This time…BIGMIKE was “Da Man”…from start to finish. The 21B car was in charge from the beginning…holding off many challenges from several Nuffers throughout the race!! After taking the Pole with a 37.778 qualifying time, BigMike went on to lead 118 of the 200 laps..sneaking by mwils at lap 198 to regain the lead and safely crossed the start/finish line under caution for the victory!! CONGRATS MIKE !!!!!

Mike’s biggest challenge was Abbotttazz…who had a very similar car as Mike and raced beautifully, having to constantly fight through the field to get up to Mike. Once Abbott, in the 31 car..got behind Bigmike…though he could not catch Mike, he stayed right with him for 40-50 laps. BigMike stayed clean when he had too…hitting..then holding his turns all night long. Just impressive!!! Abbott was able to earn a top 3 finish…finishing 3^rd. Good Job Abbott !!!

Mike’s other big challenger was mwils1…in the #55 car and for the second consecutive race…really came out strong. Mwils was second in laps led with 56 and stayed out or near the front most of the night(s)…lol. Mwils was not as strong as Abbott during “head to head” dueling with BigMike when the two were out front. You could hear mwils over the mic all night saying…”Hey…somebody get up here and gimmee some help…he’s pulling awayyyy !!”

Right around lap 168..mwils…sitting in third behind Bigmike and Abbott…tried the same pit strategy that helped him win the Poconos Race last week. Going in under green…Mwils held his breath…praying to come out while the race was still under green…knowing that all the cars would have to pit again before the end of the race. Well…it almost worked!! When wils came out…he was a lap down but running strong and gaining rapidly.  Abbott…went in under green around lap 175…and came out under green right behind mwils and the two raced together…waiting for BigMike to go in. Well…Bigmike finally headed in around lap 180 while Mwils and Abbott were coming out of turn 4…and regained their lap to get back on the lead lap while BigMike was still cruising to his pit. But then the dreaded caution came out when the #9 car spun out entering the pit. This allowed BigMike a chance to finish his pit under caution and though he fell to 4^th place…the field was bunched back together…giving BigMike the advantage again.

Then it got verrrryyy interesting. With only 15 laps to go and mwils out front…several cautions came out..eating up laps and keeping mwils out front. “Are you guys gonna gimmee this race under caution…I’ll take it !!!”…whispered mwils. Then at Lap 198…the green flag dropped and mwils got a good start…but slid up the track a bit in turn 1….Bigmike…strong as ever..stayed low and passed mwils in the turn…then BigMike started to push coming out of turn 2…and mwils…regaining his control…went down to try to regain the lead…but just didn’t have enough!! VERY EXCITING!!!

Let’s not forget Buster…who was quiet throughout the race…but right in the thick of things at the end. Sitting in 4^th place when the final caution of the night came out..for some unexplained reason…EA moved Buster into 3^rd..ahead of Abbott..(who dealt with EA Server’s questionable positioning during cautions all night). Buster was very strong at the end as well…and though he finished second on the track…it was agreed by NRL admins to move him back to fourth…behind Abbott as a result of the last EA error of the night !! So Buster finished a strong 4^th.

Here are your

And now we move on to the first NRL Road Race!!!! The Toyota/Save Mart 350…a COT race. PLEASE NOTICE THE NEW START TIME…8 PM EST next Saturday 1/26/8. Prequalifying sessions, if needed,  will remain on the normal schedule.

A Side Note…The NRL sincerely appreciates everyone’s patience while we deal with the website issues. Rest assured that Buster is working like crazy to get everything back up and running smoothly.

Cya Next Week !!!!