Ryan Moore continues to improve

1 ANSWERS

1. amomipais82
   

   Hi There,
   Ryan Moore entered the ranks of NASCAR Grand National Division, Busch North Series race winners when he ran the table at Lake Erie Speedway for the running of the Local Dodge Dealers 150 Presented By Burnham Hydronics. He won the pole, led every lap, and scored his first career win in the third race of his third year of racing in the series driving his No. 74 R.C. Moore Transportation/Bill Dodge Auto Group Chevrolet.
   
   With twenty-four cars in the garage area, the early talk centered on who wasn't there rather than who was. Missing was Dale Quarterley, skipping his first race since the 1998 season as he elected to stay home and finish preparing to defend his New Hampshire International Speedway win the next weekend. On the entry list but not in attendance were Marc Rogers and Anthony Demonte, while a new face was in a familiar car. Troy Williams' No. 21 was now blue and covered with TelMex and Corona decals for Mexican driver Rogelio Lopez, a driver in Felix Sabates' driver development program. Sabates was in attendance to watch his young driver's Busch North debut.
   
   The single 90-minute practice session was broken into two segments for the purpose of recording fast times, though the session ran straight through with just minor delays for single-car spins, most notably by Mike Johnson who went around twice. Following that came qualifying, which was paced by Moore with a fast lap of 15.359 seconds (87.896 MPH), better than point leader Matt Kobyluck (15.382), Holland winner Mike Stefanik (15.464), Eddie MacDonald (15.464 too), and three-time series champion Andy Santerre (15.473).
   
   Following an on-track autograph session, the field was given the command to fire engines. As the field was making pace laps, the spotters were reminded about the race's yellow line rule: drivers were not allowed to improve position by putting any part of their cars beneath the yellow line in the turns. The penalty for violating this rule would be a stop-and-go pit stop.
   
   When green waved, Moore jumped out to the early lead, while Kobyluck instantly had his hands full with third-starting Stefanik. Santerre and MacDonald ran side-by-side behind them, though once Santerre cleared MacDonald he started working on Kobyluck, taking that spot four laps in. Kobyluck showed that the outside lane was not the place to be early, as he was also passed by Dave Dion and Mike Johnson in the opening laps.
   
   Mike Olsen spun in turn three of lap eight and was lightly tagged by Joey McCarthy to bring out the first caution of the race. Both drivers continued on the lead lap, though both suffered cosmetic body damage. McCarthy pitted while Olsen did not, and the field was quickly regrouped to go back racing with Moore leading Stefanik, Santerre, Dion, Johnson, Kobyluck, MacDonald, Brian h**r, Bryon Chew, and rookie Sean Caisse.
   
   The race resumed on lap 12 with a single-file restart, though the racing was halted shortly afterwards when Lopez spun high in turn two on lap 17. Chappy Knaack pitted for a chassis adjustment while all other drivers stayed on the track.
   
   At the lap 22 restart, Kobyluck found his Mohegan Sun Chevrolet immediately under attack from MacDonald, who jumped to the outside lane after taking the green. Kobyluck fought off that challenge and continued running sixth, while the action was at the middle of the pack where Olsen and McCarthy were coming back from their early incident. Olsen passed both Ryan Seaman and Kip Stockwell to move to run twelfth, while McCarthy had made his way back to sixteenth.
   
   Kobyluck was reporting that Johnson was leaking fluid as thirty laps were in the books, but officials did not corroborate that claim. Lapping began on lap 33 as Knaack was the first to be put a lap down by the leading Moore, while rookie Charles Lewandoski's Lewandoski Construction Chevrolet was sounding like its engine was starting to go sour.
   
   Rocky Moran, Jr.'s second Busch North race took a turn for the worse when he cut a right front tire and rode high in turn four, but he made his way down to the apron and onto pit road without bringing out a yellow. The outside lane was starting to work for some drivers, as Johnson and Kobyluck both passed Dion for position by going around the long way. MacDonald was turning away h**r's passing attempts for many laps until h**r finally doinked MacDonald and got him up out of the groove, a move that got h**r not only seventh position, but a warning from race director Dave Baker.
   
