Last week during CARS Tour competition at Dominion Raceway, Dustin Storm had a short day;
he was a casualty on the lap one pile up on the front stretch. This week, however, Storm
returned to NASCAR Weekly Series racing at DR and had a great day.
Storm and the rest of the Late Models assembled for Superhero Night at the Races and he
clearly played the hero scoring a win and a second place finish. It was a big night for the driver
of the #28 OWL Metals machine who entered the evening 8 points behind Landon Pembelton
for the season’s track championship.
Pembelton qualified 1st receiving the Breg Environmental Pole Award for the first Late Model race, but he was shuffled to fifth after the invert. Davey Callihan started the race and pulled away from the field who were jockeying for position behind him. Storm settled into second after starting third and Pembelton rapidly gained two spots. Five laps in, Aaron Donnelly threw it in deep to take third from Pembelton.
While action happened behind him, Callihan led Storm until lap 17, when he got loose in Turn 2
and bobbled. Storm seized the opportunity and became the new leader. Callihan’s misfortune
would continue as Donnelly and Pembelton would also pass the Papa Johns #41. The laps
would tick by for Storm and he would close out the first of Twin 50 lap shows by earning his
second checkered flag of the season.
“I couldn’t be more grateful. This car was on a rail,” said Storm from Victory Lane. “Last week
not even making a lap was frustrating, but this is what you work hard for.”
While work this week to fix the previous chassis was happening for the #28 team, luckily the car involved in last week’s wreck was not the one on track this past Saturday. Instead they brought the car from their previous win on April 6. Choosing to save their best late model for Superhero Night was all part of the master plan.
“This is our best car,” said Storm. “We gotta keep our pride and beauty safe in the middle of this
points battle.”
Later in the night, Callihan would start the race as the leader after the invert shuffle. Storm would start in sixth and have to display some patience despite the quick 50 lap sprint. Donnelly would pass Trenton Kilgore for second, and Pembelton would follow too.
On lap 11, Chandler Sherman would make contact trying to pass Kilgore as well, and Storm
would pass them both. The race would stay green, but the night would end for Sherman who
slowed up before coming to the pits due to the contact. Six laps after that Donnelly would pass
Callihan for the lead and Pembelton would pass as well.
WIth 27 to go, Pembelton would make a deep dive on the leader and his right front fender would rub Donnelly’s late model right on the number; this got Donnelly out of the groove, and
Pembelton would take over the lead. Storm passed Callihan to move into third before pressuring Donnelly at the halfway point. The #31 and the #28 would be side by side for a lap before Storm would get by in a drag race on the back stretch.
Storm had remained patient and navigated the field, but with only one car left to chase, he
began putting down qualifying laps. For about 10 laps he would knock a tenth off of Pembelton’s lead, and it looked like there was a chance for a late race battle between the two championship leaders, but Storm ran out of time. Pembelton got number three of the season in the evening’s finale.
In Bugsy’s Auto Repair Victory Lane, Pembelton alluded to how fun it was to hold off a hard
charging Storm and how the night proved to be a great chapter in the story of this season’s
championship battle.
“We were giving it all we had,” said Pembelton. “ This is gonna be a fun year racing with Dustin.”
“Really the car couldn’t have been a whole lot better tonight,” said Storm “You know it’s rare to
get a perfect race car, but this one was close. It came in real nice and we were able to pick them
off one by one. We needed about five more laps and we could have made it more interesting.”
Pembelton and Storm sit atop the standings mostly due to their consistency all season long.
Both drivers have only had one NASCAR points race outside the top-3, and while Pembelton
also got a win and two more top-3’s, he will lose ground, albeit a small amount, to Storm. Big
points swings haven’t been at a premium with such consistency amongst competitors, but Storm mentions capitalizing on nights like this is all part of the bigger picture.
“We are in a tight points battle, and we are trying to get that thing,” said Storm. “You have to
choose your battles wisely and not get caught up in anything, because one bad race can cost
you. I was thinking about that a lot tonight when we were making our way up through [the field].”
Points drama and patience were also on display in the 35 lap race for the Truckin Thunder
Virginia Racer Division. Dan Rogers entered two points behind leader Chase Johnson and Mike
Ganoe was only four points behind Rogers.
Rogers would take the green flag as the leader with Conner Weddell beside him on row one.
Johnson and Ganoe would start on row two, while JD Eversole would start fifth after qualifying
on the pole with a lap time of 16.375. On the first lap, Johnson would make contact with Weddell who was hung up on the outside. Eversole would also benefit from the inside lane getting around Ganoe and Weddell quickly. He picked off Johnson quickly after the #57’s contact with the #8. On Lap 5 Eversole caught Rogers and would pressure him for a lap before he got the inside position and passed cleanly.
On Lap 7 Weddell passed Ganoe for fourth place. The #8 would fight Johnson with five to go
and complete the pass with three to go. The loss of position would be notable for Johnson, while a fourth place finish is still a good day, Rogers finishing in second behind Eversole should put him ahead of the young gun in the standings. While Johnson has the most wins with two in the division, Rogers has been a model of consistency. He has not broken through to victory lane, but he only has one finish outside the top-3, which was June 8 when his #33 went up in flames. For Eversole, the win was his first of the year.
“I was a little worried when we got the pole, because I hoped it would race good so we could get
this car back to what it used to be the year before last,” said Eversole. “It ran pretty good
tonight.”
In other racing action the Dominion Stocks ran Twin 25 lap events. Brian Maxey started the
night with a victory in race one despite a broken suspension component, while Todd Ruggles won race two after making the pass on Tommy Smith and then fending off the late race challenge by Tommy on the outside during a Midas Race restart.
“Late in the race when the crew chief said ‘the old dogs got something left in it’ I wasn't sure
whether he was talking about the car or the driver,” said Ruggles.
Keith Riley won the 25 lap Mini Stock race after chasing down the #43 of Kevin Davis.
The Southern Ground Pounders made their return to Dominion for 25 laps and Mack Tatum won in the modified class driving a ‘74 Vega while Josh Roberts won in the Sportsman class in a ‘67 Chevelle after a few uncharacteristic cautions would wave during the feature.
“This was on my bucket list,” said Tatum, in Victory Lane. “My dad won a lot of races at Old
Dominion. It is great to steal a win at a place called Dominion.”
Next Saturday June 29 kicks off the second half of the racing season with Prince William County Public Schools: You Belong Here Night at the Races. The VA Racers, VA Modifieds, and the Any Cars will be on track at the High-Banked Ring of Fire. https://drevents.ticketstobuy.com/event/208
