| It’s Wade’s Day At Orange County Speedway In PASS
South |
| Patience Is Key in Orange
Blossom Special for Top-Finishers |
CONCORD, NC (June 17, 2006) – There were plenty of faces out front during
the Orange Blossom Special at North Carolina’s Orange County Speedway on Saturday
night for the Pro All Stars Series South Super Late Models. Georgia’s young
“Roush Gong Show” competitor Jason Hogan, Canadian low-buck racer Dean
Clattenburg, Maine’s legendary Mike Rowe and former All Pro and Pro Cup driver Randy
Gentry all were among the drivers who spent time leading the 150-lap event.
But it was former NASCAR Weekly Racing Series
champion Wade Day who put together the best performance when all of the chips were on the
line. Day held off Ryan Lawler, Clattenburg, Dennis Schoenfeld and Rowe to win the
fourth PASS South event of the 2006 season. It was the fourth different winner in as
many events during the inaugural PASS South season.
“It’s good to get a win, that’s
for sure,” said Day, who hails from Tennessee. “I made my move when I
could. These cars are just so close that you just can’t wait. People
don’t realize that the top-five cars were separated by a snap of the finger.
That is how close it was.”
Day burst onto the national racing scene in
2003 with the aforementioned NASCAR title and then won the Rookie of the Year award on the
ASA National Tour the following season. Unfortunately, that also turned out to be
the final year for that series and Day found himself without a place to race after the
season. Since then, he has dabbled in Super Late Models and Late Model Stock Car
competition. He has competed in as many PASS South events this season that his
schedule as the crew chief for Trevor Bayne’s USAR Pro Cup team will allow.
“I’m the crew chief on the
Hooter’s Cup deal, too, and it just so happens that we can run most of these
races. We didn’t race last weekend [in the PASS South race at Florence], so
we’ve been kind of hit and miss. We aren’t following the points this year
because we’re too far out, but next year we might go for the points and the whole
nine yards.”
To win at Orange County, Day had to endure a
restart with three laps to go with a hard-charging Lawler lining up on the outside of him
due to the PASS double-file restart rule. Lawler had started last after missing all
of practice and qualifying with axle problems, but worked his way steadily through the
field over the course of the race.
On the final restart, Day, who started 15th
himself, got the hole shot and beat Lawler into turn one. After that, he pulled away
and cruised to victory.
“I knew that it was going to be one hell of a race,” Lawler said of the last
three laps. “Man, he got a good jump on the start. It was really good
racing. I’m still learning, but we’ll be back. I’m having a
blast.”
“Until we got to the front, I was
restarting in fourth gear because I was just running them over,” added Day.
“I knew when I got to the front, I could start in the gear I wanted to. It
didn’t spin the tires; it just went. It’s got an awesome motor and it was
ground-stomping.”
After competing in several forms of short
track racing, Day seems to have found a happy home in PASS South.
“These are fun racecars to drive,”
said Day. “I mean they are a blast. I’m having a lot of fun racing
with these guys this year.”
Rowe retains the PASS South point lead with
his fifth-place finish.
“We had a really good car and the #96
[Day] got into my right front a little bit and that was our day,” said Rowe.
“But that’s racing. We came home fifth, so that’s not too bad.”
Rounding out the top-10 finishing order in the
Orange Blossom Special were NASCAR Southeast Series regular Justin Wakefield, Chris
Bowers, Ted Musgrave, Jr., Preston Peltier and Hogan.
Earlier in the evening, Schoenfeld crossed the
finish-line backwards, but won the 51 Designs Dash which is used to decide the top-eight
starting positions. Hogan, Rowe and Chris Dunn finished behind him, but were pointed
in various directions after some last-lap fireworks. Aaron Dudley scored a
comfortable victory in the other heat race. Peltier set fast time in qualifying.
PASS South returns to action on Tuesday, July
4th, with the Firecracker 150 at Tri-County Motor Speedway in Hudson, North
Carolina. |
