What Did I Miss?
Monday, April 18th, 2011Story and photos by: Drew Hierwarter
Apparently there was a pretty darn good stock car race down in Talladega, Alabama yesterday. I say apparently because I didn’t see it. I didn’t see it because I was live and in person at a pretty darn good stock car race on a short track in Tennessee!
Apparently those good ol’ boys down in Alabama put on a show that was one for the record books. Tied for the most official lead changes at 88 and tied for the closest finish in NASCAR since the advent of electronic scoring. Twenty six different drivers, more than half the field, took a turn at the point and there were 159 lead changes if you count all the “unofficial” ones that happen all around the track.
Veteran reporter Ed Hinton, writing for ESPN.com said; “If you didn’t like this one, you will never like NASCAR. “
Clint Bowyer said; “If you didn’t like that finish . . . you’re crazy.”
While all this was going on, Garrett Campbell was putting on a clinic in the UARA-STARS 150 lap race at the 4/10 mile Newport Motor Speedway in Newport, TN. Campbell started on the outside of the front row and took the lead from pole sitter Scott Turlington on the third lap and, except for missing a shift on a late race restart, was never headed for the entire race. And in spite of that small miscue that allowed Brennan Poole to get by him for half a lap, Campbell recovered to score his first win of the year and break the strangle hold that Poole seems to have on the UARA victory lane.
Brennan Poole (7) gets in front briefly after Campbell missed a shift.
But you shouldn’t think that just because Campbell led for most of the race that it wasn’t competitive. There was lots of hard racing going on behind the lead pack with close, side-by-side racing and even some three wide running on occasion.
This race didn’t have the spectacle of a NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega. The drivers didn’t arrive by helicopter or stay in luxury motor homes. There were nowhere near 140,000 fans in attendance. (More like 1,400 actually.) But those 1,400 fans saw a rip snorting good old fashioned short track stock car race. And to paraphrase Ed Hinton; If you didn’t like this one, you will never like short track racing.
So, what did I miss by being at a little track in Tennessee instead of in front of my TV watching the Talladega race? Not a thing.
Garrett Campbell celebrates his first win of 2011