Ok, so I didn't have to be a genious to see that Chad Craver was over due to pick up his first career feature win when I predicted it a few weeks ago. He's continued his strong runs and near wins since that posting and this weekend it paid off BIG!! Many seasoned veterans only dream of winning the Ohio Dirt Blowout because the normally stout field of area Pure Stocks grows even stronger when the "outsiders" come to play too. With the rules being opened up for the big event, the action is awesome and sometimes pretty ugly. Not only does the winner have to out race the other guys, he has to avoid the nasty wrecks that are bound to happen when so many fast cars race for fame and fortune. Chad pulled all that off with a kickass run that had him leading most of the event. He stumbled once and lost the lead but he was determined and level headed enough to know that the race was his to win or lose. Once back in the lead, he held off some great challenges on several restarts and drove that #77 to his first feature win in style. He did it against a field a 4 bbl. cars with his trusty 2bbl. too. Now, that's just damn impressive!! You'll probably never see a racing team more proud than that team was when the checkers finally flew. I thought the old man was gonna become part of the car itself when he dove in head first to congratulate his son on the way to the winner's circle. Now both of his sons have Ohio Dirt Blowout victories, and Brandon picked up the season championship at Lakeville. I can't think of much that could make him more proud. Enjoy your big win guys, and now that the hard one is out of the way, let's be gettin' some more!!

THANKS To K-RaCe Photo For The Pic!

Now, about the rest of the Blowout weekend. We all know that things get kinda ugly for this event with so many different drivers fighting for the win in every class, but this year was by far the ugliest I've ever seen. Not only was alot of good equipment destroyed, but each race took absolutely FOREVER to complete due to all the cautions and incredible lack of order when it came to each and every line up for the restarts. When the features finish with half the field (or less) that they started with, it's gotta tell you that things are out of hand. And why the hell you would run the entire Sprint feature with 3 fuggin cars left and no chance of a pass for position is beyond me. Especially when much of the crowd is leaving after spending the day and night at the track, and there's nothing left to feed them. I couldn't help but notice how thin the crowd was by the time the Late Model feature was half over. What a shame!

Some other thoughts on the weekend..... It was great to see Randy Pollock make the trip to the Blowout and it looked like he's getting that new toy of his dialed in. He was on a great roll early in the feature but spun to avoid taking another car out, and had to go to the tail. That put him in a bad spot when the "big one" happened and he ended up in the pile of bent up scrap cars. He managed to continue on though with a little less car than he started with including no power steering. He drove his ass off to finish 4th with a wounded car. Nice run Randy!!!