There have been no repeat winners at Homestead in the last nine events at the facility! It's the only modern racetrack Ryan Heuser has failed to find victory lane, hoping to rectify his "Florida woes" by chasing down Johnny Reed Foley for his second-straight and fifth Extravaganza Series Championship! Zach Michael comes in 75 points back in search of his first crown, with teammates to both drivers in Zakk Miller and Craig Lee ready to pounce! It's Quick-Silver Motorsports and Team Danger Zone against Johnny Reed Foley for the title. Good luck to all!
It's Bill Werkheiser's Final Ride! He joined the Extravaganza Series in 2001, driving Buddy Griswald's #99 STP Ford in his final season as a car owner. His efforts were bought out by W.A.S.P. Motorsports the following season, teaming up with Scott Jackson in the #6 Kraft foods Taurus. He, Scott, Rick Jackson and Randy Dobbins would powerhouse their way to four Championships, with Werkheiser finishing top-10 in points in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2015. "I took my model plane out at Bristol." says Bill about a weekend during his rookie campaign. "Buddy comes out and says "Hey Billy, what are ya doin'". I said "I'm flying my airplane". He says "You want some good gas for that?". I was like "Yea!". Buddy goes back to his motor home; he mixes it up with the oil and stuff. He says "Don't tell your momma and daddy about this." He has this jug of clear liquid. "Whatever you do don't drink it!" He cranks it up; there's a blue flame comin' out "Holy what is this??!" He throws it up; it flies wayyy over the fourth turn wall. I'm there lookin' at it and he says "Sorry 'bout your luck kid.""
Molemar Diggs clinches the Rookie of the Year! The campaign proved tough, showing signs of greatness before a humbling summer-stretch sent the team in a cavalcade of trial and strife. Two fourth-place efforts at Atlanta and Richmond set the tone, with Jeremy Hebel finishing more races to keep up with the torrid pace of the #41 Pittsburgh Steelers Chevrolet. In the end, the second Wizards of Speed entry got the job done! Hebel, Steve Inkman, Rod Weston and Tony Gunk also fought valiantly, showing flashes of brilliance throughout the 2024 campaign.
What a year! Seven victories more than doubles his previous season-high. 1,459 laps led makes Buddy Rakestraw look like Syd Quackenbush, but that's okay! They are both legends in their own right. Foley's "legendary" status depends on his Pennzoil 400 result! A 12th-place finish or better will nab the #3 AC-Delco CFM Motorsports Chevrolet the title! The year started with a 13th-place in the Daytona 500 followed by two-straight top-3's. A victory at Atlanta set the tone, climbing up the ladder to catch Ken Pettit, Zakk Miller and Alex Crapser atop the standings. Wins at Kansas and Gateway propelled Foley to second in points, passing Pettit for the points lead after Sonoma in June. The #8 Bob Marley Chevrolet took it back at Chicagoland, only for Foley to sweep victories in the northeast stretch at New Hampshire and Pocono. Foley was in the midst of a 15-race lap-led streak starting from the Coca-Cola 600 to the Eddie Money Classic. Those bonus points narrowly edged Pettit's consistency to win the regular season Championship! His victory at the Southern 500 sparked the remainder of his campaign, leading a whopping 718 laps in nine chase races. Four of them saw him up front for 100+ (Darlington, Las Vegas, Martinsville and Phoenix), with a seventh victory at Atlanta; sweeping both events at the facility. A narrow loss to Ryan Heuser in Arizona keeps the #138 just 58 points behind. The #3 AC-Delco Chevrolet starts mid-pack in 23rd for the Pennzoil 400. Look for Foley to climb directly to the front!
