NEW
TIRES THE KEY FOR CLAY ROGERS AT PEACH STATE
by Matt Kentfiel
Cautions
and Carnage Leave Huffman and Logano Miffed
It
was nothing new for Clay Rogers and Mike Herman. They've been
racing for wins for years going back to their Late Model Stock Car
days at Concord Motorsport Park (NC). In the USAR Hooters Pro
Cup ranks, Rogers is the former Champion who's ready for a number of
wins this season. Herman has been at the Pro Cup game for many
years but still has yet to crack into the win column.
In
Saturday night's Naturally Fresh 250 at Peach State Speedway, the
experience of making the winning move paid off for Rogers.
Of
course, fresher tires had a lot to do with it too.
Rogers
slid under Herman's #34 with three laps remaining and checked out
with new rubber in the closing laps to win his first Southern
Division win of the 2006 season.
"I
know Mike wants to win bad," said Rogers, who won the Pro Cup
Northern Division race at South Boston last weekend. "He
used to win a lot of races there at Concord and he's struggled in
his Hooters deal. He's a little bit under-funded there but
he runs good.
"I
was happy to see he was running up front and I hated taking the
win away from him but I'm darn sure I wasn't going to let
(Shane) Huffman pass me. We're racing him for the
championship this year and I'm sure Mike will be at Concord with
a good car there, so maybe he can have a shot to win that one."
If
running for the championship was Rogers' motivation for making
the winning pass, the same motivating factor made Shane Huffman
jump to Rogers' outside on the race's final restart with eight
laps remaining.
Herman
and Dange Hanniford found themselves up front using an
off-sequence pit strategy while Rogers, Huffman, Joey Logano and
other pitted for fresh rubber on a lap-209 caution. With new
tires, the three drivers that dominated the entire race quickly
found themselves jockeying for the top spot yet again.
The
new tires won out, as the cars with the grip took over up front,
leaving Herman short of his first Pro Cup victory.
"Clay
and I were Concord (Motorsport Park) Late Model Stock drivers so
that wasn't the first time that me and him were racing for the
win like that," said Herman. "The biggest thing was that
I didn't have fresh tires and he did.
Even
though he knew Rogers and Huffman were closing in with their newer
tires, Herman was determined to break into the win column.
"A
racecar driver always thinks he's got a shot. I feel like
I'm a gladiator behind the wheel and I'm not going to give
up. I haven't won one of these races yet and I want to get
one so bad.
If
we could've caught another caution maybe things would've
been different and we would've won. I almost went down
two laps on old tires so I knew I wasn't going to be the
fastest car out there with used tires there at the end so I knew
Clay was going to be good with those newer tires."
The
final restart of the night proved to be the most pivotal.
With Herman and Hanniford up front and Rogers and Huffman on
fresher tires than the first two with just eight laps remaining,
the green flag flew in the final sprint to the finish.
Hanniford got off to a slow start in second, allowing Hermon to
jump to a sizable lead while Rogers, who restarted third, had to
roll off the throttle in the first turn. That allowed
Huffman to jump to Rogers' outside and the two raced
side-by-side before Rogers pulled back ahead down the
backstretch. Hanniford slipped back while Rogers and
Huffman chased Hermon.
"On
that last restart Huffman jumped to the outside of me because
the #22 (Hanniford) had a flat left rear tire," said
Rogers. "I saw it coming halfway down the backstretch
coming to the green. I jumped on the radio and told them
to tell the officials.
When
Huffman took advantage of Rogers being held up by Hanniford's
struggling racecar by jumping to the outside, it was more a move
of necessity and frustration. Huffman was going for the
lead because the championship could come down those two and
every position counts but he was also eager to get up front
because of his displeasure with USAR officials.
Huffman's
frustration began when Logano, who looked to have one of the
most competitive cars on the racetrack all night long, spun the
lapped car of Brett Butler as the leaders passed him on lap
229. USAR officials penalized Logano to the rear of the
field under caution. After the race, Huffman was not
pleased at the length of the caution period to sort out
Logano's penalty.
"USAR
pretty much screwed this race up tonight," said Huffman.
"It seemed like we rode around for 20 laps under caution when
they were looking at the tape. I don't know if they were
watching an old episode of ‘Friends,' maybe some ‘Seinfeld.'
I'm not sure what they were watching up there but we had a
race to run."
Huffman's
second-place finish behind Rogers was no consolation for his
anger with the amount of laps run under caution late in the
race.
"I'm
pretty pissed off. I'm not taking anything away from
Clay Rogers and his crew because they had a hell of a race car
and we knew it was going to be a hell of a race. It's
just aggravating. It's happened before and I don't
understand why the racers have to pay for their mistakes."
While
Huffman was upset with the laps under the caution, the driver
who wound up on the short end of the entire incident was Logano.
After running in the top-three all night long thanks in large
part to a pit crew that got him off pit road first in both of
his stops during the 250-lap race, Logano's late-race penalty,
while running third behind Herman and Hanniford, ruined any
chance at his second Pro Cup victory of the season.
"We
had the car to beat, that's for sure," said Logano, who
finished eighth after passing several cars in the closing laps
from the back of the pack. "Lapped cars that are six or
seven laps down are trying to race with the leaders. They
don't need to be up there. I don't know why the heck
they need to be racing up there.
"I
barely tapped him and he spun out. Still, he doesn't
belong up there. That's flat out what it is. We
were running third but we were behind guys who didn't have any
tires so we would've passed them."
The
penalty was even more upsetting for Logano because he may have
been a strong contender with Rogers and Huffman at the end of
the race, but in the last laps nobody had anything for Rogers,
who started from the pole and with the win took over the USAR
Hooters Pro Cup Series Southern Division points lead from Shane
Wallace, who finished 27th.
Last
week, Rogers crossed the border and invaded the Pro Cup Northern
Division and won the race at South Boston (VA). Rogers
considered that race to be the turning point of the season and
he proved it Saturday night at Peach State.
"This
whole race team's really got it going on right now. From
the crew chief to the guy that runs the parts for us, everyone
is on their game. We unloaded off the trailer the fastest
car on the sheet and we stayed on top of the sheet in practice
and qualifying and in the race too."
1.
Clay Rogers
2.
Shane Huffman
3.
Wayne Willard
4.
Jody Lavender
5.
Mike Herman Jr
6.
Jeff Fultz
7.
Chase Pistone
8.
Joey Logano
9.
Matt Carter
10.
Mike Mason
11.
George Brunnhoelzl
12.
Mardy Lindley
13.
Jay Fogleman
14.
Billy Bigley Jr
15.
Kirk Leone
16.
Bobby Joe Woodley
17.
Michelle Theriault
18.
Dange Hanniford
19.
Trevor Bayne
20.
Don Satterfield
21.
C E Falk
22.
Brett Butler
23.
Andrew Rogers
24.
Ken Butler III
25.
Dana White
26.
Bobby Gill
27.
Shane Wallace
28.
Bill Manfull
29.
A J Fike
30.
Rick Markle
31.
Michael Ritch
32.
Daniel Johnson
33.
Mike Hampton