The NORL Fight Dirty Truck Series made it first ever trip to the dirt
banks of Eldora Speedway. Tony Pizzaro would claim the pole award at
116.482 mph to dirt ringer John Battista's 116.407mph. Pizzaro, Battista
and Crapser would jump out to the early lead in a caution filled first
segment. But Alex Crapser would win the first segment and lead the field
into the pits for a mandatory 2 tire change.
Rod Weston(#56) would lead the charge off pit road followed by Crapsers
#04 and Tim McDonnells #31. Chased by Ben Geer (#29), TEX Perry (#7),
Battista's #39, Mark Herons 01. New comer Connor Germain(#21),
polesitter, Pizzaro and Lucky Dog JT Armstrong (#5) would round out the
field before the invert.
In an anonymous vote as fans came in the gate not revealed until the end
of the scheduled pitstop, fans voted to invert the top 6 trucks
shuffling the order to Battista leading followed by Perry, Geer,
McDonnell, Crapser, and Weston. Pizzaro was heard on the radio saying "I
dropped to the tail cause I thought they would invert the field!"
McDonnell and Geer would pit after the invert dropping them to the tail
with Pizzaro. Having a lot of ground to make up the field went green
again.
Battista would jump out to the lead at the start of the 2nd segment as
Weston jumped from 4th to 2nd around Crapser and Perry. Pizzaro would be
the big winner coming from the back around the field to jump into 3rd.
Perry would settle into 4th until the 04 and 01 would tangle on the
front stretch drawing the 1st caution of the segment. The next yellow
would fly on lap 69 after the #7 of Perry sent the #29 of Geer spinning
into the outside wall in turn 4. Pizzaro would eventually win the 2nd
segment followed by the 39, 31, 56 and 04. Pizzaro would lead the charge
out of the pits after the mandatory stop and go followed by McDonnell
Crapser Geer and Battista. Heron, Weston, Perry, Armstrong and Germain
would round out the field.
Pizzaro would lead the field to the final segment to determine the first
ever FDTS Dawn of the Dirt winner. Early caution would see the 01 touch
the 39 sending Battista bouncing off the turn 4 wall. Heron would
eventually end up locking bumpers with the 56 of Weston sending both
trucks into the wall. Weston would bounce off while Heron getting the
raw end rolling his truck into turn 1. Heron would continue as he was
able to land on this wheels. McDonnell would lead the field back to
green after getting around Pizzaro coming back to the caution. Carpser
and Geer would both get loose out of turn 2 bringing out the next
caution and allowing Perry in the #7 to jump up to 3rd place for the
restart. McDonnell and Pizzaro would jump away on the restart while
Perry would fall back. Battista would rally from 5th to slide into 3rd
and Crapser would jump to 4th ahead of Perry. Battista would run down
the leaders in the final 10 laps but would eventually run out of race
allowing McDonnell to take the win closely followed by Pizzaro and
Battista. Crapser would end up 4th chased by Perry claiming another top 5
in the series. Victory Celebrations would ensue through the night at
Eldora by the #31 team. Tim was caught on the radio asking his crew "i
know how to do burnouts on the asphalt but how do I do them on the
dirt?" Congratulations to Tim McDonnell and the #31 Caterpillar team on
the win in the first ever Dawn of the Dirt at Eldora.
