DARREN YOUNG CHECKS OUT ON THE COMPETITION AT IRWINDALE

Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 07/24/2007

In the world of motorsports there's a timeless old saying that says "he checked out of the hotel and just left." That's pretty much what Darren Young did last Saturday night when the ASA-Go Fast-Speed Truck Challenge Series visited the Irwindale Speedway. At the start of the race the Gilbert-Arizona driver jumped into the outside line of Irwindale's half mile oval and beat everyone back to the starting line. It turned out to be the winning move because no one could touch the performance of his #18 United Nissan-Quaker State-Sudden Impact Chevrolet Truck. In fact the only time the competition got close to his truck's tailgate was following the only caution flag in the event. He led all fifty laps enroute to his fourth series win of the season.

After the race the very happy winner praised the total team effort saying "I'll tell you that without the United Nissan boys here tonight who gave me a truck that was perfectly prepared I don't know if I would have been able to pull away like I did. I just didn't expect the truck to be that good. It was just riding on rails tonight.It was unbelievable and it made my job easy."

The race was originally scheduled for 75 laps but was shortened to only 50 laps due to the late starting time. The Irwindale Speedway has a long standing policy of using a 1030 pm curfew out of respect to their neighbors. During their 40 lap Late Model feature there was a horrendous multi car accident that included a major engine fire. There were no driver injuries but the massive job of cleaning up the track took approximately 45 minutes and put the evening seriously behind schedule.

It was at this point that the United Racing team made a bold, but brilliant, decision. They were well aware of the speedway's curfew time and were sure that the laps in the ASA Speed Truck Challenge feature would have to be reduced. In light of those facts the team made some air pressure adjustments to prepare their trucks for a race they were sure was going to be sprint like in nature. Commenting on the decision after the race Young said "we made some drastic air pressure changes to try to free the truck up sooner than what we originally wanted. We were ready for the full 75 laps so we split in down the middle and it worked."

Andy Allen spent the last half of the race doing everything he could to chase down the leader and drove his #22 RJ Allen Enterprises/Walker Brothers Moving Chevrolet to a very strong and impressive second place finish. The Fullerton-California driver also set the fast time in the series' qualifying and toured Irwindales's half mile oval with a lap of 20.042 seconds which clocked out to 89.811 MPH.

Bear Rzesnowiecky brought his #3 United Nissan-Quaker State-Sudden Impact Chevrolet to a third place finish after starting ninth on the starting field. Like his team mate Darren Young his truck also had a last moment air pressure change that allowed him to drop to the speedway's low groove which helped worked his way through the field. After the race "The Bear" said "running on the low line during the first half of the race definitely helped but it also heated up the tires. At that point I was in fourth so I moved up to the high line and waited for the moment when I could pass Jason Black cleanly to take over third. Maybe if we could have ran the full 75 laps we might have been able to catch the 22,(Allen) and the 18,(Young)."

Another ASA Speed Truck Challenge regular who impressed a lot of observers on this night was Jason Black in his #9 Jason Black Motorsports Chevrolet. Despite having to operate on a shoestring budget at this point in time the Glendale-Arizona driver finished a strong fourth in this race. This was after having a good qualifying round and running in second throughout much of the event.

Series points leader Victor Pfluger drove his #80 Parker Farms-Copperstate Tires-La Horgue Race Cars Dodge to his latest top five finish. The Morristown-Arizona driver came into last Saturday night with a 14 point lead over Darren Young. The final race results will somewhat diminish that lead but expect Pfluger to be very strong in his effort for a first ever series points title while at the same time fending off the efforts of Darren Young who will be looking to win his third championship.

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