A 20th-place finish in the Daytona 500 sparked Ryan Heuser's 2024 campaign. Four-straight efforts of 35th-or-worse ensued, with a 9th place finish at Texas failing to rectify his situation. The #138 Nos Energy Quick-Silver Motorsports Chevrolet would have to qualify on speed! 38th in the standings rendered Heuser without a provisional for Richmond, having to race Alan Nesfeder, Jimmie Stevens and other unlucky souls for the top-8 in the 80-lap pre-qualifier. Heuser won the race! A third-place effort in the main event got the ball rolling. Still, they were concluded as blackballed from the Chase after such a major deficit. By Chicagoland, the team was up to 29th in points. Seven-straight top-10 finishes including a victory at the Brickyard 400 jumped him the 19 spots they needed! A competitive field kept the middle-pack points getters close; giving Heuser the opportunity to pass two to three spots at a time with each top-10. "The 46-car fields during the summer-stretch was our salvation" said crew chief Mustard Mahoney. "If a guy went out, we'd gain 100+ every time. Fortunately we never had a problem when it counted most. Everyone else did." Heuser enters Homestead leading in six-straight events, attempting to remedy his broken camshaft at Talladega with a fifth Extravaganza Series crown! They come in just 56-points behind Foley, needing the #3 AC-Delco Chevrolet to finish 13th-or-worse to have a chance.
Two Team Danger Zone entries battle for the Championship! Zach Michael's #20 Coca-Cola Mustang's campaign started a little rough, finishing 18th in the Daytona 500 followed by a four-race stretch without a lap led. Two 32nd-place finishes were followed by a 6th and a 3rd at Rockingham and Atlanta, only to blow up from the pole at Texas after dominating the first-half of the event. A 6th-place finish followed by a victory at Martinsville entered their April short-track stretch 9th in the standings, with three of his four teammates well within contention. Three seventh-place efforts at Darlington, Kansas and Pocono were followed by a demonic stretch of bad luck, dropping to 14th in points as he and rookie Molemar Diggs dropped to the veterans of Scott Jackson and Dave Miller. Unlike the rookie, Michael battled back with three-straight top-5's at Chicagoland, New Hampshire and Pocono. Their magnum-opus of the year might be their 4th-place run at Richmond, solidifying themselves into the Chase with teammate Zakk Miller. A crash in the Southern 500 left the team 184 points behind Foley. They would not be denied! Seven top-16 efforts in the next eight events; leading all but one with a victory at Charlotte to boot! Zach Michael comes in 75 points behind Johnny Reed Foley, needing the #3 to finish 18th or worse to have a shot at their first Championship title!
Nobody's completed more laps or earned more poles in their 2024 campaign than Bepis-man Zakk Miller! The #30 Team Danger Zone team enters their fourth season, earning a second-straight chase bid en route to their first top-5 points result. All they have to do is finish 16th or better to pull off the feat! They were the first team to finish outside the top-30, going 22-races before a 42nd-place at Michigan. His two DNF's leads the league, finishing the year as the only man to complete 10,000 laps if John Tharp has trouble. He out-dueled Tharp at Bristol for his only victory of the season, only to get beat by the #14 at the Eddie Money Classic to start-off the chase! Miller was the points leader just two races in. With Johnny Reed Foley, teammate Zach Michael and Ryan Heuser dominating the resuming seven-race stretch, the #30 Bepis Mustang fights for their lives, needing a Johnny Reed Foley dilemma to solidify themselves back in the hunt! They're 118 points back entering the Pennzoil 400.
Quick-Silver Motorsports struggled mightily during the first two months of their 2024 campaign. A second-place finish in the Daytona 500 behind Alex Crapser put Craig Lee in welcome territory, earning the victory at The Rock the following Friday to nab the points lead! From there, eight-straight finishes of 23rd or worse in the following nine events dropped the NOS Energy #101 team to 16th in the standings, with teammate Ryan Heuser narrowly cracking the top-30. An 8th-place finish at Kansas started the ascending climb to the Championship! Fourteen top-20 finishes in the final fifteen events locked he and Heuser in, capping it off with top-3 finishes at Watkins Glen and Richmond. A victory at Talladega was countered by a crash at Charlotte, earning the pole in each to clinch a 2025 Big Bud Shootout birth! Since then, three-straight top-16's kept Lee in the running. He's 119 points behind season dominator Johnny Reed Foley. A problem for the AC-Delco #3 is the only hope. Craig Lee Statistics (2024) Wins: 2 (T-5th) Top-5's: 8 (T-7th) Top-10's: 16 (T-3rd) Laps Led: 218 (15th) Avg. Fin.: 16.7 (5th) Poles: 2 (T-5th) DNF %: 11% (T-5th) Laps Run: 9,676 (5th) Points Behind Foley: -119 (5th)
The Phoenix sun blazes onto the spectators like a McDonald's french-fry deep inside the grease. Sunburn and flames ravage the grandstands, sending fans into an uproar before the first practice. "Some guy opened his cigarette pack and it burned!" said Marie Skeen from Prescott. "He didn't need a match." Her favorite driver John Battista starts on the pole today.
