The Dark Side Looms over Martinsville

Friday, June 18th - Martinsville Speedway N4Nites Nationwide points leader Dave Porter lead the field into Martinsville with a narrow lead over teammate John Boneske.  Porter knows it, “John Boneske is our primary pressure sore.  The fact we help him with setups doesn't help (laughing), but it's all in fun and if he beats me with my own setup, then shame on us - I should have driven better.  In all fairness, John has been a big help in the 24's garage too.”  Porter commented before climbing into his DuPont Chevy.  The 24 of Porter and 49 of Boneske did all they could but could not stop the shroud of the Dark side cover Martinsville in the form of the 94 Star Wars “The Clone Wars” Chevy featuring Ventress.

Simmons exited his 94 Chevy surprised that he caught the pole, “I really tanked both laps, and was thinking I would be starting 3rd or 4th, Alex, Jeff, John, and Dave all had faster laps in practice.”  Porter joined Simmons on the front row followed by John Boneske, Jeff Prutzman started in the second row.  Rick Porter started the provisional starters in the third row with Bobby Rafuse, and Alex Shoemaker.  Simmons slowly started pulling away from the field lap after lap, and from the speed charts he was doing it by 2 tenths a lap, but like most short tracks it didn’t take long for the first caution to come out as the 01 of Shoemaker lost a very lose handling race car starting a very bad night for the rookie team.

There was a series of cautions one after the other and the surprise was it was in the front, on laps 33 and 54 on restarts Boneske in the 49 drove the car deep using the bumper of the 94 Chevy and spinning him out both times.  “I was shocked the first time and blew it off, but the second was uncalled for and truthfully I don’t really know where he was going to get around me, in the grass?”  Simmons said laughing in the post race conference.

Long after the quick cautions were over it was smooth sailing for the 94 team.   The rest of the race went caution free until a caution for Rick Porters blown engine with 15 laps to go aloud his brother Dave to pit and try to mount a charge on the 94 who didn’t pit and stayed out front.  Simmons quickly pulled away, and pulled the Star Wars Chevy into victory lane.  “Gosh I had a great car, as long as I didn’t overdrive the corner.  My Star Wars team gave me a great consistent car all night, when I didn’t mess it up I could run consistent 21.1 second laps.  It's a testament to the practice session and everything clicked last night as we tried some different sets on the car.  It turned out that we had the fastest car too, and if you keep it clean you’ll end up here.  I’ve got to keep this up if I have a shot at this championship and hope somewhere the leaders falter,” Simmons said as he climbed from his Star Wars Chevy.

Jeff Prutzman and the Energizer team also would like to forget Martinsville just like Shoemaker after a rough night of spinning twice and getting punted into one corner by N4nites Rookie Rick Porter.  Prutzman has shown the last few weeks he’s been fast and had fast cars, but the consistency has not matched the speed.

“Jeff is almost there, I remember being where he is, being fast, but consistancy comes with practice and seat time with fast cars and fast setups.  I know when he breaks the win column, he will be a factor and will be running up front for a Cup Championship not to mention he’s still in striking distance of the Nationwide title”.

John Boneske was strong early but did not have the “force” on his side at Martinsville, and had little to defeat the Ventress Star Wars Chevy.  Running second early on, during a caution, he took two tires getting him out front of the 94 team, each time losing the lead as the 94 got to his bumper and around him.  “He let me by once, he must have felt bad after dumping me, the second I just got a huge drive off turn two on him and dove it into turn three,” Simmons said after the race.  Teammate and car owner Dave Porter who is always really strong at Martinsville and it’s one of his best tracks was act after the race of the strategy of going for fuel and long run cars instead of fighting it out up front?

“We have been good at Marty back in the day, but the track has changed since then.   We decided to try and update our old book strategy and run a mid-span car setup tonight.   Meaning good for a short run, best halfway thru a fuel run, and will last on a fuel run if necessary.  Teammate John Boneske and his crew helped turn the setup in their garage before the race.  We tried a Houdini trick on Ben late in the race but an incident with Rick Porter before we initiated the plan foiled that strategy.  After that point, we could only hope for an engine failure from the 94.  He was running like a scared rabbit,” Porter said after the race.

Bobby Rafuse once again pulled a “Charles Moyer” and scored his 3rd top 3 in a row.  Getting out of his Planters Peanuts Chevy he talked about his improvement recently in N4Nites.   “I guess the major factor would be learning from other drivers.  Getting a lot of seat time in CARS and N4Nites has helped me very much."  Holding court as his car Rafuse explains the race and his tire issues, “Yes, I have that problem in every race that I run in CARS and N4Nites.  It seems that I still haven't learned to go slow to go fast.”  When asked about coming so close at his first Nationwide win since last summer at South Boston, “Frankly, I thought that race was mine.  I have no hard feelings towards anybody, racing is racing.  I like that track,always have.”

Next week is our first ever race at PIKES PEAK, some drivers had some thoughts on going to place where there no familiarity.

Dave Porter:  “I'm not a big fan of Pikes Peak so the biggest hurdle will be keeping our engine from throwing a camshaft or something of the sort.  We typically run hot at these types of tracks, mainly because of how intense we gear our cars.  We might be a bit more conservative at pikes peak, just like Martinsville to help us over the peaks hurdle this race.  Lastly- would like to welcome my brother Rick in the #18.  He's driven more types of cars than you can shake a stick at.  His first night out, he qualified top seat but his cars haven't been the best lately.  We all have 'those weeks' that sometimes are a month long but we should see him front running once he gets more familiar with our racing."

"He hit me into the wall tonight and a brake failure was the cause.  It was just dumb luck my car was positioned where it was when I went to pass, otherwise I would have cleared him.  Gotta give him credit for at least trying and sticking with a track like Marty.  These short tracks aren't the best way to get introduced into this sport.”

Bobby Rafuse:  “I really don't know until I do some practice on the track.   If the setup works that I have, I will go into the race with the mindset that I've used since I started racing, run it like you stole it, which is probably my problem with tires.”