Ken (#89), Ron (#130), and Jerry (#552) followed, with my semi-prepped car as the bright orange caboose (#27). I hoped that Ken, Ron, and Jerry were close enough that they'd have a three-way battle, which would allow me to hang around. You can't always see the green flag when you start a couple rows back, so I stuck a car length behind the row in front of me and listened for the revs to peak.

The opening lap started as I expected. Rick, Greg and Jim with a bit of a gap and me watching the Ken, Ron, Jerry battle. However, Jim got inside of Greg on turn 8 and Greg gave him a bit too much room. This resulted in a blinding cloud of dust before turn 9. The pack in front of me braved it and I went on a line behind them, with the theory that if there's a billow of dust in front of you, the car that made it has spun off somewhere else. I saw Greg's Dinoco car re-enter the track in my mirrors, down some time and pride, but still in the race.

It took one more lap and I saw Greg bearing down on me. I stayed wide into 2 and let him through so he could try and salvage some positions. By this time my temp. gauge had started to climb and I was a little wary. It hadn't been a problem in qualifying or the practice, so I let a little gap form between me and the mid-packers. By lap four my gas gauge had gone off and with lapping traffic on me I didn't want to risk stopping on track so I just pulled off on lap five, with the lesson soundly learned.

Rick strolled to a win with his nearest competitors taking themselves out. Greg salvaged second with a convincing run through the field. Jim lost second with an off of his own, costing him around 20 seconds. Jerry managed to stay just in front of Ron who hounded him the whole way, in what Jerry described a "f-ing good race. Nice and close the whole time." Ken pulled something getting used to the new Head and Neck restraints so he backed off.