Ben Geer uses the high-groove advantage to steal the lead on lap-1! He's led in four-straight events; the first time in Ben's career in hopes of capping it off with a third-straight top-10 finish. Points leader Johnny Reed Foley and 2022 race winner Ryan Heuser each grapple for the top-spot, with Heuser taking it from the Twinkies #29 on lap-4.
Devastation on the fifth lap! Rob Scarberry and Philip Parker tangle off the fourth corner, sending the five-time Bonzanza Series winner into the inside wall. Scarberry glides onto the racetrack in front of Steven Spears, damaging the Mello Yello #65 and along with Cristian Torres's nose. Spears was looking for career best third-straight top-5 finish. Neither of the four would clinch the top-35.
William Perry and Dave Miller made a bold strategy by staying out on old tires. The track is abrasive, eating Goodyears like like a T-rex devours a Little Caesars pizza; including the box! The Marlboro Man passed Perry on the inside lane, hoping to gain ground on Matt Raboin to finish 12th in the standings. Perry's attempt to nab a top-20 points finish grows closer with his five bonus points.
John Tharp made a couple of bids at the lead; failing to come through after being passed by Ben Geer for the second position. The Twinkie-man re-took the advantage after Miller struggled to pass the lapped car of Rob Scarberry. The two would swap a couple more times. Miracle-man Ken Joynt loomed into the picture, solidifying his status as "late season King" after fantastic qualifying runs and finishes in seasons' past. Joynt finished third in the fall races at Atlanta and Rockingham last year. He also won the pole at The Rock in his seventh career start in 2021.
Johnny Reed Foley takes the lead away on lap-46, extending his points advantage while dismaying the fans who wanted to see a close points battle. Foley's been the commanding car all season, sweeping Atlanta and dominating at Kansas, Gateway, Loudon, Pocono and the Southern 500. He would lead through the first round of stops. Dave Miller re-took the advantage on lap 106, with Geer, Alex Crapser, Scott Jackson, Timothy McDonnell, John Tharp, Zach Michael and John Battista directly in their wake.
Horrible luck for Ken Pettit! The seemingly perennial Championship contender blows up hard on lap 138, struggling all day after minor contact from the early Scarberry-Spears incident. Pettit will finish dead-last, ending his Championship bid after a hard-fought battle with Foley all season. The #8 Bob Marley team was the top-dog out of Atlanta, earning 13-straight top-20 finishes. Just like last season, Rockingham was the killer. Now Phoenix is their death knell. Alan Nesfeder and Logan Sheets also succumbed to motor issues.
Logan Sheets failed to reach pit road after his engine devastation. This brought out the caution during the cycle, trapping race-dominator Dave Miller a lap down while handing points leader Johnny Reed Foley the lead! This man
... Read more »
The popcorn flies into the air like pellets from a Remington 700. Rick Mast would be proud! So would "Toucan" Sam Elliott; watching Markell Murphy win the Rockingham pole for the second time. Dalton Lucas starts on the outside, with Championship contenders scattered throughout the starting grid. Murphy looks to make it two-straight victories at The Rock!
