Sunday, February 7th would produce a busy day and night of racing at Volusia Speedway Park with both the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and UMP Modifieds in action.
The weather was a part of producing a long race program as with the Saturday night show rained out after time trials, two sets of Modified qualifying would have to be held to set the starting lineup for the "Gator" race on Monday night. Also, the Outlaws would be running a full show but not the doubleheader as some anticipated as their Saturday night show would be ruled a complete washout and not be rescheduled. Thus the Sprints made the long pull to Florida just to race twice.
The Sprint field continued to shrink with only thirty one cars taking time trial laps on Sunday afternoon with Pennsylvania's Danny Dietrich turned the quick time over that thirty one car field. They combined the heats into just three taking the top six and then did the same with the Last Chance race which set a field of twenty four cars for the main event.
Donny Schatz, who was impressive in the dash, coming from sixth to win it and earn the pole position, pulled away quickly at the start and built up a comfortable lead early. Two red flag periods occurred during the first half of the race for flips involving Sheldon Haudenschild and Gio Scelzi. Both were fine and in fact, Haudenschild was able to make repairs and restart the race, eventually just finishing out of the top ten.
The Scelzi flip was triggered when Kasey Kahne, running in the top five, lost a motor down the back chute and slowed suddenly, not allowing Gio time to take evasive action. For Kahne, that was his second motor issue of the weekend and it was also reported the Kraig Kinser and Brock Zearfoss had both changed motors also so that makes about at least half a dozen engines having trouble this weekend at a price of around three hundred grand of so, give or take.
Schatz continued to lead and in fact was strengthening his advantage until the bitter end of the race. I say bitter because it must have been for Donny as he was running alone up front when suddenly his motor starting popping very badly and he lost power, slowing significantly and when the popping continued on the next lap, he slowed and brought out the yellow. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, the whole place was ready to celebrate his three hundredth WoO victory until the unfortunate engine issue, which was some sort of electrical problem.
A quick pit stop fixed the problem but with only two laps left in the race, the best he could do was fifteenth Logan Schuchart inherited the lead and held off Dietrich for the win, padding his WoO early season point lead. Cory Eliason had a strong run to finish third ahead of David Gravel and Brad Sweet.
This race was originally scheduled to be a night show but was changed to an afternoon contest because of the Super Bowl just down the road in Tampa. Of course, by the time the extended show was completed the Super Bowl was done, but that was just bad luck with the weather.
Starting racing at 4 pm is always a challenge to keep the track racy and the VSP track crew did an excellent job of doing so. They tilled and watered the track right after time time trials were done and then again just before the Sprint Car feature. This allowed for good racing in the main event and quite frankly, the track raced just as good throughout the whole program as it would on a normal night of racing. There didn't seem to be any difference to me in how the drivers were able to run and where on the track, despite the early start. Racing was scheduled to begin about an hour earlier than it did but extra time was needed to pack in the track from the over night rains. I did not see them add any water to the track until the first time they tilled it.
After the Sprint Car feature was done, over half the crowd bailed for the parking lot, either to catch the end of the football game or because they were narrowly focused race fans. The rest of us stayed to watch a two full Modified programs, minus one set of time trials that was completed before the rain hit on Saturday night.
The Modified field had been divided with half the field set to try and make the "Gator" feature through Saturday night racing and the other half on Sunday. So we got to see both halves in action. Four heats for the Sunday group and two Last Chance races would set the twenty nine car starting field as Hunt Gossum would not make the call. And it would be Nick Hoffman would dominated the first feature, leading from start to finish and not having anyone even challenge him. Tyler Nicely would try to stay with him but he couldn't finishing nearly a full straightaway behind at the checkered. Six yellows slowed the event but none were of the serious nature. The best drive was made by local racer Garret Steward who started who started eleventh and worked his way up to a podium finish, which pleased him no end as he got an interview on tv and everything.
The top ten finishers would automatically move into the "Gator" race on Monday night while any others that chose to remain will run Last Chance races to try and get into the finale. Ken Schrader missed by one spot making the main while Kyle Strickler finished right behind Schrader. Strickler, who didn't attempt to qualify his own car on Sunday, was running the car that Joey Logano had raced the previous night but there was no explanation why he was running that car and why he didn't try to qualify his own machine. Interestingly, Logano would later try to qualify the same car for the left over Saturday night show, as apparently UMP has no rules about driver's sharing the same car.
After the Sunday portion of the Modified show was completed, those Saturday night drivers that chose to stick around then came to the track to run their races. They also ran four heats but some of them were diminished as apparently some drivers had enough and headed for home. Because of that, they were able to eliminate the Last Chance races and run thirty one cars in the main event as everyone got a shot at making the "Gator".
The second feature race was much like the first with one driver dominating. This time it was Canadian turned North Carolina resident Steve Arpin who started on the pole and blew the field away. Arpin was struggling a bit in the early part of the week but now appears to have things dialed in as he drove away from the field in an impressive performance. As perhaps just as impressive was Mike Altobelli, the Pennsylvania driver who drove much like Stewart in the first race. He started seventh, wasn't flashy but gradually moved up and as other drivers faltered, he just took their spots over and he ended up second with Nick Allen completing the top three. Kyle Hammer and Lucas Lee completed the top five. Last Chance races on Monday night will likely be brutal with many good cars left sitting on the sidelines when the finale starts. UMP Late Models will join the Mods on Monday night for their first action of the Speed Weeks.
Speaking of gators, the first real live one was spotted today in the lower level "gator pit" where the Mods have been spending the week and the Big Blocks will take over that area starting on Tuesday. The gator didn't look too big hanging out in the pond but I was shown a picture of him(or her?) sunning earlier in the week before all the race teams arrived and was told it was about a twelve footer! Yikes, any thoughts of going for a swim have been ended for this week.
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