WHAT BOBBY SANTOS did at Stafford Motor
Speedway last weekend was truly nothing short of amazing.
In just his second NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour race of the season, Santos – the 2010 Tour champion –
won the pole for the TSI Harley-Davidson 125, led a race-high 117
laps and then finished second after Doug Coby passed him for the winon fresher tires.
Santos only other start this season
with the part-time team came in the Icebreaker 150 at Thompson
International Speedway in April, an otherwise unimpressive outing
that ended prematurely in a multi-car accident in Turn 1.
For a team that doesn't even know
race-to-race which events it will even enter as it relies on
part-time help at the shop, crew members with varied work schedules
and a lack of experience that the championship contenders all boast
over decades on the Whelen Modified Tour, just qualifying in the
Top-10 could be seen as a victory of sorts. Santos, whose driving
talent has never, ever been called into question, has elevated Tinio
Racing in a big way.
And he's done it in a hurry.
“After Thompson, we pretty much
looked at the schedule and shot for (the TSI Harley-Davidson 125). We
probably would have made it to the (Spring Sizzler at Stafford) if we
didn't get caught up in a crash the first race. After that, we just
decided this was the best race for us because it's closest to home
for all of the guys. It made the most sense to come to.
“Other than that, we'll probably go
talk about it and go from there.”
Santos' desire to win is not tempered
by his current situation. After two years in the Bob Garbarino-owned
Mystic Missile, where he won the 2010 title and amassed five wins and
seven poles in 30 starts, Santos resume speaks for itself. He's also
won USAC titles driving open-wheeled Sprints and Midgets in the
midwest, and made a few NASCAR Nationwide Series starts.
When he shows up to the racetrack, he
shows up to compete – not simply turn laps at speed.
When I ran into him just outside of
Victory Lane at Stafford, he and I just looked at each other for a
moment without saying a word. I broke the awkward silence by offering
one word: “Bummer.”
“I'm glad somebody will say it,”
Santos said. “Everybody else came up to me and congratulated me or
told me what a good job I did. But I wanted to win that race.”
And that sums up where Santos' head –
and heart – are in this racing game.
“I'm happy. Overall, I'm very happy,”
Santos said. “It's just that there's nothing worse than leading the
race and getting beat. Can't take nothing away from (Coby) – Doug
did it clean, he did it the right way. He did a good job.”
The reflection on the race that got
away invariably led to second-guessing about pit strategy. Santos was
the only driver to finish in the Top-6 who did not pit at some point
for right side tires. With his car handling the way it was, he felt
there never was a decision to be made.
“I wouldn't change anything we did,”
Santos said. “The guys did a good job. We made the right decision
not to pit, but we just got beat.
“Just based off the last two years, I
didn't think someone would win this race pitting. Doug proved it
wrong, and (third-place Ron Silk) pitted, too, so I guess it wasn't a
bad strategy. I mean, it could go either way. The yellows fell right
for Doug. They had a good car, and he did a good job.”
So, too, did Santos. He laid claim to
the fact that when the No. 44 does show up for a Whelen Modified Tour
start, it will do so with the intention of competing for victories.
IT'S STRANGE TO think of anywhere in
the southeastern corner of the United States as “Modified Country,”
especially in North Carolina and not all that far from the hub of
stock car racing in Charlotte, but Bowman Gray Stadium certainly
qualifies.
Brought to light a few years ago on the
History Channel reality series “Madhouse” that focused on the
weekly Modified wars there between the Myers, Millers, Browns and
Flemings, Bowman Gray is a short-track racing jewel. More
importantly, it's the only Modified jewel in the country that isn't
located in the northeast.
This weekend, though, Bowman Gray
offers up some room to the K&N Pro Series East. The series made
its inaugural visit to the track last summer, on a sweltering July
weekend that saw Matt DiBenedetto take the checkered flag.
Corey LaJoie finished second in that
rough-and-tumble race so befitting Bowman Gray's reputation, and on a
track that seems to suit the third-generation racer, LaJoie has to be
one of the pre-race favorites this time around, too.
“We’re actually bringing back a
completely different car this year,” LaJoie said of Saturday's Hall
of Fame 150. “We built a brand new car with a Billy Hess chassis
and a composite body to race all the short tracks, so we’re kind of
bringing a new gun to the fight. I don’t think we’d bring it if
we thought it wouldn’t be better.”
LaJoie still seeks that elusive first
career K&N win. Touted as one of NASCAR's “Next 9” –
drivers under the age of 21 competing in one of the sanctioning
body's development series – he has three career-runner up finishes.
His run at Bowman Gray last season was
his first career runner-up finish.
“We’ve got things in place, we just
haven’t had everything in place yet to get the 'W,' but we’re
doing everything in our power,” LaJoie said. “One of these days
all the ducks will be in a row and we can get to Victory Lane.”
WHEN ALL IS said and done on his racing
career – a couple of decades from now at the earliest – is there
going to have been anybody better at Thunder Road International
Speedbowl than Nick Sweet?
The Barre, Vt., driver won the
inaugural round of the new Vermont State Championship Series, taking
the Memorial Day Classic 100 at Thunder Road last Sunday. Sweet also
has wins in the track's ACT Late Model Tour Merchants Bank 150 and
Labor Day Classic 200, and he was the 2010 Late Model track champion.
When teams head to the odd
quarter-mile, the hometown boy is always alone at the top of the list
of threats to win. Best yet, his track title, Labor Day Classic 200
win last September and his Memorial Day Classic victory all came in
different cars for different owners.
“There are so many great names on (in
Thunder Road's history),” Sweet told Vermont Motorsports Magazine.
“I told people, before I started racing, that I had no glimpse of
ever racing (a Late Model). Just to do this, it’s bonus.
“Yes, you go and strive to be
competitive, but to go out and win, amongst some of the greats, it’s
just a dream come true.”
The only race of significance that
Sweet hasn't won at Thunder Road is the Milk Bowl, a three-segment
race with Monza-style scoring. But with each passing season, it can't
be that far away.
The Vermont State Championship
continues next Friday, June 8, at the Devil's Bowl Speedway.
AFTER WHAT WAS, by all accounts, a
tremendous installment of the Indianapolis 500 – with lead changes,
excitement, a bold last-lap move for the lead turned awry and a third
trip to Victory Lane for Dario Franchitti – the powers that be once
again shot themselves in the foot.
For initial post-race reaction, ABC
didn't turn to Franchitti's in-car radio communication, his team
owner Chip Ganassi, or his head strategist for a comment on the
closing laps of Indy Car's signature race. Nope, instead they stuck
the microphone in the face of Franchitti's wife, Ashley Judd.
For garnering mainstream attention or
promoting Indy Car racing as a cross-cultural American experience,
there's nothing wrong with the emotional wife of a victor having her
say. We've seen Kim Burton cry, Delana Harvick's firesuits and even
scuffles between the better halves of Greg Biffle and Kurt Busch for
years on NASCAR broadcasts. But to have Judd be the first person
associated with Target Chip Ganassi racing in the moments following
the Indy win – and have her moments extended into painful minutes
as she mused about premonitions, pit strategy and her husband's
other-worldly abilities behind the wheel – was excruciatingly
painful.
And a bad call by TV executives who
continue to fight to gain Indy Car some traction in the U.S. market.
Sunday's hijinks certainly didn't help
matters any.
YOU'VE BEEN A great audience. Try the
spicy crabmeat rolls, and don't forget to tip your waitress. Three
Dog Night is here, so stick around.
– TB
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