“We were sitting
ducks,” he commented about the last restart, “our tires were old and slick but if we came in everyone else would
have stayed out. I spun the tires a little and let him (McCumbee) get inside of me. We were better on the longer runs and
he was better on colder tires.”
Despite three quick cautions
in the opening laps, a long green flag run followed in which Gale and McCumbee managed to lap all but eight cars. Yet the
race was more evenly matched than that figure would suggest. Several of the faster cars suffered misfortune in the race. The
number 11 and 32 of Brian Silas and Joey Miller had engine failure and Michael McDowell’s number 2, the 12 of Mario
Gosselin and 02 driven by Bobby Santos were involved in accidents. Justin Marks driving the 65 car was chasing down the leaders
late in the race when he was hit coming out of turn 4. Marks made a beautiful save to keep the car off the wall and then went
spinning down the infield grass on the front stretch before getting straightened out and back on the track. Unfortunately
for him no caution flag flew and he was lapped before he could get back up to speed. All six of those cars were a factor before
racing luck turned on them.
“It’s the first
blown engine we have had in over two years,” stated one of Joey Miller’s crew members while packing up their pit
box, “What can you say?”
Erin Crocker came home
third with Scott Lagasse and Chad Blount rounding out the top five. Tim Andrews, Justin South, and Marc Mitchell were the
last three drivers on the lead lap, while Dexter Bean and Frank Kimmel rounded out the top ten both one lap down.
There were 6 cautions for 43
lasts and the race lasted 1 hour and 29 minutes. The average speed was 100.998 MPH and the margin of victory was .266 seconds.
Gale led the most laps with 87 while McCumbee led 25 and Andrews, 1.
Questions, Comments;
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The views and opinions in this article are that of the writer(s) and not necessarily that of SCR
2006 StockCar Review.
