Most of us are stranded here fighting the cold and snow while busting ass to get race cars ready for the track, while some lucky bastards get to leave this winter hell and get some real racing action in a little early. For those of us stuck in Ohio during yet another ugly winter, a little good news from Florida helps out quite a bit. When I heard that the Rob Petrus Motorsports (RPM) team was heading south to compete in the 2009 World Series of Asphalt event at New Smyrna Speedway in Florida I was pretty optimistic for them. This team has kicked some serious ass at Barberton Speedway and other local tracks over the years and they would also have a celebrity guest star seated in one of their two cars for this show. The "fill in driver" was none other than the 2008 NASCAR Nationwide Series Rookie Of The Year, Landon Cassil. Landon is the youngest driver to ever snag that award! Veteran driver and current Barberton Speedway track champion Dave Wagner would pilot the second car. This would be a great chance for Wagner to show his stuff against a young gun that's already stepped up to the higher levels of racing. In other words is was time to see how our local talent stacked up against one of the hottest young guns in the sport as well as the rest of the top notch drivers that show up for such a huge event.

This 9 night show would bring some big hitters hunting that points championship that would be handed out at the end. Both RPM cars would make Ohio proud all week with Wagner nipping at the heels of Cassil in the points while also threatening to pick up a win on any night. Picking up a win early in the week, Cassil wouldn't be an easy target, but one rough night for the 7 car would really shake things up. Wagner wouldn't finish outside the top 5 all week and that win for him would come on Thursday night. Now Wagner was leading the points with just one 50 lap feature left in the series. Another great showing had Cassil starting 19th and finishing 6th while Wagner fought his way from 13th to finish 2nd, therefore bringing home the points championship for team RPM. Landon Cassil would finish 4th in the overall points. HUGE Congrats go out to Dave Wagner and all of Rob Petrus Motorsports!!! It's awesome to see such a deserving team have such great success. Now, go kick some more ass around Ohio this season. ;-)