a win at Daytona and two Top-5's at Loudon and Zen Joltis. NASCAR Racing 4 veteran Matt Raboin and sophomore drivers Tony Long & Cristian Torres narrowly missed the chase. They along with the others who couldn't muscle their way in will continue to fight for the 8th-man award, Team Championship, and Manufacturer's Championship for the final third of the season.
Everything remains possible for Season 9. Lets grab first gear and ride it out, as only one shall be King!
The #29 Cheez-It Chevy team continued to celebrate in Gatorade Victory Lane at Daytona well into the wee hours of the morning. Not only had Ben Geer made his first NR2003 trip to Victory Lane but he did it in "Michael Waltrip" style. He won his first career race in the biggest of the season. In a race that officially only saw 2 caution periods, racing was extremely close all through the field. Until green flag pitstops you could have spit at the first truck and just missed the last one. TEX Perry captured the pole at the famed 2.5 mile superspeedway with Tony Pizzaro to his outside. At the drop of the green Tex jumped out to what he had hoped would be his first lap led of the Fall.Winter season. While just behind him Tim McDonnell had jumped to the upper lane just in front of Pizzaro and officially led the first 3 laps of the season. The two continued to run side-by-side for the first 4 laps until Tex just edged ahead of the 31. Many wondered if these first laps would set the pace for the entire season to come. Shortly thereafter Tex dropped to the apron as the field took to the backstretch and relegated himself to the back of the field. Approaching the first pitstops of the day the first of 2 cautions flew when initial leader Tim McDonnell was bounced into the outside wall almost destroying the rear of his truck. Teams patched him up and Tim would remain a contender all night long. Teams would have to dodge trucks for most of the middle of the race when 2 non-caution producing wrecks regulated good trucks to the rear of the field. The
later of these 2 incidents happened when JT Armstrong(admitting fault in the incident) would get turned off the front of another truck and spin to the infield just past pit road. JT would never recover from going a lap down. The final green flag stops would set up the #29 in
front with the #56 of defending champion Rod Weston behind him coming off pit road. Though Rod would fight hard to defend his Daytona performance from last season Ben would hold on to gain not only the points lead heading into Martinsville, next week, but his first ever NR2003 win and one for the record books.
Fight Dirty Truck teams are arriving in Daytona for the opening race ofthe Fall/Winter season at NORL. Rod Weston is looking to defend his FDTS Championship against a host of very talented drivers this season, some new some returning to try to dethrone Rod as the champion. The FDTS schedule jumps from 6 to 12 races this season with all tracks from last season returning and 6 new. A win at Daytona will certainly set the pace for the Fall/Winter season.
From the BIG track to the SHORT track, FDTS leaves Daytona and heads to the mountains of Virginia and to the Martinsville Speedway. This famed "Paperclip" seems like a slower pace but always produces great racing. Watch for the cream to rise to the top early and stay there for most of the race.
Martinsville to North Wilkesboro. NORL is doing it's part to SAVE THE SPEEDWAY. Though NASCAR racing ceased here years ago the FDTS takes its chance to fill the seats once again at North Wilkesboro. This track also produces great races not only up front but all through the field. Watch for underdogs to make their way to the front here and in turn make a bid for the championship.
Halfway across the country sits Texas Motor Speedway. Mostly dormant this time of year, FDTS is going to wake up the DFW with the "Remember the Alamo 117." This race last season produced first time winner Tim McDonnell in his #31 Honda Ridgeline. An early crash involving most of the drivers combined with Tim's smooth driving style to stay ahead of the crash, allowed him to effectively lap the field with second place driver JR Foley finishing 1 lap down. Watch for the #31 and #18 to be strong againthis season. Head north the the mid-west states and Iowa Speedway. This race last season proved as the midpoint in the championship. With only 3 drivers making the trip Iowa was almost thrown out of the schedule. Management has graciously invited FDTS back to disprove last seasons event and fill the stands. This mid-sized track can allow for long green flag runs. Watch for "short-track aces" to prove their worth here.
Also new for the FDTS is the trip to the chilly confines of Canada this season with a trip to the all new Victoria Speedway in the beautiful surroundings of British-Columbia. Previous testing at this track proved to be very racey with a comparable outside lane to provide for great racing all evening.A win here would surely produce a championship caliber driver.
From Snow to Dirt we move back into the US to Rossburg, OH and the famed dirt confines of Eldora Speedway. Tony Stewart has assured FDTS officials a perfect racing surface for our first trip to the dirt. Although this is just an exhibition race, racers should be able to enjoythemselves and relax a little and let the track come to them. Again watch the underdogs as no one can be counted out for this race. If all goes well Eldora could end up on futu
... Read more »
After the 7-race regular season came to a hault, 7 drivers were seperated by 9 points. Tim McDonnell and Tony Pizzaro were knocked out of contention at Sparta despite grabbing the top-5 finishes they were hoping for. Here's a roundup of the 5 drivers that squeaked by and captured their paramount chase positions: Speedy stands atop the standings for the first time in his N.O.R.L. career coming into the chase. He has completed the second most laps of any driver and hopes to get that crucial first win of the season. Speedy's fellow competitor Scott Jackson enters his first N.O.R.L. chase scoring the highest average finish of the five chase contenders (4.16). He has also led 91 laps hoping to be the first to crack 100. The first QSM respresentitive to make the show is Craig Lee, rebounding after a 10-point penalty during the season opener that nearly doomed his Championship hopes. Craig is the only multiple-winner this season, seizing the checkered flag at Daytona and Zen Joltis. Another worthy adversary is the Season 9 'laps completed' leader and 4th place chase driver Cristian Torres. Cristian makes the first chase of his young N.O.R.L. career, hoping to take advantage of the events that loom ahead and capture his first championship. Lastly, we bring up the second QSM chase representitive Dave Miller. Daver is going for his record 4th Speedway Cup Championship after scarcely sneaking his way into the show. It's going to be a tight battle, so lets lasso our way to TOC and commence the crusade!
