IRWINDALE, California — When Rip Michels and his IDevaffiliate racing team unloaded their car on Thursday morning, they had one goal, as did the rest of the 44 cars that unloaded that day. The goal was to win the 2010 NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown, deemed the “Daytona 500” of short track racing.
For Rip, the Showdown had become the race he just could not win. He had won 4 championships, and was the all time win leader at Toyota Speedway with 60 career wins in 6 years of full time competition. But the Showdown was always the one that got away.
This would be Rip’s 6th attempt to win this prestigious race. He had the dominate car in 2004, only to finish 2nd. In 2005, he was running 2nd when contact was made, sending Rip to the end of the field in 31st, he was able to battle his way back up to 6th. 2006 resulted in a DNF due to mechanical problem. In 2007, Rip would again finish 2nd after leading ¾ of the way. In 2009, the race was shortened due to rain. In 15 laps Rip went from 46th to 31st. The race seemed impossible to win.
“I kind of felt like I would never win this race,” said Rip. “Now I know how Waltrip and Earnhardt felt when they seemed to not be able to win the Daytona 500.”
The chance to compete in the 2010 Showdown was not looking good until Jim Webster of IDevaffiliate put the final pieces together for the team to compete. With this opportunity, Rip and the team once again focused on trying to get this big win.
“2009 was a struggle for us, performance wise, “states Rip. “I really struggle with trying to balance taking care of customer’s cars, and then working on my own stuff. In the past I had five to six guys that were at the shop every Wednesday, now that number was down to two. I was trying to do everything, from suspension, to doing my own shocks. I fell behind and well, our performance suffered.”
“So I decided to ask for help from my good friend Mike Naake. I would concentrate on the car, and Mike would provide me with the shocks. When we went through the car with a fine tooth comb, we found several reasons why we were not as competitive as in past years. So, with this being the only race I may run all year, I wanted to make sure I gave us the best opportunity to win this race.”
When the guys practiced the car on Thursday night, they knew they had a winning piece. “The car was so much better than it had been all year,” stated Crew Chief, Roger Theoabald. “We were running almost two tenths faster than we had run all last year, more importantly; the car was able to run consistently.”
On Friday, the team worked on long distance runs. Satisfied with the car, the guys got ready for qualifying. Rip would qualify in the number one spot with a lap time of 17.861. “We were very satisfied with the car,” said Team Manager, Michael Medlin. “We felt very confident that we had an excellent car for the race.”
At the drop of the green flag, Rip took command of the race. The race was filled with cautions and red flags, as several incidents plagued the race, but in the end, it came down to a green white checkered flag race between Rip and his good friend, and Nextel cup star, David Gilliland. Rip was able to hold off David to finally capture the biggest race of his career.
“The race was really horrible,” said Rip. “We could not get into a good rhythm all night. I think we had a total of maybe 5 consecutive green flag laps, which concerned us because we had really set the car up for long green flag laps. But in the end, we were able to come out on top. Beating David only made it sweeter, as it was a victory for all short track racers, who dream of being in Cup, but were never be able to get there. Winning against a cup star means we beat one of the best.”
“This win means a lot to me, and there are so many people I need to thank. Guys like Jimmy Webster of IDevaffilite for making this dream happen for me. I also want to thank Ron Nava, for all his help in getting us the funding we needed to compete for this win. He is in the process of putting together the documentary of this weekend’s race, you can see the unedited version at http://www.rpmtvonline.com/” states Rip.
The team would like to thank the following associate sponsors for their help:
Ron’s Rear Ends, Victory Circle, Total Power Batteries, Orme Brothers, Aurora Rod Ends, Quarter Master, Schroeder Torsion Bars, Ringers Gloves, Circle Racing Wheels, BC Sportsimages, Apache Studio Rentals. Merengue Bakery & Café, Hot Rod Hobbies, UPgrade Decals, and Works of Art Johnson.
