Gary Lewis reminded everybody why he has a Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series, NASCAR Touring, championship under his belt. Lewis dominated most of the Ranch & Home 125 at Tri-City Raceway. Series points leader Tom Sweatman extended his narrow points lead, finishing second. Hot on his heals was Chris Hart. Pete Harding moved from his 20th starting position to finish fourth. The effort was not enough as he dropped another 10 points behind Sweatman. Sweatman will carry a razor thin margin of 14 points into the series' final race at Magic Valley Speedway on Sept. 18. Kevin Quesnell rounded out the top-five.
Rick Allison, starting from the outside of the first row, jumped to the lead at the start. Allison pulled away from the field in the early going. The field was bunched back up when John Dillon's Chevrolet dropped a valve and coasted to a stop at pit entrance on lap 18. When the green flag came out again, Lewis started to make his move, first passing pole sitter Joe Constance on lap 27. Lewis then began applying pressure on Allison. On lap 39, Lewis took the lead. The lead was short-lived as the ignition went out on Lewis' Pontiac. Allison held the point on lap 42 while Lewis switched ignition boxes. Lewis roared backed into the lead on lap 43 and never was seriously challenged for the remainder of the race.
The battle for second was taking place behind Lewis among the three series championship contenders, Sweatman, Harding, and Hart. Hart was in second place on lap 70 when his Chevrolet made contact with the lapped car of Zach Niessner in turn one. Hart spun, bringing out a caution. Hart worked his way back through the field quickly. By lap 87, he had made his way into fourth place, behind Sweatman and Harding. The three cars ran nose to tail until lap 123 when Harding and Hart got together coming off turn four. That provided a small opening for Hart to claim third place.
"The Sign Factory Pontiac was awesome right off the trailer today," said a victorious Lewis. "We got off to a rough start there at the beginning of the race and bumped a couple people, No hard feelings there. We just had an awesome car all day."
"It was a heck of a race," said runner-up and series points leader Sweatman. "We were just trying to be conservative and save it for the end. I was a little tight tonight and nursed it along trying to save the tires for the end. Gary did really good job, he had a little better car all night. I knew he was better, so I figured I would save the tires and get what I could get."
Ken Kaltschmidt, Kenny Rich, Shane Biles, Chris Cunningham, and Tom Pinkowsky rounded out the top-ten. The race was slowed by three cautions for 12 laps. The race distance was covered at an average speed of 74.282 mph. Lewis picked up the Gatorade Front Runner Award and the Bud Pole Award. Kaltschmidt was the Totem Travel Rookie of the Race for the second week in a row.
The Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series travels next to Magic Valley Speedway in Twin Falls, Idaho, for the NAPA Auto Parts 150, on Saturday, September 18.
NOTES OF INTEREST:
Gary Lewis is the 12th different Bud Pole winner on the Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series. This establishes a new series record. The old record of 11 was set in 1995.
Joe Benedetti took a step closer to the Totem Travel Rookie of the Year award. Wes Rhodes was involved in a multi-car wreck on a restart when some cars did not come up to speed. Benedetti will carry a three-point margin over Rhodes going into the season's final race. Ken Kaltschmidt, the hottest rookie driver over the past four races, is five points back.
Pontiac nudged into the Manufacturers' Championship lead with the win. Pontiac leads Chevrolet 101 to 100.
