Dave Porter gets back on track at the Kentucky Speedway

Friday, February 5th   The N4Nites Racing League attended the Kentucky Speedway, a short D-Oval that runs like a midsize track.  Jamie Little caught up to Jeff Prutzman (#52) in the pits after his quick qualifying time of 30.790 seconds.  The remaining field had yet to qualify.

Jamie:  Jeff, wow - a very fast time for you.  Do you think that you can be beat?

Jeff: Well, not too shabby but I'm confident I could have done better if the engine didn't let go coming out of turn 2 of our second lap.  We had this same qualifying car out on the track several times this week turning 30.3's on the second lap everytime with no signs of over-stressing anything in the motor.  I guess it's just one of those things.  We'll just have to sit and wait until everyone else has qualified.   In practice, Mike Redd wasn't doing so well and he's the guy to beat right now.

After all drivers had qualified, Jeff indeed took the pole.

Jamie:  Well, you did it.  This is your first pole position this year.  A sign of things to come?
Jeff:  (laughing) I certainly hope so but were a modest bunch.  We know things can happen in a race and then again a great Q time doesn't really mean anything.  What really makes a difference is what you bring to the track to run 500 miles with.

At the start of the race a jumpstart by Mike Redd (#00) and Ben Simmons (#94) caused a red flag and the race was stopped.  The cars were repositioned and the race restarted.  On the green, Jeff Prutzman got a better start after missing a gear on the prior start of the race.  However, the battle over first lap awarded still went to Dave Porter (#24) who qualified 1 tenth second slower than Jeff as it appears Dave's car was geared a little quicker for the start.

The drivers didn't mess around, each wanting the lead lap spot from the beginning of the race to the end (well almost - more on that later).  Lap 3, drivers had lined up; 24,52,00,49,94,47.

Lap 6, the 94 of Ben Simmons came into turn 3 hard and hit the rear of the #49 (John Boneske) fairly hard.  John's car slid as he fought to maintain control.   Ben's car bounced high up into the marbles at the upper portion of the track.   Both drivers maintained control and no caution was sounded.

Lap 8, uh oh, Jeff nudged out Dave for first and took off.  The rest of the field changed positions but not for Jeff.  He was like the engergizer bunny that just found his electrical source.  The race was now Jeff, and the rest of the field.

Lap 16, Mike Redd's car came in and started to run fast.  He gained on Jeff to battle him for the lead.  However, running low of fuel, at lap 22, green flag pits stops started and Mike wasn't able to capitalize on his progress for a lead lap.   After the trucks cycled through, it was Jeff back out in the lead (commanding over 2nd place).  Lap 24, Mike (2nd place) fresh out of the pits got loose and spun after brushing the apron line in turn 3.  The solo spin brought out the caution and drivers chose to return for tires and fuel.

Lap 29 restart, IN WHAT APPEARED TO BE A CLUSTER DUCK, saw the 52 inside, 24 middle, and 94 outside (3 wide) going into turn 1.  A highly risky move seeing this track is only meant for double wide.  Behind them, Mike and John were running double wide.  The outcome, Dave squeezed from the center for lead, Ben over took Jeff for 2nd, and Mike beat out John for 4th.  Front row seating was Bobby Rafuse (#47) just riding and waiting to pounce on opportunity from spinning cars.

Ben eventually took over first after passing John and Dave.  It appeared at this point that this was going to be a three car race as these drivers started to pull a couple second lead over the remaining field.

Lap 45, Ben tried to fight off Dave for lead spot but lap 48 pitted and gave up that spot to the 24 team.  The 24 elected to stay out, risking running out of gas, and after pitting, came out almost side by side to the 94 but with 2 extra laps of fuel and tires on his car.  This would be a pivotal point in the race that ben would later find to be annoying.

Lap 63, Dave overtook Ben for the lead once again and slowly pulled from the previous leader.  Early lap 70's Ben pitted under green for a refresh of things and the following lap so did Dave who was a prominent hopeful for the win.  Why? Because he was showing 1 lap low on fuel to the finish and Ben was showing 2.  With 1 lap to empty, it was possible Dave could have coasted to the line, however, it would also depend on when Ben came in for a splash and hope to regain and catch Dave at the line while Dave was underpowered.

As luck would FINALLY have it for the 24 team, the ability for Dave to conserve valuable fuel was a trade mark of his and he pushed his ability to the max.

Last lap, Dave was to hear 'woo hoo'ing' even before he crossed the line knowing he had nearly a full lap on everyone else and still had enough fuel at the end for a sputtering burnout.  If I can keep from blowing out my front tires, were golden guys, Dave reported as he crossed the line taking the white flag.


With the checkers in view, Dave pulled off his first win of the season.

Jamie:  (Over cheers in the background as Dave exited his truck in victory lane)  It's the first win for the 24 team this season.  You certainly pulled off another Houdini magic trick.
Dave:  Can you believe it!  We finally got ours.  This is an awesome win for the 24 truck, team, crew.  We've always been good here and just translated an old cup car setup to our truck at the last minute.  Certainly not thinking we'd win but wanted to finish up front.

Jamie:  You qualified 2nd, what that like for you?
Dave:  I felt like the mouse smelling the cheese when I saw those Q times go up on the board.  I knew at that point we had a good truck, but not before.

Jamie:  Lap 29, three wide?  Did you think you'd survive it?
Dave:  Not really.  It wasn't until after I committed to pass the 52 car low that I noticed the 94 pulling along side of me up high and I was stuck in the middle.  I was saying to myself, 'this isn't going to end good'.  Especially when Jeff popped up towards my lane an inch (which was all I had left) and Ben was up top against the wall.  I honestly don't know how we came out of that without taking down the field with us.  It was amazing, and I hope a good show for everyone

Jamie:  With this win under your belt, we always want to know what's the next move for you and your team?
Dave:  This year, we teamed up with a young guy John Boneske who's been around for a while but really want to see him take it all so our next move is to make sure he's front running as much as possible and help him along the way.  We just hope he carry's us with him.

Friday, January 1st  With the 2009 season in the record books, we rapidly close in on the 2010 season opener.   A new 2nd segment Champion was crowned in 2009.  Mike Redd drove the Burger King team to their first N4Nites title by winning a personal record high 9 races including a sweep at Dover.

Dave Porter and the Dupont Chevy team took home an incredible 14 wins at 14 different tracks, earning the Championship title of the 1st segment of the 2009 season.  Not to go un-noticed, the #24 team also had 8 second place finishes to top off a great season.

And no one will forget the rising up of Ben Simmons and the 94 team.  Ben tallied up 9 wins of his own in 2009 and was a threat to be dealt with each and every week.

This season at N4Nites should provide the best racing ever.   A few changes will take place.  Last year our CUP schedule was split into 2 segments.   This season the racing will be split up into 3 segments.  Each segment will also be raced using a different mod.  We will start out the season with a truck series mod.   The second segment will be run using a Nationwide mod.  The third segment will be run using the same SS.net COT mod we always have.

This season we will have the help of RPM to organize our race schedule, keep drivers stats, archive race results, and manage our carfiles.  This is going to make managing the league and the website easier on everyone.

This season we will also have a chase for the the champoinship.  The last few races of the 3rd segment, COT series segment, will make up the chase.  The number of drivers eligible for getting into the chase will depend on the average number of drivers that we have that register and show up for the races.

Visit the NEWS page for details on getting ready for Friday's race!  Every driver, new and returning, must complete the registration process in order to race here this season.