Simmons rewards his home town fans with a dominating win at Pocono

Friday, July 9th - Pocono Speedway The N4Nites Nationwide Series comes to Pocono for the 12th race of the 2010 season with Series Points leader Dave Porter hoping to extend his lead a on of his top tracks.   Like last week it looked like Porter would have some work to do after qualifying 4th behind the pole winner Ben Simmons running a blistering speed of 168.521mph.  John Boneske once again joined Simmons on the front row for the second week in a row.   Jeff Prutzman qualified 3rd, and Bobby Rafuse took the fifth spot to Start the “Didn’t you see me Pocono 100."

Simmons and Boneske brought the field to the green, as the 94 car took the top spot as he did in qualifying and started slowly pulling away from 2nd place.  Turn 3 turned into a bad spot for the 60 of Bob Moore as he spun and brought out the first and only caution of the day.  Simmons leading out of the pits came in to top off before the green giving the lead to Porter and the 24 team lead the field to green.

Prutzman who had a very strong car in practice drove under Porter for the lead and pulled away as Porter, Simmons and Boneske battled in the field.  Simmons slowly work his way through the field into second bringing Boneske with him past Porter.   Prutzman with a very strong car could not slow down his teammate as Simmons slowly worked closer and closer to the bumper of the Energizer 52 Chevy.  Prutzman getting a little loose through the tunnel turn allowed Simmons the edge as the 94 Victory Junction Chevy pulled in front of the 52 and slowly pulled away as the first green flag pitting started.

Simmons lead grew even more coming out of the pits with a strong lead, and continued to pull away from the field.  As most races at Pocono play out it went green as more green flag pits continued, but the speed police ended up catching the 24, 49 on one pit stop and the 52 on his last pit stop of the night allowing the Victory Junction 94 car to just pull away and capture their first win at their home track of Pocono.

“YES IT’S ABOUT TIME” Simmons shouted as he climbed from his Interleague Charity Racing Chevy tossing Pepsi all over his pit crew, friends and family.  “We have really struggled here in the past in CARS and N4Nites Series, it didn’t matter what division we raced here we couldn’t pull a win, but today we changed all that.”  Simmons has only one second place finish at the triangle he calls his home track growing up less than 2 hours north of the track.  “We didn’t really know how to set the car up coming here but we threw a cup set that was ok here, made some tweaks to make it looser and get some more rear grip off the corner and it took off.  Then It was up to me not to overdrive it and let the car be fast throughout the run.  Big thanks to Cad Vis Racing for donating the sponsorship to today’s race to Victory Junction, The Interleague Charity Racing League and we are so thrilled to get them noticed with a huge win for us in a place that is very special to Cad Vis Racing.”

“It’s a great day for Cad Vis racing coming in 1st and 3rd, since losing Mike Redd it’s the best finish our team has had in a long time.  Now it’s on to some road course racing, I can’t wait to get to Cali!”

Race notes:
Bob Moore had another strong car holding off Simmons for about 10 lap to stay on the lead lap, but the spin early got him behind the field.

Jeff Pruztman had his first top 3 finish in 6 races and seems to be turning the corner.   Special congratulations to Jeff and the 52 team for scoring their first CARS Grand National win at Daytona Speedway last Tuesday.