The Mudsummer Classic

I think that it is safe to say that last Wednesday night the North American racing community got a big boost, in that, a breath of fresh air swept from the Eldora Speedway into the minds and souls of many thousands of spectators who watched this highly anticipated race. I for one, watched on TV from far-far away in the Caribbean as the qualifying races set the tone for the big race, which featured 3 stints totaling 150 laps. The first stint would go 60 laps, the second 50 and the third and last stint 40. Between these the NASCAR Nationwide series trucks could come onto pit road for fuel, tires and track setup changes. Mind you that the track surface is clay.

Interestingly, and probably for the first and last time, this race is would mix dirt track drivers with Nationwide truck series' drivers without dirt driving experience. So there would be a lot of slipping and sliding!

The "Mudsummer Classic", as the race was called, marked NASCAR's return to dirt racing in some 43 years. And even though the trucks were a little bit slower, they put on a pretty solid show with a lot of bumping and grinding which sent sparks flying. Click here to watch the video

In the end, Austin Dillon, the 2011 series champion and who competes regularly in the Nationwide Series captured the win, even though he had to defend his position hard to survive a couple of late race restarts.

"This is bad to the bone," Dillon said after stepping out of his truck. "This is a great race...This is one of he biggest wins of my carreer."

"My dad told me a long time ago that if we won at Eldora, we'd just skip all the NASCAR stuff and go to NHRA because there's nothing more out here to do because it's just so tough to do," said Dillon, who started 19th and was fourth by lap 60 of the race that eventually would go 153 laps.

"We're going to stick in NASCAR. But the coolest thing is you're out of control there... I'd clip the fence and I'm leading the race. You're on the edge every lap."

He wasn't the only one. 61-year-old Norm Benning rode the wall in the last-chance race to become the final driver in the field. But his No. 57 Chevrolet looked as if it went through 150 laps, not 15, with the exhaust pipes dragging along the dirt. Benning even flipped Clay Greenfield the bird after their trucks connected on the final lap. To me, Norm Benning stole the show that night!

Thanks for reading.

Source: Newsobserver.com, Sportingnews.com