We had a full weekend of racing this past Friday through Sunday. After our regular night of bench sitting at the Marshalltown Speedway on Friday night, it was off to our Saturday night home at the Boone Speedway. Sunday, we drove the short distance...the shortest to a racetrack we have...to the Iowa Speedway for some NASCAR Nationwide racing.
The Mod Lite feature at Boone took a bit of time getting in. The whole night seemed to be filled with yellow flags flying, and the Mod Lite's started it off. Joel Huggins, who had been leading the race from early on was motoring right along in the driver's seat until he lost the handle in turn four, and second place runner Mike Kennedy was unable to avoid him...causing Kennedy to wind up on his side. Josh May inherited the lead on the restart, and had an easy time from there on, taking the win. Jeff Stensland slipped by Randy Bryan on the final go around as they finished second and third in that order. Fourth went to Dusty Masolini and fifth to Joel Keenan.
The Northern SportMods didn't have to run a B main for the first time in a while. All 25 cars were eligible for the A main; one car unable to make the starting call. Darren Huntley maintained the lead early on, but Nick Roberts made the pass into the lead by lap ten. Meanwhile, Eric Elliott was making his way through the field from starting in row six, passed the third place car, and soon, swung around Huntley to take over second. Final checkers flew with Roberts taking the win, Elliott in second, Huntley held third, fourth was Cody Hennings, and fifth, David Schlicht.
The IMCA Modified 20-lap feature was dominated by Todd Shute. Shute pulled away from his nearest challenger and took his first win of the season at Boone. Following a distant second was Jake Durbin, and Jimmy Gustin took third after flying through the field. Gustin had pitted for a tire change earlier, having to tag the field on a restart. Mike VanGenderen, deemed "The Flying Dutchman", took fourth over Jon Snyder in fifth.
The IMCA Stock Cars turned into a two-man race for the lead. Eric Brown and Cory Bushnell challenged each other for the top spot nearly the entire race. This night, Brown was the victor, taking his first win of the year at Boone. Following Bushnell who finished second, was Donavon Smith, a close third. Fourth went to Jay Schmidt over Wayne Gifford in fifth.
The IMCA Hobby Stock 12-lap event saw an old familiar face back in victory circle. John Watson has the Boone Speedway figured out, taking his third regular season win to go along with his earlier Frostbuster victory. This goes along with his nine season wins last year, in addition to the 2011 Frostbuster! Pretty impressive. Austin Luellen came from starting in row five to take the runner up spot, with Aaron Rudolph following him through from the same fifth row, to take third. Matt McDonald and Curt Reed followed in fourth and fifth.
Sunday, May 20, we headed over to the Iowa Speedway for the NASCAR Nationwide 250 sponsored by Pioneer. Seed corn signs lined the way into the track. Typical Iowa!! Cloud cover most of the day proved to be a welcome condition, as we enjoyed the day in comfort from our seats located in the upper deck toward turn one.
Most of the top finishers in this race ran up front the entire day. One driver however, Kurt Busch, started back in 30th position. It was interesting to see him move up through the field, picking off car after car, to be scored in 13th by lap 23, and seventh by lap 66. This was really a Ricky Stenhouse day though. Again!
Even after pit stops, he would immediately take command, driving off from the field. Not many yellows flew on this day, just four I believe. One would be for the popular #7 of Danica Patrick, who blew a tire and smacked the wall about lap 113. Evidently there was enough damage from that hit to retire her to the garage, never to return.
Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. claimed his third straight Nationwide race at the Iowa Speedway....claiming it in pretty commanding fashion. Second place finisher Elliott Sadler hung around all day looking to make a challenge, which never really came. Busch was looking to finish at third, but on the final lap, his car broke loose in turn three, slipping him back a couple of positions. Michael McDowell was happy for that situation, as he made it up to score third. Fourth went to Austin Dillon, grandson of Richard Childress, and Busch gathered it back in to score fifth.
We had a very enjoyable day at the Iowa Speedway. Parking was not an issue at all, even with us arriving at about 11 a.m. for the 1 p.m. scheduled start time. The race ended at 3:20 p.m. Leaving was a bit more of a wait time, but as we usually notice, if you are heading back to the east as we do, things go pretty smooth.
We were home before 4:30, making it even a shorter length of time than being at one of our dirt track races.
Up next for us will be the IMCA Deery Brothers Late Model show at the Marshalltown Speedway on Tuesday, May 22. Racing will start a little earlier on that night, 7 p.m. racing. Then it will be back to our regular Wednesday night home at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa. Hope you can get out and attend a show at some track near (or far) from you and support the sport we all love... dirt tracking! Happy racing!
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