Kurt came out in the 28 car renumbered 51 and broke the track record.

Where the hell was Kurt? Were you at the wrong race?   

Whoops. Fixed that.

Shadow Report - Summer Showdown   

Can't report any time trial results other than to say that Kyle Busch broke the LM track record, then DJ Kennington went and beat his time.

Then it was time for an autograph session down on pit road when they wheeled the cars out and opened it up to spectators. Thats always fun, even if you're not an autograph hound. Unfortunately, or wisely, the big 3 stars weren't there for that, as they were off signing autographs in a private tent for the folks who'd gotten wristbands earlier today. I managed to quickly get down the line to say good luck to a couple of my faves, as well as to wecome Gary Elliott back to Delaware for the night. We miss ya Gary.

Then once they cleared that all up it was time to go racing!

Heats   

There were 4 heats of 10 laps each. Fast qualifier started pole heat 1, 2nd fastest was on the pole of heat 2, 3rd fastes had the pole in heat 3 and so on down the line.

The first 2 were pretty tame affairs, With Kennington 1st, Sheridan 2nd and Kennedy 3rd in heat 1. 2nd heat won by Kyle Busch, followed by Dave Elliott and Verhoeven.

3rd heat things started to heat up a little. Mark Watson takes the point while Vanderwyst and Brandon Watson duke it out for 2nd. Thats a see-saw battle that B Watson gets the better of, leaving Ramsay and Vanderwyst going for the last transfer spot. Vanderwyst sends Ramsay around allowing McWhirter to shoot past into third. 1st to 78-Watson, 2nd to 9-Watson, 3rd to McWhirter....and a little post race fender banging between Ramsay and Vanderwyst.

4th heat sets the tone for the rest of the evening. On the opening lap, 4-Urlin sends Doerr around in turn 1 and collects 46-Martin as well. Caution. Now both 00-Reutimann and 21-Leffler (driving Matt Pritiko's usual ride) are solid in front with 25 Powell in 3rd. Urlin is on Powell to try and take third, and instead of trying a clean pass, just decided to punt Powell out of the way in turn 4 on the last lap. Not so fast Urlin...black flag for you.

Now, as my Dad used to say, it was time for some Hulkamania in the pits. Urlin's parked on pit row, Powell roars down and parks right up against him, hops out and goes after Urlin still sitting in the car. The officials split it up, then Powell hops up on his own car and plays to the fans...to a roar of approval. As all this is going on, Doerr comes hiking down for a few post race choice words of his own for Urlin which they got on mic. Don't remember exactly what he said but he was not happy. Then they stuck a mic in Urlin's face and kinda whined about how we could boo if we wanted, but really, we were digging it. (I wasn't, and to the chagrin of some around me, I let them know it....To the credit of the CRO faithful, one of the guys called me on it too after my little admonishment on Paul Fothergill's boo-birds a couple of weeks ago.) 

Now after the heats are over we're realizing that someone's missing. Turns out Scott Lindsay had a problem in the pits and couldnt solve it before race time so he neaver made it back out all evening. And thats a real shame because he ran a pretty good time trial and we were looking forward to seeing him in the show.

B-Main - 25 laps 

So now the top 3 from each heat are transferred into the feature, and everyone else has to race their way in in a 25 lap B main. The top 10 from this race make it in, everyone else is done for the night.

Pete Vandewyst takes an early lead follwed by Ramsay, B. Watson and 14-Emery. (Watson had taken 2nd in his heat but apparently had been found sitting too low going thru tech afterwards...hence he had to race into the feature thru the B main.) Really this race featured a lot of bumping and banging, there was a caution when 10x Shepherd went around and collected Gary Elliott, but basically the race was at the front where Vanderwyst, Ramsay and Watson took off from the field. There was the potential for a little extra drama with both Urlin and Powell fighting out for the last transfer spot. But Urlin ended up spinning himself out. Much to the delight of the turn 1 crowd, Smiling Stephen was putting on a bit of a show picking hs was past Doerr and Emery to take 4th. 5th spot went to Emery. (Emery's picking up his game a little bit the last couple weeks IMO)

Delaware Summer Showdown 50 laps   

So now its main event time. Everyone's raced into the feature, but they line up according to their time trials. So, our contestants are 3-Kennington, 51-Busch, 78-Watson, 21-Leffler, 37-David Elliott, 10-Kennedy, 52-Sheridan, 77-Verhoeven, 00-Reiutimann, 22-Ramsay, 83-Kamarath (sp?) 31-McWhirter, 46-Martin, 25-Powell, 72-Thompson, 11-Richmond, 27-Box, 43-Doerr, 29-Bentley, 9-Watson, 14-Emery, 81-Greisel, 08-Parker, 7-Vanderwyst, 51x Matt Robblee, 5 Christie and 10x Shepherd.

Let me tell ya folks, the wave-by lap might have been the best moment of this race. I tell you the place was jammed and with 5000+ fans on their feet hooting and waving, you could tell you were in for something. No points on the line, just bragging rights and a bit of prize money. Just pure racing. It felt a little like the Sprint All Star race.

