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RAIN CREATES UNUSUAL, SHORT RACE FOR WHITT |
Friday, January 30, 2009 – An unusual set of circumstances cut Cole Whitt's, as well as the entire 52 car field, night short at the Toyota All-Star Showdown. The plan was for Whitt to run in the Rip Michels #93 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Super Late Model. However, after three days of rain there was no time to qualify the cars, so the top-twenty Toyota Speedway Super Late Model drivers from last year were given the top 20 positions in order of their 2008 points. After this, the next 20 starting positions would be by a draw.
That left Champions Rip Michels and Ron Hornaday out when they drew numbers outside the top-forty. Based on this draw format, Cole was to start 38th.. However, at this point, again on the fly, NASCAR decided to start all 52 cars. At this point the situation was a mix of 52 very fast cars and semi-slow cars not based on speed for position.
It was to have been a 150-lap race shown live on SPEED during a prime time, it turned out to be a 15 lap crash fest that went green at 11:45pm. With some of the fastest cars in the very back of the field and with word that the race was to be shortened to 50-laps or 'til 12:15am (whichever occurs first) this added pressure to go fast for the drivers. Cole was unfortunately a victim of a 20 car pileup on the first lap. In the end there were only 3 green flag laps before the checker flag was thrown on lap 15.
"What a heartbreak," explained Cole. "We had a great car and posted consistent times right there with the top 5 cars in our practice on Thursday, I was really looking forward to racing, the car felt great. There were just too many cars trying to get to the front to fast, and we had no where to go. I feel bad for the fans, the crews the car owners and sponsors". Information on Cole please refer to:
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