   While Olsen's run from the back had got him to tenth, McCarthy was up to thirteenth and sizing up Dale Shaw in twelfth. McCarthy got underneath Shaw and completed the pass, but Shaw switched lanes and got underneath McCarthy immediately afterwards. The two traded paint and the end result was McCarthy's TechAir Chevrolet being spun out in turn two and lapped before he could get going again. Caution came out and many cars came to pit road, including lead lap cars of MacDonald, Shaw, Seaman, and Stockwell. On the track, Moore continued to lead over Stefanik, Santerre, Johnson, Kobyluck, Dion, h**r, Olsen, Chew, and Caisse.
   
   It took an extra lap to get the restart order lined up, but when it was set it had Lopez, Jeff Anton, McCarthy, John Salemi, Knaack, and Rob Humphreys on the inside line. The top three cleared the lapped cars after taking the green, but another quick caution came out for Chew's turn three spin. This set up another restart with McCarthy now leading the inside lane, but again the top three cleared the lapped cars. McCarthy fell into line fourth, while Kobyluck and Johnson battled for fourth spot behind him. Up front, Moore had quickly built himself a six car-length lead.
   
   Santerre, running third, had been able to get within striking distance of second place Stefanik on restarts but fell back after a few laps were run. His evening was about to take a turn for the worse, though, as smoke was beginning to be seen coming from the right front wheel well. Moore had a nervous moment as he encountered two lapped cars - Knaack and Joe Masessa - running side-by-side. He almost made it three-wide by going between the two in turn four, but backed out until they hit the front straightaway and he split them to lap them both before getting to turn one.
   
   MacDonald's troubles continued as he got booted off the backstretch by Stockwell as the two were trying to pass Seaman on the outside. MacDonald eventually got going and did not bring out a caution, but he lost a lap in the process. Pit road got busy under green as Moran returned to the race after spending many laps making repairs, while Knaack's car was retired with engine problems. Humphreys also pitted after slapping the outside wall.
   
   Santerre's handling got continuously worse as he lost contact with Moore and Stefanik, and he almost lost control exiting turn two on lap 116. Two laps later, he did lose it and caution came out as he went a lap down. Santerre pitted with a cut right front tire, joined on pit road by Chew, Seaman, and Bouley. Under caution, Kobyluck was issued a warning about going under the yellow line. Straightening out the restart order, particularly lapped cars, cause the restart to be pushed to lap 126, though lapped cars were allowed to stay lined up on the inside row despite there being less than 25 laps left in the race. The confusion over which order the lapped cars restarted in resulted in Shaw, McCarthy, and Masessa ordered to restart at the tail of that line, and when McCarthy did not, he earned a black flag when the race went back to green.
   
   At this point there were only eight cars left on the lead lap: Moore, Stefanik, Kobyluck, Johnson, Dion, h**r, Olsen, and Caisse. They took the restart on lap 126 and all but Caisse cleared the lapped cars. A final caution came out on lap 133 when Moran spun in turn three, collecting Chew, and the lapped cars were quickly dispatched to behind the lead lap cars and on lap 136, the race went green for the last time.
   
   Moore drove away from Stefanik and earned his first Busch North Series victory with a margin of over two seconds. Stefanik backed up his Holland win with a second place, followed by Kobyluck who keeps the points lead. Johnson finished fourth, followed by Dion, h**r, Olsen, and Caisse as the last cars on the lead lap. As for who finished ninth through thirteenth, the scoresheet says Santerre in ninth with Stockwell tenth, but NASCAR's unofficial finish shows Santerre in thirteenth, with Stockwell ninth and Seaman tenth. We anxiously await NASCAR's official finish to find out who really finished where.

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