Upon finishing third in his heat after starting sixth, he was slotted ninth on the grid for the feature. While Dave Just bolted to the front, the rest of the field vied for positions, with Mat on the move early. On lap five, with Mat already up to fifth, he just managed to avoid a massive pile-up precipitated when a pack of fast cars descended on the slow running No. 12J. When the smoke cleared, Mat, thankfully, had only some bent sheet metal, while Todd Burley and Robbie Krull went off on the hook.
When the race resumed, Danny Johnson, who started fifth due to a DNF the previous week, took second by lap 7 and took the lead on lap 12, while Mat was on a run of his own, taking third, by lap nine and then working around Just into second on lap 18. He was joined there by Chad Brachmann, who had powered up from eighteenth to challenge.
While Johnson drove away at the front, Chad engaged Mat for second. He explained, “I saw Chad under me a couple times, and I knew we were coming up on some lap cars, so I kind of made the car wide. I knew if I didn’t protect the bottom he’d get me down there going into three and sliding out of four, so I got up on the lap cars and just rode along beside them, because I knew there was no going around me, just under me. It was good.”
Mat used the lap cars to keep Brachmann at bay over the final laps and was satisfied with the result. “It was great to come back after last weekend,” Mat declared.
Mat had some moments with Johnson on the lap five restart, but the master prevailed. Mat observed, “I was running fifth at the time and Danny was third. I knew I had a good row. We both tried to go under the 8 car at the same time. I got under him and tried to move him out of the way. He’s too smart to play those games and didn’t move. That was the problem. He was faster than I was, but I think I could have held him off.”
He concluded, “It’s an honor to race with Danny. I love racing with him, because I learn something every time.”
No comments:
Post a Comment