DJ Kennington takes the early lead with Kyle Busch in tow, and Mark Watson pulling up third. The three of them take off  Jesse Kennedy gets past Leffler to take 4th, and they're followed by Verhoven, Sheridan, Dave Elliott, Ramsay and Vanderwyst. 1st caution comes about when 9-Watson sends McWhirter spinning in turn 1. During the yellow flag laps, McWhirter speeds around, finds Watson and gives him a slam. Watson goes to the back too. 

Another restart, Kennington maintains his lead for the next 4 laps, then there's a pileup in turn 3 involving a bunch of cars. McWhirter again, Martin, Robblee, Doerr and Bentley. McWhirter is out of his car and a-hunting. WHen 9-Watson goes past, McWhirter gives him what-for. PO'd and not to be constrained by the officials, McWhirter keeps heading down the backstretch on foot and when Watson goes past the second time, he winds up and throws something..helmet maybe, at him.

Once its cleaned up and restarted, Kyle's pushing Kennington hard now. 78-Watson is maintaining 3rd spot. Busch gets under Kennington and gets a bumper past him, but caution flies again, giving Kennington his spot back. This time its a turn 3 schmozzle involving Ramsay, Reuitimann, and Richmond. Because of what came later, I believe Vanderwyst might have been involved in that too. Then another restart, and a problem on the backstretch involvng Vanderwyst, Thompson and Greisel. Greisel gets the worst of it going hard into the inside backstretch fence and having to be taken away on the hook. While this is going on, Vanderwyst and Reutimann are playing some bumper tag on the caution laps.

Now we're up to lap 20 and Kyle's done screwing around. He works it past Kennington and begins to run, but he doesn't get too far before the caution flies again, this time for Sheridan looping Leffler. Sheridan to the back for his trouble. This time under caution, Vanderwyst gets under Reutimann and just spins him right around on the front straight. Vanderwyst gets the black too. I don't know if he got parked or just didnt want to continue, but the 7 car is in the pits for good.

Kyle gets a good jump on this restart, pulling well ahead of Kennington. 78-Watson is still holding 3rd, and the real battle is for 4th as Verhoeven is doing his damndest to get around (or through) Kennedy. Right now Sheridan is the man to watch, as he whittles his way from the back to 8th. Then its a heartbreaker in a couple of ways as 29-Bentley, who'd been doing fairly well, is taken out by Reutimann in turn 1. During the ensuing caution laps, 3rd place 78-Watson's car just craps out on him and ends up sitting dead in turn 2 waiting for a tow truck.

Now the final restart. Kennington is sticking right with Busch this time, and Verhoeven and Kennedy continue their war, this time for 3rd. Lots of contact as Verhoeven tries to get him loose enough to pass, but Kennedy hangs on till the end. And try as he might, Kennington cant muster up enough car to get around Busch.

1st to Busch, 2nd to Kennington, 3rd to Kennedy, 4th to Verhoeven, 5th to Sheridan.

Thoughts 

Busch, say what you will, was the perfect Sat nite short track winner, taking the Delaware regulars and officials to school on how its done. No hot-dogging, no donuts, no trophy smashing - just grabbed the checker flag and took it around the speedway with a victory lap to salute the fans. It was awesome.

What a great show! Pitside fireworks. Pretty good racing. Hot crowd. Shoulder to shoulder on Richmond Row, (and Lake Row) and enjoying the race with my Late Model loving Mom...who has apparently been afforded the title of Mrs Shadow. What more could a short track fan ask for?

Just wanted to send an extra shout out to Doug Perkins who's been a little under the weather lately. Hope you feel better soon Doug.

I only hope this is a portent of things to come for Delaware...and I hope they're still counting the money when the sun comes up. The track deserves a good payday. Joe, Arlen and Paul, congrats on putting together the biggest show that place has seen in a hell of a long time. And kudos to the announcers...John, who announced himself hoarse, as well as Chris and Jared...chasing all those guys down for interviews...great show.

Hope there's some pics and thoughts forthcoming!

See ya's on Friday!

PS: Just in case you didn't hear it, I understand your tix from tonight will get you 50 percent off the gate this Friday night. 

Trev out.

what a great day and night. It was a super show and I hope the owners made a ton of money. After all, it was a huge gamble, but it paid off.  After all, running a race track is a business that has to carry itself and make money.  I was out there all day and my sunburn proves it. I have never been a Kyle Busch fan, but boy, do I respect him even more now. You can say, well he had the best local car, but beleive me I saw him under that car himself in practice, trying to improve it.  He came to win!  Huge crowd, and hopefully some of these people will come back.  Lots of people around me asking about the weekly shows. A couple of people were there, were huge Nascar fans and been to a lot of tracks down south. This was their first visit to Delaware and they were from London. Lots of fireworks on track and in the pits made it very interesting. Rumour has it, in the LFP today, that they are trying to land a Whelan Modified tour race in 2011. Nice to see on this site, the usual comments from Mike L about Delaware. I fully agree that everyone is untitled to their own opinion, but when the comments are ALWAYS negative, they lose their punch.
Congratulations Delaware on an outstanding job and the packed house I'm sure will all agree.

Congrats  to Arlan , Jeff  and the Delaware  gang!  Sounds like one hell of a show...to bad dj couldnt have pulled it off...the kid is HOT lately.  Always  looking forward  to coming back  to Delly!

JW  A&W 21

I hope someone got some video and posts it on youtube...

Jason: you're getting faster and faster... must be all that Rootbeer additive you're getting past tech with ! 🙂