Steven Spears taps the wall! Dalton Lucas and Geno Sphere spin trying to avoid, with Tony Long pounding the inside wall. Zach Michael gets clipped by the Kingsford #444, bashing the rear-end after a Piper Cherokee smash from behind! Long and Geno fail to continue. Michael continued on, dismayed after failing to traverse through the 44-car morass. He came in only 78-points back. Will the Coca-Cola #20 Mustang remain competitive?
Team Danger Zone teammates Zakk Miller and pole-sitter Markell Murphy led the field through the initial 45-laps. A mortifying crash for the points leader! Johnny Reed Foley pound-cakes the outside wall after a Clorox swipe from Donald Stewart. Tony Pizzaro clipped the #55, sliding him up the racetrack in a battle for the 12th position. Foley's right and left side lay incapacitated with bent steering, with Stewart limping to a 35th-place finish. Will the AC-Delco #3 Chevrolet remain competitive?
Miracle-man Michael Henson races Markell Murphy and Rockingham dominator Ryan Heuser for the lead. Heuser would eventually take it, navigating past the lapped car of Logan Sheets to nab a bonus point and take advantage of the points leaders' misfortune. The #138 NOS Energy team came in 138 points behind Johnny Reed Foley for the Championship, seemingly insurmountable with Pettit and Michael bockading their title path. Surprisingly, The #20 Coca-Cola Mustang rides unhindered with a sheared rear-end. Foley can barely keep pace with the last lead lap car.
Jonathan Skrabacz, Jimmie Stevens and Chauncey Redmond Jr. battled defiantly for the 35th position! The Castrol #48 pulverized the inside wall, breaking the concrete into chunks of glorified powder, choking the fans in the infield campground. "It tasted like chalk" said local-man Jim Stipple. "The frontrstetch got popcorn. We got the wall!" Skrabacz would finish 43rd. Up front, Ben Geer, Zach Michael and Ryan Heuser all took turns leading the field.
Bink Lucas took the top-spot back before the 100-lap mark. Alan Nesfeder immediately stripped it away, leading only his 15th lap since Nashville in June. The #78 Coke-Zero Chevrolet pulled away from the field, entering the pits with a five-second advantage over John Tharp. Miracle-man Adam Crapser went a record-breaking 92 laps before coming in, stealing Ken Pettit's strategy of leading a lap early. The #8 Marley machine would never make it. After the stops, Heuser, Tharp and Nesfeder battled defiantly for the top-spot. Nesfeder would pull away again.
A seven-second advantage over Adam Crapser! The Packers machine pulverized through the field with much fresher tires, but could not catch the Coke-Zero man. Ken Pettit passed Nesfeder to re-take his lap under the same strategy. His fate would not be so lucky. Pettit's #8 Chevrolet got tapped by John Tharp, slamming into the rear of Timothy McDonnell and back up the racetrack. Nesfeder mutilated the "Legend" logo on deck lid, ending both races after the blow. Nesfeder's advantage was gone; out after pure domination. Pettit was 24 spots ahead of Zach Michael and 27 ahead of Johnny Reed Foley before the crash. In fact, he was the points leader at the time of impact. Pettit would finish 38th.
Zach Michael's damage earlier in the event couldn't withstand the pressure, limping home to 34th while the day was done. This provided new life for Quick-Silver teammates Ryan Heuser and Craig Lee, John Tharp and Zakk Miller to win the title! Up front, Adam Crapser and Matthew Dominique alternated the top-spot several times from laps 210 to 280. John Battista, Alex Crapser and pheno-man Steven Spears occ
... Read more »
The kernels are poppin'! Johnny Reed Foley, Ken Pettit and Zach Michael ain't stoppn'! 78 points divide the top- three Championship contenders, with Foley looking for victory #8. #8 Ken Pettit and Zach Michael finished 5th and 6th here in the spring, with Foley out with a blown engine. Look for better luck to befall the AC-Delco squad. Spring winner Markell Murphy sweeps both Rockingham poles, looking to make it 2-for-2! Marvel-man Dalton Lucas occupies the outside, hoping to extend his Bristol and Martinsville luck to The Rock. Foley grids 37th. Pettit starts 16th. Zach will kickoff dead-last after a near-spin off the tight turn-2 corner. Good luck to all 45 teams in the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400!
