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RACING
NEWS
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| Respect: Key To Double File Restart Races | The second 100 lap double file restart race is scheduled tonight at Winston Salem's Bowman Gray Stadium, home of the "hot modifieds." Perhaps it should be renamed "home of the hot modified drivers."
You either love it or hate it. We know the fans love it. The promoter has to be very well pleased with it. However the Modified drivers mostly hate it. And with bitterness, you cant blame them. Before lap 47 of the last 100 lap event there were only nine drivers still running on the lead lap after several skirmishes.
Promoter Gray Garrison said earlier this year that the double file restart would create excitement at the famed 1/4 mile flat track. Garrison got much more than he bargained for. In fact if you went away from the last race with the double file restart, you had this huge look of amazement on your face. The fans cant wait for tonight's race to happen.
The new restart procedure allows drivers to advance his or her position to the outside should no one else decide to go to the outside after passing a cone at the start finish line. But running the outside line could be at a disadvantage as well.
However for popular driver Jr. Miller, it was a good rule. He gambled and took the outside line when no one else did. He would advance from 14th position all the way up to the outside front row. It was like a wrestling match at the coliseum. It brought the fans to their feet.
Miller would then get caught up in a crash at the expense of a car running the inside. And for that matter Lee Jeffreys put it this way, "You may think you get to advance your position however none of the drivers would let you run out there. They were going to put you into the fence one way or another."
"If they keep this up there isn't going to be very many drivers over here much longer."
Jason Myers followed Jeffreys remarks with a simple sentence. "I hate it" he says with a smile.
"If these drivers can show a little respect for those that can, then it would be a great deal. But when you race with junk, and the junk aint as good as you, then its a bad deal. Look at all these race cars sitting in the pits" he says in reference to the last double file restart race.
However, Myers was relating to an incident that took him out of the race when Luke Fleming got into the back of him on one of the double file restarts. That came after Myers had increased his starting position some seven positions. Those two teams had to be separated by police before the night was over.
Bobby Hutchens won the last double file restart a couple of weeks ago, added a new dimension to the equation. Every time a driver would move up to the outside, it caused him great concern.
"It was kind of like a poker game, you either stayed inside or outside. You had to decide who could you respect and who you couldn't when they came from the back or outside of you. There isn't enough grip out there even with the new softer tire. Burt seems to be the only one that can make it work" he says.
Hutchens would go on to say that if you cant get the respect of the drivers then your going to tear up a bunch of cars at the stadium.
Brad Robbins says the double file restart is the hardest race he has raced at the stadium. "Its a hornets nest out there" he says.
Robbins says its probably the best race for fans in the past few years, however he would hate to run this race again. "There are some seriously torn up cars and some mad feelings from that race, but I tell ya, I would hate to run that race again" he said.
While the drivers hate the double file restart, the officials and promoters have found something that is going to be a smash hit with the fans.
Don Shanney is a fan who travels from Galax Va. to watch races at the stadium every week.
"This is amazing. I was an armchair quarterback on Sunday football at home. Now at Bowman Gray with this new rule, I cant sit down. Im cheering on anyone who has guts enough to stick it out there in no mans land and go for the win."
In general, the stadium promoters have found a new way to promote its events and create much more excitement than it already has, but a lot remains to be seen.
But around the garage area it seems that if respect can be honored, then this double file restart rule is going to be a big deal with everyone involved including the fans. It can work. It is nerve wracking to make the quick decisions whether you want to advance your position or stay put. If you don't then it comes at an expense. The fans either love or boo the ones that make those moves to advance in the double restart.
Its this type of racing and controversy that brings in large crowds each week at the stadium.
For right now, the officials and promoters have found a big hit. Burt Myers understands this.
"Over at the stadium, that's just their rules. Whether we like it or not, we have to live with it. Its their house."
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