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July 16th, 2008
Chuck Darling wins the Advance Auto Parts 100 at the Bowman Gray Stadium! - By Charli Brown
Chuck Darling held off a determined JD Laird
to win the Advance Auto Parts 100 Wednesday night at the Bowman Gray
Stadium.
Winston-Salem, NC -
Saginaw Michigan’s Chuck Darling became the fourth different
driver to win on the Whelen Modified Online Tour Wednesday night with
his win in the Advance Auto Parts 100 at the historic Bowman Gray
Stadium.
Many
drivers chose to skip this event, and the pit area was wide open with
only eight drivers making the trip to North Carolina for this event.
SIModified officials decided to shorten the race distance to 100 laps
since many of the drivers in attendance would be making the trip to
Langley Field Speedway in Virginia, the following night.
JD
Laird won his second Coors Brewing Company “21 means 21”
Pole Award of the Summer Season with a lap time of 15.041 seconds at
59.836 mph. Chuck Darling was second quick and would start on the
outside pole.
At the drop of the green flag, pole sitter JD
Laird quickly dove into turn one to steal away the preferred groove on
the bottom with Chuck Darling testing the outside groove until they
came off turn two. Darling fell in line behind the leader with Richie
Coy and Charli Brown following closely behind.
Darling over
drove the entry to turn three, opening the door for Richie Coy to steal
away the second spot as Laird opened a half straightaway lead by lap
10. Coy and Darling would open a full straightaway lead on fourth place
Charli Brown, who was holding off Michael Pares, Jr. and Zach Truesdail.
Laird
caught eighth place Steve Rogers to put him a lap down on lap 20 in
turn two, while Richie Coy and Chuck Darling followed suit a half lap
later. Three laps later, Fifth place Michael Pares, Jr. used the
“chrome horn” to move Charli Brown up out of the racing
groove and raced him down the front stretch on lap 23. Brown tried to
hang on the outside lane, but fell in line for the fifth spot on lap 24.
At
the race’s quarter distance, JD Laird led over Richie Coy, Chuck
Darling, Michael Pares, Jr. and Charli Brown. Zach Truesdail was sixth
followed by Jeff Rogers and Steve Rogers.
The race’s first
caution came on lap 34 for Zach Truesdail, who spun out of the sixth
position while following Charli Brown off turn four. JD Laird quickly
headed to pit road, followed by Richie Coy and Chuck Darling. Fourth
Place Michael Pares, Jr. and Charli Brown elected to stay out behind
the Chevrolet pace car, while Steve Rogers was awarded the free pass
back on to the lead lap. Richie Coy won the race off pit road and just
beat the pace car off turn four to stay on the lead lap, while Laird
and Darling fell a lap down. Michael Pares, Jr. pitted the following
lap, handing the lead to Charli Brown who was the last car to pit
before the restart.
The race’s first restart came on lap
39 with the cars of JD Laird, Chuck Darling and Jeff Rogers in front of
the leader Richie Coy. Coy was the fourth car in line and at the drop
of the green flag with fourth place Jeff Rogers the last car on the
lead lap.
The race’s second caution came on lap 42 for
Jeff Rogers, who spun in turn two. Race leader Richie Coy had to cut
hard left to miss Rogers’ spinning car, while JD Laird and Chuck
Darling got to race back around and fall in line after being on the
tail end of the lead lap. Michael Pares, Jr. was awarded the free pass
and was the fourth and final car on the lead lap.
The
race’s second restart came on lap 48 with Coy now leading over JD
laird, Chuck Darling and Michael Pares, Jr. fourth place driver Charli
Brown was the first car on the bottom lane, with Jeff Rogers and Steve
Rogers behind. Coy would clear Brown’s machine as they raced to
turn one, but JD Laird did not. Brown was racing to get back on the lap
and second place driver JD Laird started to apply heavy pressure to the
lapped car.
Richie Coy led to the KING Design Halfway lap and as
the lapped car of Charli Brown pulled over to let the leaders pass, he
caught the left rear of JD Laird’s machine and spun him in turn
one. Laird drove away without any contact with the guardrail and
rejoined at the tail end of the field.
This would bring out the
race’s third caution just past the halfway point. Jeff Rogers was
awarded the free pass, while Charli Brown headed to pit road to survey
the damage and face JD Laird’s upset pit crew. Michael Pares, Jr.
was the only car among the leaders to pit under this caution giving up
the third position, while Richie Coy, Chuck Darling and JD Laird stayed
out.
Brown again tried his luck on the bottom lane as Richie Coy
led to the race’s third restart on lap 56. Richie Coy held the
top spot over Chuck Darling, JD Laird, Michael Pares, Jr. and Jeff
Rogers. Charli Brown was sixth with Steve Rogers being the last car
running in seventh.
Jeff Rogers would bring out the race’s
fourth caution on lap 64 as he spun off turn four and over corrected,
turning hard right into the front stretch guard rail in front of the
leaders. Richie Coy again had to cut hard left to miss the spinning
machine and had Chuck Darling right behind him, who checked up to not
run into the race leader. Charli Brown would get the free pass, while
Jeff Rogers’ night was over.
Michael Pares, Jr. again was
the only car to hit pit road for service under this caution as Richie
Coy, Chuck Darling and JD Laird stayed out. Coy led to the race’s
fourth restart on lap 71 but misjudged where the lapped car of Charli
Brown was and the two made contact heading into turn one to quickly
bring the caution back out.
Coy headed to pit road to check over his machine, while Chuck Darling inherited the lead with just 24 laps to go.
The
race’s final restart came on lap 76 with Chuck Darling leading
over JD Laird, Michael Pares, Jr., Richie Coy and Charli Brown. Steve
Rogers was the last car still running in the sixth position.
Darling
led the rest of the way while fighting off a heavy challenge from JD
Laird who came home second followed by Michael Pares, Jr., Richie Coy
and Charli Brown.
After a post race review, Charli Brown was put
back to the sixth finishing position after race officials declared him
at fault for the incident with race leader Richie Coy at lap 71.
Officials deemed the lapped car should have yielded to the leader and
moved Steve Rogers to the fifth spot, while pulling Brown’s
scorecard at the time of the incident.
The Whelen Modified
Online Tour will wrap up it’s 2008 Summer Season with the most
prestigious event on the schedule in two weeks’ time with the
Whelen “Made in America” 300 on July 30th.
This
event will gather all of the talent racing in the SIModified.com Online
Racing Leagues for it’s annual “all star” event and
will be held “under the lights” at the Martinsville
Speedway. John Turnure is the race’s defending champion.
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