The ASA-Go Fast-Speed Truck Challenge Series will be making its second appearance of the season at the Irwindale Speedway this Saturday night.The fastest half mile track in the west is expected to play a huge role in a very tight points battle that will likely go down to the final lap of the final race.
Going into Saturday night there are only two points separating the first two drivers. Making things even more interesting is the fact that there are only 67 points between first and fifth in the standings. With only three races left in the current season the excitment is mounting. This is expected to become one of the most dramatic championship runs in the series' 11 year history.
Going into the Irwindale Speedway race Darren Young, driver of the #18 United Nissan-Sudden Impact-Quaker State Chevrolet, is leading the standings with 567 points. Young's 2007 season literally caught fire during the month of May when he scored his first win of the year on a road course at the Firebird International Raceway. He followed that up with consecutive wins at the California Speedway, also a road course event, and a third win on the oval at Tucson Raceway Park. Young's fourth win of the season came at the Irwindale Speedway last July where he won the race flag to flag. Although he calls Gilbert-Arizona home he will be the first to tell you that he considers the Irwindale Speedway as his home track. That's very easy to understand. The two time, and current, series champion has enjoyed a lot of success at this track and will be primed and ready when his United Racing team arrives at Irwindale this Saturday night.
Young needs to be primed and ready for Irwindale because he's only leading the standings by two points over rookie sensation Victor Pfluger. The driver of the #80 Parker Farms-Copperstate Tire-LaHorgue Race Cars-Road Warrior Transport Dodge has been a model of consistency this year and led the series' points standings all season long until Young managed to take the lead away following the August 8th event in Las Vegas. The 16 year old Morristown-Arizona native has two wins this year, at Tucson Raceway Park and the Orange Show Speedway, as well as eight top five finishes and nine top tens. You can fully expect that Pfluger Racing will also be primed and ready when they arrived at the Irwindale Speedway.
Holding down third in the ASA-Go Fast-Speed Truck point rankings is 15 year old Bear Rzesnowiecky driver of the #3 United Nissan-Sudden Impact-Quaker State Chevrolet. The Las Vegas driver is another one of the extraordinarily talented rookies in this series and got his first win this year at the Havasu 95 Speedway early in the season. Along with that win he has six top fives and three top ten finishes and goes into Saturday night's race with 510 points. Rzesnowiecy will also have to be razor sharp at the Irwindale Speedway because drivers Randel King, fourth in the points at 509, and Andy Allen, fifth in the standings at 500, are right behind him and will be looking to become major players in the championship picture.
A native of Riverside-California, Randel King is another one of those young rookie drivers who has helped make the series so exciting this year. The driver of the #35 Randel King Racing Chevrolet got his first series win, at the Orange Show Speedway, and has collected six top five finishes and seven top tens. That season long consistency has enabled him to become a major factor in the ASA Speed Truck championship picture.
The same can be said for Garden Grove-California's Andy Allen. The driver of the #22 RJ Allen Inc-Walker Brothers Moving Chevrolet has been really coming on strong during the second half of the 2007 season and deserves the attention he's been receiving. Allen scored his first win this year in Las Vegas where he won the race flag to flag. He also managed to fend off a strong challenge from two time NASCAR Busch Series champion Randy LaJoie who was a special guest driver that night. The win combined with six top five finishes and seven top tens has also made Allen a contender in the series' championship picture.
Still another huge aspect to the race at Irwindale will be qualifying. The ASA-Go Fast-Speed Truck Challenge Series has a unique policy of awarding five bonus points to the driver who sets the fast time. With a championship race this close five bonus points could loom large at the end of the season. Victor Pfluger would know about this because he's collected the bonus five times this year.
Still another aspect to Saturday night's race is the configuaration of the Irwindale Speedway. The half mile oval has multi racing lines and high banking. Nearly all of the Speed Truck drivers say they love to race there because of the high speeds they can obtain combined with the track's passing abilities.
For more information about the ASA-Go Fast-Speed Truck Challenge Series race at the Irwindale Speedway dial up www.speedtruck.com
