IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

February 13, 2004 FSCR Nier Thought He Saw a Checkered Flag but McCarl stays on it and Wins by Jean Lynch Tampa, FL….2/12/04…..”One thing about me…I never give up and I always think I can win,” said an excited Terry McCarl after picking up his first-ever 410 Sprint win at East Bay Raceway Park, Thursday in night two of the 28th Annual Winternationals. The $4,000 prize came McCarl’s way when race-long leader Jim Nier thought he saw a checkered flag at the end of 24 laps and lifted at the end of the back stretch. McCarl, who was running second and had been in hot pursuit of the leader for most of the race, stayed on it and blew by Nier’s No. 00 and two lapped cars by going to the outside in turn three. “I was ready for a big finish when I saw Jim had a problem, but I didn’t know what his problem was,” explained McCarl. “I’ll bet I have stopped on this front straightaway at least 15 times after finishing second and third, but this is the first time that I actually won,” said McCarl beaming. His main sponsor on his Wesmar-powered Eagle is Big Game Tree Stands along with help from Country Builders and Bosma Poultry. However, in Florida Terry sports a big strawberry decal on the top wing of his wife Lori’s car which advertises Dick Morgan’s Strawberry Farms. Another Florida friend who provides a helpful hand is Randy Burnett who’s daughter Angela picked out the ‘lucky’ uniform which McCarl wore in victory lane tonight. Shane Stewart, who had started on the pole and finished second, described the turn three situation. “I wasn’t sure what the No. 00 was doing, but there was room for me so I took the spot. I had struggled early, but we loosened the car up for the feature and it felt good. I could run lower than anybody on the track. “ His MIN Motorsports Maxim was also powered by a Wesmar engine and used Hoosier tires and Penske shocks. Associate sponsorship is provided by Sanders and B&B Oval Track. Fourth place starter Craig Dollansky was happy with his VMAC/Karavan sponsored Maxim’s third place finish. “Even though the track was still fast tonight, it was better for passing and we’re working toward getting the balance of the car to be closer to the winning set-up each night, “ he said. “From my view, I saw cars everywhere, mainly Nier and lapped cars by the time I was in turn four, then I called on my Hoosiers and Garrett engine to pull me through.” With Stewart and Nier starting on the front row, Jesse Giannetto and Dollansky made up row two while McCarl and fast qualifier, Jeff Shepard were in row three. But at the drop of the green, Stewart drifted high in turn one and Nier took charge. Giannetto had engine problems and slowed on the back stretch after one lap causing the first yellow. Josh Wells brushed the wall in turn two bringing out the second yellow on lap nine. Nier made perfect laps around the high groove handling lapped traffic with ease. When the final yellow came out for Tim VanderVere who rolled to a stop in turn four, that set the stage for a five-lap dash to the finish with Nier leading McCarl, Stewart, Dollansky, Greg Hodnett and Greg Leonard. The surprise ending showed McCarl, Stewart, Dollansky and then Nier and Hodnett. Leonard, Shepard, Sammy Swindell, Danny Smith and Joey Saldana completed the top ten. Heats went to Saldana, Jeremy Campbell, Nick Naber and Lance Dewease while Hodnett, Danny Smith, Kevin Frey, Roger Rager, Greg Wilson and Daryl Smith advanced from the B-Main. The Goodson Farms Strawberry Dash went to Curt Trainer. The Florida Mini Sprints top five finishers were Jim Young, Terry Monroe, John Craddock, Lance McKinney and Bill Thomas. STATS – 410 SPRINTS - EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – THURSDAY, 2/12/04 Qualifying Results: 1. 