Ben Simmons dominates at Darlington

Friday, March 5th   The lights came on as the stars of N4Nites Truck Series roll into Darlington for the 8th race of the Truck Series Season.  Mike Redd leading the points after and unexpected and unpopular win in the garage at Watkins Glenn hoped to extend his points lead after Darlinton.  Dave Porter made his return to the truck series after an off week hoping to get a little closer to the 00 team with his teammate John Boneske hot on there heels.

Jeff Prutzman, Bobby Rafuse and Ben Simmons still winless are all very eager to driver their trucks into victory lane.  Through practice the all the drivers seemed to have good trucks putting down some fast lap times, but Dave Porter once again pulled off the pole with a lap of 29.869 seconds, with Mike Redd on the outside of the front row, Jeff Prutzman in 3rd, Simmons in 4th, and John Boneske rounding out the top 5.

Porter brought the field to green as Redd and Simmons fell in behind the 24 truck as they flew into one.  Prutzmans night went bad in turn three on the first lap slapping the wall and dropping a lot of time to the leader and damaging his truck.  Just 8 laps in Redd and Simmons were nipping at Porters heels, Simmons was the first to make a move around Redd in turn one to take the second spot, and try to run down Porter.

Porter gave way to Simmons in turn three as Boneske like he was shot out of cannon went low with Simmons but got loose trying to stay off Simmons and ran Porter into the outside wall, leaving the Cad Vis Racing out front.  Lap after lap went by as Simmons would pull away and Redd would close in a little, but the turn three wall snagged Redd allowing Simmons to put some distance on him and the rest of the field.

Pit stops came and went with Simmons pulling even more of a lead after each stop, and it wasn't long before that 94 truck was on the rear deck lid of Porter about to put the second place truck a lap down.  Simmons slide around the 24 truck and pulled away until Simmons had an issue with a lapped down truck of Boneske.  Simmons was sideways through three and was able to save it and continue but allowed the 24 truck back on the lead lap.  "I backed off just a little and was off the throttle and was just going to coast into three but I guess John had to break a little harder than I thought and I hit the breaks and got loose throwing me onto the apron."  Simmons said after the race.

Even though Porter cut the gap with a quick stop at the end Simmons and the 94 team cruised into victory lane and their first win of the year.

"I would like to thank my crew and team for giving a good truck tonight.  It wasn't the fastest but was the best through three and four, and that was the difference tonight. I feel really bad for my team though, this should have been two in a row, but that decision not to let me race for a win last week was a joke.  For there not to be a caution and allow me to race for the win was just not right, and I know I wouldn't want to win like that.  I had them covered last week, and like I told Jeff (Cad Vis Racing Teammate), well if that's the way they want it, I will just lap them."