Victory Lane has never felt better!

I won Saturday night at Ground County Speedway in Morris, Illinois.  It was my sixth win of the season.

Grundy is a big, fast, flat racetrack.  The flat tracks have been a bit challenging for us this season.  We've been good on them, but not great.  That changed Saturday night.  

I admit I was actually a little pessimistic heading in, but that all changed after practice.  It was obvious right away that we had a good car and my feelings were backed up as I posted the fastest Kenyon time.

We did group qualifying (Kenyon and Focus cars together) which was something different.  Instead of it being only you on the track, there were 5 other cars out there with you.  Transponders recorded your lap times and that's how you qualified.  I was the second fastest in my group and the fastest Kenyon.  

The heat races were run with the same people who were in your qualifying group.  A four car invert put me in the third starting spot.  I passed the pole sitter (K-car) after a couple of laps, held off a Focus car for probably another four, and wound up second to the Focus winner.

Now I was really feeling like we had a good shot to run up front in the Feature.  A six car invert was in place for your overall qualifying position and since I qualified sixth overall I would be starting in the number one spot.  The start of the Feature was almost disastrous though.  I got split on the start by two Focus cars and didn't see the car on my inside until I was turning into the corner.  It surprised me and I moved up to him room, all the while trying to avoid hitting Joe Liguori who was on my outside.  Ultimately I banged off Joe and ran over his left front tire and when my car came back down I was dead sideways.  Miraculously I saved it and thankfully we had a complete restart because someone had jumped the start. 

I got a better start the second time but the Focus cars' extra horsepower paid off and three of them got by me in the early laps and left me fourth overall.  The trio of Focus cars pulled away to about a 5 car length lead but once they got out there they didn't pull away any further.  The four of us checked out on the rest of the field.  While I finished fourth overall, I was the first place Kenyon car.

This win was big for me personally.  All five of my prior wins this season had come at Anderson, and it was important for me to win on another track.  And to win at Grundy was especially gratifying!  Add in fast qualifier and heat race winner, and it couldn't have been a better night.

Mel Kenyon couldn't have given me a more perfect car either.  We've only missed the setup once all season  so to have a good car is nothing new, but it wasn't just good, it was awesome.

Only two more races left in 2009 which is hard to believe!  My next race is Sunday, August 30 at Anderson.  

Thanks for checking in!

-Dillon

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