RINGER'S WRAPUP

Source: Ringers Gloves Public Relations
Date: 09/26/2006

MOORPARK, California -- This week’s minute has to start off with huge congratulations to Richie Stevens Jr. on his win at the O’Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex on Sunday!

The announcement of Richie’s team being operated by the Johnson & Johnson Racing team, but still owned by Don Schumacher, was made at Indianapolis and was supposed to take affect at Reading (which was rain-postponed until this weekend), so technically the Dallas race was Richie’s first outing with his “new” team and he made it a great one!

Richie, now running his Mopar Dodge Stratus with Roy Johnson (Allen’s father)-built power, simply outran his competitor Mike Edwards down the race track. Richie picked up his first Pro Stock win in a little more than five years 6.693/204.60 mph to Edwards’ 6.718/206.39 mph run. Again, a nice job to Richie, A.J., Roy, Mark and everyone at J&J Racing!

Richie wasn’t the only Ringers supporting racer in Winner’s Circle on Sunday. Brandon Bernstein, affectionately known as the “Bud Prince,” picked up his fourth win on the season with his defeat over a tire-smoking Rod Fuller.

Brandon left Dallas only 40 points behind current Top Fuel point leader Doug Kalitta. Sorry I missed both your wins!

I missed both Brandon and Richie’s wins due to my weekend off given by my awesome boss. So where did I end up when I didn’t have to be working at a race track? The race track, of course! But, I was at the one and only Eldora Speedway for the Mopar Thunder 4-Crown Nationals.

I wish I could say I had a dry weekend, but that would be a lie. Friday night’s events were halted during sprint car qualifications and were eventually cancelled for the night, forcing both the Friday night program and the Saturday program to both be run on Saturday.

Saturday wasn’t exactly a dry race day either. Intermittent showers and sometimes torrential downpours held off during the day, but graced us with their unwelcome presence at many different times throughout the night. I threw in the towel and left the track at 4:30 a.m., but the night’s, well now morning’s, racing didn’t wrap up until 6:54 a.m. While no Ringers racers landed in Victory Lane, Ringers supporter Bud Kaeding is in one heck of a point’s battle for the Silver Crown point’s championship with Brian Tyler.

Bud used his seventh-place finish on early Sunday morning and Tyler’s unfortunate luck to his advantage as he leads Tyler by 24 points heading into the last Silver Crown race of the season at Kansas Speedway this weekend.

All three NASCAR divisions were in action this weekend; Busch and Cup at Dover International Speedway at the Trucks at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The NASCAR Busch Series raced the Dover 200 on Saturday afternoon at the “Monster Mile.”

Jason Leffler led the Ringers supporting racers to the line with a fifth-place finish. Todd Kluever, donning his DriverX by Ringers racing gloves, rallied from a 31st starting position to finish 13th, the highest finishing rookie in the race.

That same day and on the other side of the country, the Craftsman Truck Series took to the 1.5 mile tri-oval of Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Smith’s Las Vegas 250. Brendan Gaughan, a Vegas native, was hoping to bring home a win for this No. 77 South Point Resort/Orleans Racing team at his home track, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. Gaughan’s truck was tight in turns three and four, but was fine in one and two and their pit strategy they had planned didn’t work out to their advantage, but he managed to salvage a 15th-place finish.

Since Kyle Busch was in Dover doing double-duty, the Billy Ballew Motorsports No. 15 team wasn’t able to utilize his services in Las Vegas and relied on former Nextel Cup driver Jeremy Mayfield to pilot the Chevrolet. Mayfield qualified 22nd and only finished one spot behind at the drop of the checkers in 23rd.

Penske Racing South driver Ryan Newman qualified fourth for the Nextel Cup race on Sunday, but due to Scott Riggs’ engine change prior to the start, Newman was bumped up one row to start on the outside front row. At the drop of the green, Newman took the lead and led for 29 laps. That good run didn’t continue, in fact his run worsened throughout the race. Newman started fighting an ill-handling No. 12 Alltel Dodge and with only two laps to go ran out of fuel, picking up a 24th-place finish.

However, his Penske Racing teammate Kurt Busch had a great run on Sunday. Busch qualified his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge 10th for the Dover 400 and picked up his first top-10 finish in seven races, with a fourth-place finish.

Now, onto some off-road racing…Taylor Racing, based in Belvidere, Ill., headed into the Lucas Oil PRO-2 race at Chula Vista (Calif.) this weekend sixth in points, with only six races to go. Well, on both Saturday (Round 13) and Sunday (Round 14) driver Scott Taylor and his Skyjacker F-150 was able to pick up not one, but two wins. His back-to-back wins, which this is the second time he has done this this year, the other being at Crandon (Wis.), now put him in a tie for second place in the PRO-2 championship points and only one point out of the lead.

That’s my minute for this week! Tonight I am off to Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Ind., for the National Sprint Tour race. This is one of the last four races left for the NST in their inaugural season, before wrapping up in a couple weeks at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif.

About Ringers Gloves

Ringers Gloves, Official Gloves of NHRA and title sponsor for the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle, is a full-line manufacturer of high-end, task specific gloves, SFI 3.3/1, 3.3/10, 3.3/20 racing gloves, UnderX protective undergarments and rdigs pit boots.

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