Source: NASCAR
Public Relations
Date: 08/15/2004
YAKIMA, Washington -- Jeff Jefferson visited victory lane for
the third time this season on Saturday night in NASCAR AutoZone
Elite Division, Northwest Series action. The race was the
Frank’s Chevrolet 125. The place was Yakima (Wash.) Speedway.
The job was no small task.
As has been the case all season long, Jefferson has shown up
with one of the fastest cars
in the field. That was demonstrated by the winning of his fourth
Bud Pole Award of the season by driving the Sunfair
Chevrolet/LeMay Car Museum Chevy around
the 1/2-mile track with a lap speed of 94.039 mph.
That was the easy part for the Naches, Wash. native. There were
still two more difficult hurdles to overcome for the 2003 series
champion. The first was the draw for the invert, and the second,
of course, was the race itself.
The invert to start the race has become a big part of the story
in the Northwest Series this season with the “10” has been drawn
in three of the last four events. Jefferson was responsible for
two of those. Series rules require a six, eight or 10-car invert
after qualifying times have been posted. The pole winner simply
selects a number in a random drawing held by NASCAR officials.
Jefferson and his wife, Dion, have drawn the “10” in two of his
previous three pole efforts. The candidate, or victim, as the
case may be, on this night would be crew chief Chuck Carruthers,
who drew an eight. That meant Jefferson would have to get past a
minimum of seven cars to win the event, which is often not as
easy as it sounds.
Now, the tallest order of the day was at hand, winning the race
from the eighth-place starting position. Jefferson wasted no
time in rocketing toward the front. After 20 laps he had worked
his way to third and then was battling Brandon Riehl for the
race lead after just 30 laps. On the race’s 35th lap Jefferson
overtook Riehl and led for the rest of the night eventually
crossing the line by .65 of a second in front of second-place
Riehl.
To move from eighth to first in that short time, the car must
have been pretty close to perfect, right? “Not quite. I had my
hands full tonight,” said the victorious Jefferson. “I don’t
know if it was the track or the car, but this was not an easy
win.”
Flashbacks of a disastrous turn of events in a race just three
weeks ago at Yakima Speedway surely swirled in Jefferson’s mind.
In that event just as this one, he brought a great car and was
the fastest qualifier. However, just 27 laps into the race a
mechanical difficulty forced Jefferson out of the race resulting
in a last-place finish for the #42 car.
As for this winning car, Jefferson said, “It was not smooth at
all. I was hearing some weird noises and I just wanted to keep
it on the track taking it as easy as I could. I feel pretty
fortunate to have been able to keep everyone else behind me.”
Riehl, hailing from Boring, Ore., led six laps in the race’s
early going and went on to bring his Aero Turbine/Darrel’s
Economy Muffler Chevrolet home in second-place. It was a
career-best Northwest Series finish for Riehl, who is in his
second season with the series. “The car was pretty good and I
had the lead, but when (Jefferson) came up behind me it was just
too early to take big risks. I didn’t want to take a chance and
mess up the good run at that point.”
After surrendering the lead, Jefferson pulled away by a good
margin from Riehl. From then on, Riehl was relegated to relying
on restarts after caution flags to get close to the lead car.
Unfortunately, for Riehl, he would have just two chances to
battle for the lead on restarts since two long green flag runs
dominated the race. “Ordinarily, we have more restarts than two,
but that’s what we had,” Riehl said. “This is a great finish for
us, though. It gives both me and this team some confidence
heading into these last three or four races of the season.”
Gary Lewis of Bothell, Wash. collected third-place honors. It
was the fifth top-five effort of the season for the Lewis team
in the Sign Factory USA/Sandblasters Pontiac. “My car was a
little loose all night long, so I didn’t think we would be able
to be a big factor in the race,” Lewis said. “So, we’re pretty
happy with this finish.”
Fourth place went to Yakima’s Jason Jefferson, Jeff’s younger
brother. It was a night of “what ifs” for the Mike Olson Dodge/Simmonson
Automotive Dodge team. They posted the seventh-best time in
qualifying which meant a start on the outside of the front row
with the eight-car invert. NASCAR officials, though, impounded
the vehicles after qualifying meaning that only certain work
could be done on the car and only done in the presence of an
official. It was determined that a member of the crew performed
some illegal work on the car and NASCAR officials ruled that the
#97 Dodge would have to start the race from the back of the
field due to the violation of impound procedures. Moving from
the very back of the field to a finish of fourth had to have
been a bitter-sweet situation for the Jason Jefferson team. The
start on the front row could well have put them in position to
win their fourth race of the campaign.
Auburn, Washington’s Joe Benedetti rolled across the finish line
in fifth for his third straight top-10 finish. Setting off this
streak for Team Benedetti was a disappointing finish in 18th on
July 3 at Wenatchee (Wash.) Valley’s Super Oval after the Bret
Chevrolet/RaceCals Chevy sustained major damage.
John Bender, Travis Bennett, Bryan Wiener, Garrett Evans and
Jeff Bailey rounded out the top 10.
In addition to winning the race and the Bud Pole Award, Jeff
Jefferson also won his first POWERade “Power Move of the Race”
Award of the season. This award is given to the driver who
improves his position the most over the course of the race.
Jefferson improved seven places from eighth to first to claim
the prize.
The Featherlite “Most Improved Driver” Award went to Lewis. This
award is presented to the driver who improves his position the
most from the previous event. Lewis placed 12th at the Rumble in
the Rockies in Kalispell, Mont. on August 7 before posting his
finish of third in this race thus improving nine positions.
Just three races remain on the schedule remain before the
Northwest Series crowns a 2004 champion and determines its top
10 drivers, who will advance to the NASCAR Toyota All-Star
Showdown to be held at Irwindale (Calif.) Speedway in November,
a special event pitting the top 10 drivers from each of the four
NASCAR Elite Divisions against each other. Therefore, contending
teams must try and balance their desire to win races and their
need to collect points.
Evans came into the contest with a 57-point lead on Bennett. The
Evans crew maintains that they are still working to win races
and not merely play it safe racing for points. They feel the
need to win at least one more race before Evans can put a lock
on his fifth series championship. After a ninth-place finish in
this race, Evans saw his lead shrink to 48 points, lending some
credence to their argument.
However, Bennett is no longer the second-ranked car. Jason
Jefferson snuck past the rookie Bennett into second place by a
single point with his run from the back to fourth while Bennett
battled his car all night before placing seventh. Jeff Jefferson
moved into fourth while Lewis slid into fifth.
The main competition for Evans in the championship hunt will
come from Bennett and the two Jeffersons who are all within
striking distance. Last season’s champ Jeff Jefferson, who is 83
points behind Evans, says, “We are going to keep digging to try
and win this thing until someone tells us to stop.” Evans and
Jeff Jefferson once again want to enjoy the sweet taste of
victory while Bennett and Jason Jefferson are in search of their
first taste.
The other points race is for that 10th and final invitation to
the Showdown. Just 130 points separate the six drivers ranked
from eighth to 14th. Currently, the three on the outside looking
in are John Bender, Jeff Bailey and Tom Sweatman, respectively.
Bender is only 45 points off the pace of Steven Howard who
currently holds the slot for that final invitation.
The Northwest Series returns on September 4 for the Ranch & Home
125 at TriCity Raceway in West Richland, Wash
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