It’s Wheels Up on a Great Race Weekend!
Story and photos by: Drew Hierwarter
Labor Day weekend is always a great time to be a race fan! There’s lots of action all over the country. Between live TV and being there in person, yours truly took in six different race events from Friday to Monday.
It all began on Friday night with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Kentucky Speedway where Todd Bodine won ending Kyle Busch’s winning streak at four races in three different series.
On Saturday night the NASCAR Nationwide Series raced at Atlanta Motor Speedway and it was Jamie McMurray who won and again it was at the expense of Kyle Busch. Busch was denied his record breaking 11th Nationwide win of the season.
The Cup guys took over at Atlanta on Sunday night and it was Tony Stewart who broke his nearly one year losing streak. His excellent pit stops and a fast race car had Stewart beating second place Carl Edwards by 1.316 seconds.
Ten of the twelve positions in the Chase for the Championship were locked up in Atlanta leaving Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer in 11th and 12th respectively, and Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray and Mark Martin the next three drivers on the outside looking in.
The biggest and most prestigious race on the NHRA schedule is the U.S. Nationals held every Labor Day in Indianapolis. Larry Dixon, Ashley Force-Hood, and Greg Stanfield were the big winners in the professional categories. For Dixon it was his fourth time winning Top Fuel at Indy and the first since 2005. While for Force-Hood it was her second Nationals triumph after becoming the first woman to win in a Funny Car at the Nationals last year.
In Pro Stock, Greg Stanfield upset the number one qualifier Mike Edwards in the final thanks to a .020 reaction time to Edwards’ .084 for the holeshot win.
In other drag racing, Bristol Dragway hosted several hundred Chrysler devotees in the Annual “MoPar Thunder” event. Three days of racing along with a swap meet and car show provided all of the Chrysler overload that any fan could want.
And finally, after being closed for nearly 14 years, 9,000 fans returned to North Wilkesboro Speedway to see Chase Elliott, son of 1988 Winston Cup champion Bill Elliott, win the first race at the newly reborn short track in North Carolina. Young Chase Elliott was only one year old when Jeff Gordon won the final NASCAR Cup race on the famed track before it was shuttered in 1996.
A group of investors and former racers have been working tirelessly for the last two years to bring the track back to life and the next race on the schedule will be the USAR Pro Cup Series on October 3rd.