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Jeff Gordon Night At Cedar Lake Gets Fans Up Close To Racing’s Best
New Richmond, WI - 6/29/2006 - With all the special events and promotions
Cedar Lake does throughout the jam packed 2006 summer, none is more special
than Saturday Night’s Jeff Gordon night at Cedar Lake Speedway presented by
Pepsi. The place was packed to the gills with Gordon fans, many of which
had never been to a dirt track race yet alone Cedar Lake Speedway.
Jeff’s helicopter landed in the infield about 7:30 and the festivities
started from there. Jeff addressed the near capacity crowd before
meeting Pepsi VIP’s and 50 lucky fans who were drawn at random. After
the meet n’ greet session Jeff returned to the infield where he thanked the
fans and took a lap around for the fan to get up close to the four-time Nextel
Cup champ. After some parting waves and cheers, Jeff took off as he was
off to Daytona Beach for this weekend’s Pepsi 400. With all the
festivities and heat races in the books, the three features and fireworks show
was all that remained of the Jeff Gordon night at CLS.
Jeff Lein and Rick Friendt lined the front row as the DTRA Modifieds were the
first feature to take the green. Lein’s lead didn’t’ last long as
Scott Splittstoesser used his inside second row starting spot to blow past
Lein and into the lead early on. Splittstoesser was soon joined by Craig
Thatcher at the front in a good battle for the lead. The battle was
halted when Ron Schreiner developed a right rear flat tire and came to a halt
in turn two. On the restart the battle for the lead got a bit bigger as
Dave Cain pulled up even with Splittstoesser and Thatcher to make it a
three-car battle. But Splittstoesser held strong and
Thatcher and Cain went door-to-door in a great battle for second. Behind
them it was pole sitter Lein holding off Jason Miller for the fourth
spot. As the laps wound on Cain got by Thatcher and set his sights on
Splittstoesser for the lead. And the lead Cain would get as he passed
Splittstoesser on lap 19 of 20. But a caution on the last lap relegated
the field to a green-white-checkered finish. Under the caution
Splittstoesser developed mechanical trouble and had to pull off. That
break was all Cain needed as he took the restart and never looked back as he
cruised off to grab the checkers.
DTRA Super Late Models were next with Mike Bear and Don Shaw lining the front
row. Shaw absolutely motored into the lead on the first lap and tried to
run and hide from the rest of the field. But just as fast as Shaw could
run, Terry Casey and Brent Larson kept running faster. Soon it was Casey
battling for the lead with Shaw and Larson not far behind. That battle
was halted as Barry Underdahl lost control heading down the front stretch
bringing out the caution. On the restart Shaw held strong despite the
heavy pressure from Casey. As laps began to wind down, Casey was still
pressuring Shaw for the lead as the pair went through lapped traffic.
Casey tried several times to run down the leader but came up just a bit short
each time as Shaw held on to take his first ever victory at Cedar Lake
Speedway.
CLS 360 Sprint cars were the final event of the action-packed evening with hot
shoes’ Joe Kouba and Lee Gross making up the front row. As regular
sprint car fans will tell you, it means very little who start up front as the
fast cars almost always seem to find a way to the front. It was no
different in this case as despite starting eighth, Scott Winters was the speed
demon tonight as he absolutely blasted past the seven cars in front of him and
took command of the race in the first three laps. Third place starter
Wade Nygaard was doing all he could to keep up with the leader and Billy Balog
coming from 9th to run third behind Winters and Nygaard before the caution
waved for a spun car on lap 13. On the restart Winters resumed where he
left off and again took control over the field but this time had a good deal
of pressure from Nygaard. It came down to the last lap entering turn one
when Nygaard dove low but could make it the car hold the line and had to get
out of the gas. But leader Winters saw the move and got on the gas too
hard coming out of turn two as the extra momentum pushed the R19 machine into
the backstretch concrete. That brush with the concrete was all Nygaard
needed to drive past on the backstretch and take the checkers for the
victory. A great finish to a great race.
Check out the website www.cedarlakespeedway.com
for track information, upcoming events, news and results. Also call the
toll free number 866-4CLSFUN for directions or race information. We look
forward to seeing you in the grandstand for the next race at the legendary
Cedar Lake Speedway.
Results:
CLS 360 Sprint Cars: Wade Nygaard, Bill Balog, Scott Winters,
Mike Sitzmann, Curt Lund, Lee Gross, Jerry Richert, Dusty Ballenger, John
Nelson, Dustin Lindquist.
DTRA Modifieds: Dave Cain, Craig Thatcher, Jeff Lein, Jason
Miller, Joey Jensen, Mike Anderson, Tyler Keyser, Rick Friendt, Trent Follmer,
and Jamie Lemke.
DTRA Super Late Models: Don Shaw, Terry Casey, Pat Doar, Brent
Larson, Ashley Anderson, Ron Schreiner, Tom Nesbitt, Eric Breeschoten, Paul
Hipsag, and Mike Bear.
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