Brendan Butterball Queen

[ron.brown11]

What a race for the rookie, at N Wilkesboro!! He had to pass nearly the entire field twice, to get a 4th at the end. He sure didn't drive like a rookie at all. That was a great place for him to do that. There were a lot of eyes watching that race, and his run sure didn't disappoint. Twenty-six of the starting 36 finished on the lead lap, so he didn't luck into that finish. Hopefully he'll get some more race dates in the trucks. 

[ron.brown11]

The CARS Tour 125 at Dominion Raceway is complete. Brendan "Butterbean" Queen set a new track record in qualifying. As fast as he is at a lot of race tracks, today was a first for him, as he set a new track record, and said that he had never had a track record at any track (dirt or asphalt). He started on the pole, and lead every lap. I'm not sure if that will give him the points lead, as Connor Hall finished 2nd. Hall started 15th, and it took him about 75 laps to finally get there. There were 3 restarts with him in 2nd, but he didn't have anything for Queen. Dominion is a track that doesn't wear tires out quickly, and Connor Hall said he felt like he had just completed 125 qualifying laps. 

The race had a bad crash before turn 1 at the green flag. There were 7-8 cars involved, five of which were done for the night. Somewhere about row 3, there was a stack up, and it wasn't pretty. Some good cars were done, 100' past the green flag. A few laps latter, Peyton Sellers (2 time national late model champion), and Isabela Robusto got together down the front stretch. She pinched him into the wall, hard enough to get both of his front tires airborne. Amazingly that didn't put him out of the race. But a cut right front tire, and a trip into the turn 4 outside wall a few laps later did. Probably due to the prior incident. Of the 30 cars that took the green flag, only 19 finished. Man, there was a lot of rubbing, and bumper tag going on all race long. So having 19 finish was amazing. 

Dominion is a beautiful facility. They have outstanding seating, that goes 3/4 of the way around the track. The tower has several suites across the top, the spotter's stand on top of the building, and has a huge video screen to see the race & replays of incidents. I don't know what their seating capacity is, but it looked pretty close to a sellout. When North Wilkesboro was repaved, they used the same company and asphalt compound that Dominion put down, when they built that track a couple of years ago. It's bad fast, and has been from the start, with no curing needed. That's why they used to same compound at N. Wilkes. The next race for the CARS Tour in on Wed July 3rd. So 24nomo & I will be vary happy with another mid-week race. In August, The Battle of Berlin will also be run on a Wed, and it pays 30K. I can't wait!!