NickHolt Posted September 14, 2003 Report Share Posted September 14, 2003 Larry Bendele said he had a plan going into the final NASCAR Weekly Racing Series points race of the season at San Antonio Speedway Saturday Night. On the line was the track championship and approximately $6,000 in prize money. He planned on doing well in the heat race, thus lengthening his slim 8-point lead and insuring that his rival for the crown, perennial front-runner Donny Horelka, would have to finish at least four positions better than Bendele. The problem is that the plan almost backfired. It all started well enough as Bendele finished two places ahead of Horelka in their heat race. By Bendele's calculations that meant he could finish 4 places behind Horelka and still with the championship. And the 40-lap feature started out as planned as well. The first 30 were pretty much a freight train with Danny Storbeck at the front of the line followed closely by Jason Smith, Ronnie Smith, Mike Balzer, Horelka, Danny Garcia, Larry Bendele and the rest of the 14 car field. Bendele said he would hang back a bit during the feature, and he did. But something seemed to be going very wrong. His lap times were dropping off at an alarming rate as the front six cars opened up a huge gap. Cars that Bendele had passed earlier in the race were catching back up and were threatening to pass him. While Bendele did not know it at the time, he had both right side tires going down at the same time. Jesse Salazar got by Bendele on the 35th circuit, but on the same lap Ronnie Smith got very loose coming off turn four and checked up right in front of Balzer who slammed into the rear of Smiths car bringing out the first caution of the race. The caution turned into a red as the clean up crew cleared the front straight. Balzer was done for the night with serious front end damage while Smith was able to continue. Horelka barely missed the melee, but had to spin his car to keep from making it a three-car wreck. Under SAS rules, that was enough to send both Horelka and Smith to the rear for the restart. Break number one for Bendele. On the restart it was Storbeck, who had been doing a great job holding off Jason Smith, then Smith, who had nudged Storbeck in the third turn a lap or two earlier as he tried to squeeze underneath for the pass, then Garcia, Bendele, Salazar, Ronnie Smith, Horelka and the remainder of the field. Unfortunately, Jason Smith spun going into turn 1 on the restart which brought out the second yellow of the night. On the next attempt at a restart, Jason Smith was called for jumping the start and sent to the rear. All the while, Bendele's car was handling worse and worse. As Bendele put it after the race, "It was handling so bad I thought I was going to spin out on the yellow flag laps! I actually thought something had broken on the car since it didn't really seem to be either too tight or two loose and the steering seemed funny. I had never experienced two right side flats at the same time so I didn't know exactly what too make of it. When I asked the crew to look at the tires during the caution they said they were still up, so I dismissed the possibility that I had a tire going down." On the third restart, Michael Lampton had a right front go down and he scraped the wall bringing out yet another yellow. At this point Bendele brought the car into the pits for a right rear tire since the car seemed more loose than anything else. Of course, in hindsight they should have changed both right sides, but since the right front didn't "look" flat they crew didn't change it. Naturally enough, on the next restart the car had a bad push and the front five of Storbeck, Garcia, Ronnie Smith, Salazar and Horelka took off leaving Bendele in the dust and the rest of the field ready to zip by as well. But as fate would have it, Horelka had some sort of skirmish with Jason Smith on the back side (out of my sight) and spun to bring out another caution. This would put Horelka at the tail end of the field and Bendele in fifth spot. After the race Horelka was irate with Jason Smith team but wisely elected to remain in his own pit to conduct a long distance shouting match with the Smith team who were pitted several pits away. On this restart, nobody crashed or jumped or anything and the last two laps were finally run. Jason Smith and Horelka were able to roar by Bendele on the next lap but it was too little too late for Horelka and a very narrow escape for Bendele who won his first Late Model Championship after many years of running in the lead pack at SAS. The first seven finishers were Danny Storbeck, Danny Garcia, Ronnie Smith, Jesse Salazar, Jason Smith, Donny Horelka and Larry Bendele. I think Kevin Bendele finished eighth, but I'm not sure about the rest of the field. Justin Oates looked good in winning the Sportsman feature. I'm not sure who won the Road Runner race. Hopefully Debbie Williams will post her perspective too. Deb is Larry Bendele's sister and I know there was a lot of champaign flowing in the Bendele pit after the race, so Deb's account might sound a bit happy. LOL Nick Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5StarRacing Posted September 14, 2003 Report Share Posted September 14, 2003 Nick Justin Oates won the sportsmans feature...his daddy was on the top of the trailer.. But after tonight I think people can see how you might get them mixed up while in a race car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckLicata Posted September 14, 2003 Report Share Posted September 14, 2003 Nick, Thanks for the story! I was happy to read about how the race wound down. That's how racing should be, right? LOL Congrats to Larry and crew for winning the title...and to Donny for putting up a great challenge! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerjim2 Posted September 14, 2003 Report Share Posted September 14, 2003 CLongraulation to Larry on the championship and to Danny Storbeck on his first NASCAR late model win, I know he has been through some tring times with racing and a broken wrist out there,you both did a great job.Let not forgrt Donnie and I think the worst he has ever finished in points is third and has to the the most sucessfull driver at SAS.Great job everyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickHolt Posted September 14, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2003 Cindy, Of course it was Justin who won the Sportsman feature... I guess it's just all those years writing about Jason winning that kicked in the old writer's autopilot. And I guess you've been winning more than your share of powder puffs too! Thanks for bringing this to my attention! P.S. You're looking great and I'm happy to hear that your dad, Frank Howell, is doing well and riding around in expensive sports cars. Nick Holt Nick Holt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckLicata Posted September 14, 2003 Report Share Posted September 14, 2003 P.S. You're looking great and I'm happy to hear that your dad, Frank Howell, is doing well and riding around in expensive sports cars. Nick Holt Nick Holt Nick, A double-signature? I think you are losing it a little bit..LOL p.s.--glad to hear Frank Howell is doing well...I remember him from way back when! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5StarRacing Posted September 14, 2003 Report Share Posted September 14, 2003 Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debwill Posted September 15, 2003 Report Share Posted September 15, 2003 Nick, You did an excellent write-up on the Late Model racing action on Saturday night! Yes, it was a very tense race for all of the Bendele crew. We had asked Larry to race smart, but we certainly didn't expect him to fall back a half a lap! We didn't know he was having tire problems until they threw the red, and he was able to communicate with his crew chief. Although we (they) were able to change the right rear tire on the next yellow, we didn't know until later that he was also having problems with his right front tire. So, we were very pleased with his 7th place finish, and it was enough to secure the championship. As you may have heard, I won the "Pit Crew Experience" drawing sponsored by FASCAR. Larry and his crew let me help with some of the stuff, but I didn't even want to get involved with the technical stuff. I definitely stood back and watched when they made the tire change on pit road! I thought the recognition shown by the track was awesome! The stage setup was so professional looking, and the trophy and personalized checkered flag really made Larry and all of us feel very special. And we were able to celebrate Larry's victory way past the normal track closing time. I think the champagne ran out and the keg floated around 3A! Now we're all looking forward to heading to Nashville for the NASCAR banquet on November 1. It was great to see you and the rest of the media folks (Mike Haag and Bruce Mabrito) covering the race. I am going to start now to try to get some TV or radio coverage for Oktober'FAST'. Does anyone out there want to help me with this effort? Thanks again for all you do to promote racing and for maintaining this wonderful website! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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