The Short and The Long of the Weekend’s Racing.
Monday, June 20th, 2011Story and photos by: Drew Hierwarter
I’ve often mentioned in this space that your local short tracks usually have better racing and serve up more action than does the so called “big time”. This weekend was the perfect case in point.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series were both in Michigan this weekend. The two mile track just outside Detroit is a favorite of the drivers because, they say, it’s wide and fast and there’s room to race. A driver has options there and can use different lines to help the car handle better or to pass other cars. Never mind that this race produced more “passes” in the pits than on the track, the drivers still say they love it.
NASCAR and the team owners like it because, being near Detroit, they can entertain the captains of the auto industry, bring them out to the track and show them where all their engineering and sponsorship money is going.
And the fans like it because, well, I’m not so sure all that many fans do like it. The crowd was optimistically advertised as being 88,000. They must have also counted track employees, concessionaires, and all of the pit crews and other race team members.
Through the middle stages of the race even the guys in the TV booth seemed to go to sleep while trying to describe the lead changes that occurred mostly as a result of pit stops and not passing on the track.
In the end, finally, it was Denny Hamlin who managed to stay awake long enough to get his first win of the 2011 season and the 17th of his career.
Somebody hand me the remote.
But before all that excitement could happen, I spent my Friday night out at Kingsport Speedway in Tennessee. For those of you who don’t know, Kingsport Speedway is an historic old track located just a short drive from the more well known Bristol Motor Speedway.
From 1969 to 1971, Kingsport hosted the NASCAR Grand National series and two of those races were won by none other than Richard Petty with the third race going to the late Bobby Isaac. Through the years the track also hosted many Late Model Sportsman races featuring stars like Jack Ingram, Harry Gant, L.D. Ottinger, and many others.
The track has been mostly closed for the last few years but was reopened for the 2010 season by former NASCAR Winston Cup and Busch Series star driver, Robert Pressley, who now serves as the track’s promoter.
On this Friday night the 60 lap Late Model main event was won by Daniel Pope II but only after he held off a repeated charge by the season’s winningest driver, Nate Monteith. Monteith had to start from the rear of the field due to not having a transponder on his car during his qualifying laps.
Nate “Lightning” Monteith passes yet another car on his way to the front.
Once the main event got the green flag it took just 21 laps for the charging Monteith to reach second place and set his sights on Pope. Just about then, the right-front wheel broke on third place Lee Tissot’s car and that brought out the caution flag. After quick work from his crew, Tissot was back in the race at the rear of field for the restart.
Once again we got to watch one of the faster cars come from the back and by lap 34 Tissot was back in third and trying to run down both Monteith and Pope.
There are few things in racing more exciting than watching the fast guys fight their way through traffic to get to the front and this race had plenty of it. For the last 15 laps of the race the three drivers ran nose to tail and at one point Monteith got to the inside of the speeding Pope but just couldn’t make it stick.
Daniel Pope II in Kingsport’s collected his third win of the season at Kingsport Speedway.
The win was the second in a row for the 24 year old Pope from Smyrna, TN, and his third of the year at Kingsport.
The Sprint Cup race at Michigan made for a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon on the couch. One could even get in a little nap and not miss much. The short track race at Kingsport Speedway on Friday night was an exciting one from start to finish. You decide which was better.