2024 Chase Results (Seven Events)
Points Standings (After 33 of 36 Events) 1. Johnny Reed Foley: - 2. Ken Pettit: -67 3. Zach Michael: -78 4. Ryan Heuser: -138 (+2) 5. Craig Lee: -147 6. John Tharp: -153 (-2) 7. Zakk Miller: -186 8. Timothy McDonnell: -294 (+2) 9. Alex Crapser: -350 10. Rick Jackson: -356 (-2)
Bodies roam the Atlanta Motor Speedway awaiting the mass of tungsten and driver flesh to coagulate in 200 mile-per-hour style! One man called it a "death trap on concrete". There is no concrete on Atlanta, but there is a pit stall where the crew has to jump over bushes to reach the racecar! John Battista occupies that stall. Zakk Miller will grid along-side after earning his fifth pole of the 2024 campaign.
The early laps saw candy bar wrappers and bars themselves fly across the windshields. "I didn't know birds pooped brown" said Craig Lee. It was a Three Musketeers! Ryan Heuser took the early advantage from Zakk Miller on lap-3, hoping to narrow a 96-point gap between he and points leader Johnny Reed Foley. All ten Championship contenders showed signs of early speed.
Winless-wonder Logan Sheets took the lead on lap-7. The Quaker State #58's hopes are to dethrone John Battista and Matt Raboin from 11th in the standings. Both drivers are heavily associated with Valvoline and Valvoline accessories. Quaker State looks upon them with fury and disdain. Both Battista and teammate Alex Crapser would chain-link past the #58 on lap-16, solidifying their oil-warfare supremacy.
Points leader and "Memphis Blues" man Johnny Reed Foley took the lead on lap-22. It would be the AC-Delco's 19th race led in 20 events, hoping to cash their stride with an Extravaganza Series crown! Craig Lee and John Battista fought the #3 for the lead, only for Foley to climb his way back. He could not prevent Ken Pettit from leading a lap, with "Marley Man" coming in only 8-points behind in second. Last Week's winner and third-in-points man Zach Michael also maintained his presence at the front.
A horrible break for Dakota Wilkins, Michael Henson and Tony Gunk; falling to the wayside after engine trouble. Rick Jackson endured the same hindrance, limping around at minimum speed to keep his title hopes alive. Up front, Timothy McDonnell was once again a contender! The #22 Caterpillar Volkswagen dominated the stint, leading all 54 laps before a Chauncey Redmond Jr. short-pit put the #64 atop the heap. Redmond, McDonnell, Zach Michael, Johnny Reed Foley and Craig Lee were the front-runners through the halfway mark, with the #20 Coca-Cola Mustang earning the Halfway Bacon Bonus!
Former Race-2-Win teammates Rick Jackson and David Butterworth tangled on lap-180. Jackson would fail to continue, ending his Championship bid with a 41st-place finish. Butterworth limped home to 31st. The ensuing restart saw Chauncey Redmond Jr. tap John Battista on the quad-oval exit. Battista saved his Wendy's machine through the infield apron, with the #64 barreling into the path of Bink Lucas and Matt Raboin. Lucas and Redmond failed to continue. Raboin crawled his way to 34th; well off the pace for the remaining circuits.
Ben Geer, Adam Crapser, Matthew Dominique and Timothy McDonnell led the field to the green with 125 laps to the distance! Discover Card's "Swipe of the race" was given to Ryan Heuser, traversing through lapped traffic to swipe McDonnell for the lead. A three-wide masterpiece handed Markell Murphy the top-spot, driving the car he ran at Texas and Michigan to similar success. Fan-favorite Dan Johnston fell ill with transmission issues, finishing 42nd.
Second-in-points man Ken Pettit inherited the lead while Johnny Reed Foley nibbled in the 10th position. By lap 230, Foley was inside the top-5. Pettit
... Read more »
