Near Win at Humberstone and a Win at Merrittville Keeps Team Geared Up

By DAVE SULLY - On Tuesday, July 1st, the team made the short tow to Humberstone for the track's first DIRTcar 358 Series race, a hundred lapper, and when the night was over, Mat came up one spot short of scoring his first ever Series win, and it took a bizarre sequence of events to deprive him of a race he should have won. Starting eighth in the 23 car field, Mat moved steadily forward while Mike Bowman and Todd Gordon were duking it out at the front, claiming second on lap 19 and then taking over the top spot on a lap 22 restart when Gordon chose the outside.

From there, Mat jumped out to a healthy lead, which he held until late in the race. Erick Rudolph moved into contention, by taking second from Gordon on lap 50 and then tried to reel Mat in. Things came to a head when Mat entered lap traffic and Rudolph was able to slice into the lead dramatically. When he showed Mat his nose on lap 88, Mat made a banzai move between two lap cars, which had the crowd buzzing, to put some distance between himself and Rudolph.

It soon became apparent that Rudolph would need a caution to have any chance to win, and he got it on lap 91. Here's the rub. He caused it, when he struck a marker barrel in turn four and the barrel bounced out onto the race track. Ordinarily the person causing the caution has to go tail, but since there was no wreck and Rudolph never stopped, he wasn't penalized, so he restarted second. On top of that, the two lap cars that Mat took great risk in passing were moved to the rear, by DIRTcar rules, so he restarted on Mat's bumper.

When the race restarted Mat was bent on protecting the bottom and on lap 96 Rudolph was able to drive around the outside to take the lead and the win. Mat told the crowd at the post races interviews of the top three finishers that he may have been a little too good too early, and he sealed a tire over on the last caution and that gave Rudolph the opportunity to make the pass on the outside. Rudolph referred to the timely yellow that gave him the opportunity to win and denied that he hit the marker on purpose to bring out that “timely yellow.” Only Erick knows for sure.

Though it was disappointing, Mat gave Rudolph credit for the win, while celebrating the fact that the car was very great.

With Humberstone behind him, Mat set his sights on Merrittville on Saturday. Starting twelfth in the feature, he clawed his way forward in the uncharacteristically rugged Modified race, which saw eleven cautions punctuate the event. He was able to avoid being collected and found himself in the runnerup spot by the time a caution flew on lap 13, after a prolonged battle with Scott Wood, which produced some contact.

Mat battled Bicknell for close to ten laps before finally getting around him for the lead on lap 23. From there, the car, which was every bit as good as it was at Humberstone, carried Mat to close to a straightaway lead, which was erased by a final caution on lap 33. From there, Mat was able to keep his now somewhat bent up race car ahead of Bicknell to claim his second win of the year at Merrittville. Couple that with Chad Brachmann's third place finish and Mat, who trailed Brachmann by two points going into the event, now is back on top by six markers.

Mat mentioned that the pursuit of the Merrittville title is now center stage, as two ailing big block motors have changed the main focus to the 358 program.

The team knows there is a long way to go, so they will concentrate on scoring as many wins and top five finishes as they can to keep the title in reach until the end of the season.