I wasn't too sure if we were going to get a chance to race tonight on account of the weather. It rained a little bit in the morning, but stopped at about 7:00am, with a forecast of scattered showers redeveloping in the afternoon. As it turned out, no more rain the rest of the day, however, it wasn't the nicest of days.

Jerry came over and got the car ready to go for the night while I tried to get some sleep. This is the first time in I don't know how long I was able to get some sleep on a Saturday. I work overnights and usually when I get home on Saturday mornings I have to mow the lawn and try to catch up on some other things that didn't get done during the week. By the time that stuff is taken care of, it is time to start getting ready to go to the track. As it worked out this week, no repairs were needed, so Jerry gave the car the once over and I got up in time to help load everything up.

On the way to the track, I told Jerry that for some reason, I didn't have a good feeling about tonight. I didn't know why. Jerry said that it wasn't anything to worry about and that we were gonna kick some ass tonight.

We got to the track at a little after 6:00pm and unloaded. The track looks pretty good at first glance. Plenty of moisture and it looks as if the craters in turns 1 & 2 are smoothed out. Let's hope it stays that way.

Hot laps went pretty well. At least I didn't venture off the track tonight as I did last week! The car feels pretty good, but the track was still too wet to really get a good feel. The low side of the track was looking pretty good for now, but the top was still way to greasy. Guess I won't be running high in the heat race. Speaking of the heat race...what confusion. When I looked at the line-up board, I was to start outside of row 3 in heat number 1. Just before the race as we were lining up, I was pulled out of the line-up and told that I would be starting in the 3rd heat outside row 2. By the time I hit the track I was starting on the pole! I don't know what the problem was but I will make do.

Green flag! I got a good jump and took the lead as we went into turn one. The cars feels pretty good...a little loose, but not bad. By the end of the first lap, Don Brady, Jr. gets by me on the high side as I am trying to keep it low on the drier part of the track. The rest of the heat race was pretty uneventful with me sliding back to a 4th place finish.

The car was a bit loose, but felt pretty good. In discussing any changes for the feature, it was decided that we wouldn't change the set-up at all, thinking that by the time the track tightened up throughout the night, the car would be just about right. In talking to other drivers and with Jerry, we decided that we might advance the timing of the engine a bit, hoping to get a bit more pull out of the corners. That is where I seem to lose ground on the others. But, in advancing the timing, I was a bit concerned about the car running too warm. Let's just see what happens.

I start on the inside of row 3. The track looks good so far. No big holes opening up yet, just 3 or 4 small holes to avoid. Green flag!!! After the first lap, I got shuffled back to about 6th, but the car feels great. I have some confidence tonight! The first half of the race is kind of follow the leader for me. I am keeping up with the leaders and within striking range if anything happens in front of me. On about lap 6, our first caution was waved. I am gaining confidence knowing the fact that we finally have the car set up where I can keep it to the floor through the corners. That is something that I have only been able to once before, and that was our last race last year when the motor ended up in many pieces. Now I just have to worry about the restart. If I lose any positions during a race other than driver error, this is the time. Green flag! I'm getting better. Kept right with em. However, in the middle of one and two, I bobbled just a little and Matt Jensen got under me and passed me coming out of two. I managed to do the classic crossover and get my nose back under him going down the back straight. Diving into 3, I just held it to the floor and the car did what it was supposed to...turned left and didn't get loose. That is where I put slide job #1 into use tonight. By the way, Matt has one of the strongest cars on the track and to be able to cross over and take the position back in the same lap is also and incredible confidence booster! The change in engine timing must have been a good idea because I am not losing ground to anyone tonight. Back to the race. A couple more laps are completed and I am still running a very strong 5th when the second caution comes out. 3 laps to go. Is it time to make the now famous last lap mistake and lose a few positions? I don't think so! I have done that enough times this year. The car is running pretty warm, which is what I was afraid of with the timing change, but it is still ok. Green flag! I hold my own however I just can't seem to get enough to gain any more spots. I know that Matt and Justin Selkin are right on my tail and not only to I need to keep them behind me, but I also need to try to move forward. On the last lap, coming through 1 & 2, Justin gets under me and takes 5th away from me coming out of turn two just the same way Matt did a few laps earlier. But just as a few laps earlier, I made the classic crossover and dove down under Justin and it was a drag race to turn 3. By the time we got there, I was side by side with him, and again, I never let off. This was the last lap and I was going for my best finish yet. I tried the big slide job again, however, Justin never let off either and I clipped his front end, but not enough to cause us to wreck. We both had to back off a bit to collect our cars and from then on, it was a drag race to the checkers. I was able to hold my spot and finish 5th! WOW!!! That was fun!

During post race tech, a penalty of two positions was assessed to the 17j of Jason Bradley for diving below the cone on the last restart. That moved him from 4th to 6th and me from 5th to 4th! Whoo Hoo! So much for a bad feeling earlier in the night! Maybe I should have that feeling more often!

As of this writing, I see that the points sheet on I-90's web site has me listed as finishing 5th behind Matt Jensen. Jerry told me that I clearly beat him, so I don't know why he was scored 4th. I sent an e-mail to someone in charge to find out what the deal is and I am still waiting to hear back. I will let you know what I find out. All I know is, that if Matt had finished ahead of me at the checkers, he would have headed straight to the post race tech area and I never saw him there. I take that to mean that he knew I finished ahead of him also. Hopefully the judge and jury will rule in my favor and give me back my points and finish position. I will let you know next week. As of now, I have moved up to 6th in the season standings, just 4 points out of 5th and only 31 points out of 1st!

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