John Boneske jumps into the points lead with a win at Lowes

Early Cautions At Lowes Send Championship Contenders Home Early

Friday, July 23rd - Lowes Motor Speedway   What was supposed to be one of the most exciting races of the Nationwide Series turned out to be a fight for survival.  Simultaneous incidents on lap 4 put the 94 of Ben Simmons and the 52 of Jeff Prutzman in the wrong place at the wrong time, setting up the stage for a violent crash between the two Cad Vis racers that would end the night early for the 94 team and cripple the 52 for the remainder of the race.

The first incident, the one that brought the yellow flag out, occured in turn 3 when the 84 of part time driver Matt Farrell and the 52 car made contact, and the 84 drifted up the track towards the outside wall.  Almost at the same time, Ben Simmons in the 94 got loose in the middle of the front stretch and spun around, coming to rest in the outside wall, just in front of Jeff Prutzman, whose car was already upset from the contact with the 84.

Prutzman could not steer away from the 94 nor could he stop in time.  The result was hard T-boning crash into the right front of Simmons that killed the 94 and left Prutzman's car with crippling body and engine damage.

At the time the caution came out, it was hard to tell which incident actually brought out the yellow, but after a review of the replay, it was clear that the contact between the 52 and 84 in turn 3 was responsible.

"I was concentrating so hard on regaining and maintaining control of my own car that I didn't even notice Ben getting loose in front of me," said Prutzman.  "The next thing I knew the 94 was sliding up towards the wall in front of me and it was too late for me to steer out of harms way.  All I could do was try to stop before I hit him but it was too late.   My brakes locked up and I braced for what I knew was going to be a hard collision.   It was bad enough that we were involved in a wreck so early in the race, but it was even worse to take out a teamate who was in contention for the championship."

Caution number 2 came out on lap 9 when the 84 got loose in turn 4 and got into the outside wall.   This incident appeared to be isolated but as the field came up on the 84, all hell broke lose.

A chain of events began to take place.  Prutzman, who was already damaged from the first caution, tried to slow down to aviod any further contact and the 47 of Bobby Rafuse could not avoid running into the back of the 52.  Just ahead of Rafuse and Prutzman, the 24 car of Dave Porter could not aviod plowing into the 84 car and when they made contact, the results were devastating as you can see from the series of pics below.

 
 

Porter's 24 car was totally destroyed.  Prutzman's 52 car suffered even more damge and the 47 of Bobby Rafuse and the 84 of Matt Farrell also took some heavy damage.  At this point, there were only 4 cars left on the track that hadn't been severly damaged, the 49 of John Boneske, the 01 of Alex Shoemaker, the 21 of Jo Morabito and the 60 of Bob Moore.

The 3rd caution of the evening came on lap 14 when the 49 and the 01 got together in the middle of turn 2 which sent the 01 for a ride up into the outside wall.

Bob Moore, began to spin as he cautiously took evasive action trying to keep his car from getting involved.

A few laps later on lap 16, Alex Shoemaker retired from the competition.

After the first 2 cautions it was apparent that neither Porter or Simmons who were out of the race and Prutzman who was severly damaged were going to be factors in this race.

As the field was shortened drastically, it was evident that the possibility of having a good finish or even winning was going to be in favor of the car with least amount of damage and all the remaining drivers sensed this.

On lap 20, the yellow flag waved again as the 60 of Bob Moore got loose in turn 2 and he made slight contact with the outside wall.

It was hard to tell if Bob's car had a handling problem or if he was just simply trying too hard knowing that he had a good shot at the win, having one of the only cars left without significant damage.

Nine laps later, on lap 29, Bob Moore got loose in exactly the same spot in turn 2 bringing out the next caution.  It still wasn't clear if Bob's 60 car had a handling issue but this time he hit the outside wall with a bit more force.

If his car didn't have a handling issue before, it was damaged enough this time to make it hard to drive fast and keep up with the leaders.

At this point in the race, John Boneske was the leader followed by Jo Morabito, Bobby Rafuse, Bob Moore and Jeff Prutzman holding up the rear a couple of laps down.

The race just wasn't fun anymore for anybody except for Boneske who was walking away from all the other drivers.

Points being important, the drivers marched on as best as they could with the damage they had incurred in earlier incidents.

On lap 67, the 84 car of Matt Farrell began bellowing smoke in turn 2, the tell-tale sign of an expiring engine.  Matt's car took quite a beating in the earlier laps and it finally took it's toll, ending his evening and bringing out another caution.

On lap 74, the new race leader was Bob Moore in the 60 car.  His lead was short lived as John Boneske in the 49 came back and passed Bob for the lead on lap 76.

On lap 77, John Boneske ran the fastest lap of the race with an impressing time of 29.460 seconds, on his way to leaving the rest of the field behind.

It seemed that the safest place to be was out in front with the clean air where you had the whole track to yourself.

On lap 106, the final caution of the night came out as the engine of Bob Moore's 60 car began to expire, leaving a trail of smoke behind it.  That was it for Bob's night.

All in all, there were 7 cautions in the race as John Boneske cruised to victory and jumped into the Nationwide points lead with one more race left in the series.  The drivers of N4Nites will head on to Road America next week for the series finale.  Road America, a road course, has been long awaited for by the "road course warriors" such as Ben Simmons and Alex Shoemaker.  They began preparing for this track weeks ago and are the favorites to watch for next week.