167 Jeff Shepard – 13.079; 2. 24 Terry McCarl – 13.085; 3. 7 Craig Dollansky – 13.108; 4. D1 Jesse Giannetto – 13.179; 5. 00 Jim Nier – 13.187; 6. 12 Greg Hodnett – 13.203; 7. 4S Danny Smith – 13.220; 8. 4M Shane Stewart – 13.339; 9. 88 Fred Rahmer – 13.483; 10. 2L Ed Lynch, Jr. – 13.605; 11. 55 Daryn Pitman – 13.632; 12. 2K Kevin Frey – 13.673; 13. 94G Greg Leonard – 13.711; 14. 7V Tim VanderVere – 13.740; 15. 12X Sammy Swindell – 13.776; 16. 1 Mark Smith – 13.784; 17. 2S Joey Saldana – 13.854; 18. 10C Jeremy Campbell – 13.897; 19. 22 Nick Naber – 13.900; 20. 15 Bill Wolf – 13.967; 21. 36 Curt Trainer – 13.988; 22. 44 Chad Hill – 14.014; 23. 14 Rod George – 14.058; 24. 77 Lance Dewease – 14.063; 25. 3 Daryl Smith – 14.089; 26. 23 Jimmy Weller – 14.166; 27. V10 John VanDenBerg – 14.249; 28. 4G Spud Gustin – 14.450; 29. 63 Greg Wilson – 14.561; 30. 6R Roger Rager – 14.616; 31. 4B Tom Busch – 14.676; 32. 6W Josh Wells – 15.453; 33. 72J Johnny Johnson – 15.930 1st Heat – 1)Joey Saldana 2)Greg Leonard 3)Jeff Shepard 4)Jim Nier 5)Fred Rahmer 6)Curt Trainer 7)Greg Wilson 8)Daryl Smith 9)Johnny Johnson 2nd Heat – 1)Jeremy Campbell 2)Chad Hill 3)Terry McCarl 4)Ed Lynch, Jr. 5)Tim VanderVere 6)Roger Rager 7)Jimmy Weller 8)Greg Hodnett 3rd Heat – 1)Nick Naber 2)Sammy Swindell 3)Craig Dollansky 4)John VanDenBerg 5)Rod George 6)Tom Busch 7)Daryn Pitman 8)Danny Smith 4th Heat – 1)Lance Dewease 2)Shane Stewart 3)Jesse Giannetto 4)Bill Wolf 5)Josh Wells 6)Kevin Frey 7)Spud Gustin 8)Mark Smith B – Main – 1)Greg Hodnett 2)Danny Smith 3)Kevin Frey 4)Roger Rager 5)Greg Wilson 6)Daryl Smith 7)Curt Trainer 8)Jimmy Weller 9)Spud Gustin 10)Tom Busch 11)Johnny Johnson 12)Daryn Pitman DNS 13)Mark Smith A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Terry McCarl 2)Shane Stewart 3)Craig Dollansky 4)Jim Nier 5)Greg Hodnett 6)Greg Leonard 7)Jeff Shepard 8)Sammy Swindell 9)Danny Smith 10)Joey Saldana 11)Fred Rahmer 12)Jeremy Campbell 13)Lance Dewease 14)Nick Naber 15)Ed Lynch, Jr. 16)Greg Wilson 17)Roger Rager 18)John VanDenBerg 19)Tim VanderVere 20)Rod George 21)Daryl Smith 22)Kevin Frey 23)Bill Wolf 24)Chad Hill 25)Josh Wells 26)Jesse Giannetto Goodson Farms Strawberry Dash – 1)Curt Trainer 2)Tom Busch 3)Jimmy Weller 4)Johnny Johnson 5)Spud Gustin FLORIDA MINI SPRINT ASSOCIATION RESULTS: Heat Winners – 1st heat)Ron Taggart; 2nd heat)Brad Loyet; 3rd heat)Bill Thomas; 4th heat)Andy Martin Feature (20 Laps) – 1)8 Jim Young 2)51 Terry Monroe 3)71 John Craddock 4)51M Lance McKinney 5)21T Bill Thomas 6)51L Brad Loyet 7)45 Curt Henderson 8)46 Brett Arndt 9)8U George Ulmer 10)61 Rick Breighner 11)21 Andy Martin 12)1 Harold Matthews 13)82 Gary Linderman 14)16 Peter Hathaway 15)99 Wiley Burrus 16)2 Steve Craig 17)7 Jesse Teed 18)86 Russ Heider 19)5 Nick Engle 20)7G Jimmy Glenn 21)10 Matt Ebarb 22)2T Ron Taggart 23)2H Drew Heistand 24)1K Kerry Schanz 25)23X Mike Johnson 26)17X Alex Cunningham 27)4 Bill Jackson 28)1S Kevin Swindell DNS 29)37 Larney Johnson Have an opinion on this story? 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