Hot Streak Continues - Elliott Claims Points Lead

 

After last weekend's night of non-stop work on the drive train of the #37 Pennzoil Impala, the David Elliott race team hoped for a quieter night on June 25th.

 

The car was quick right off the trailer, with David's only complaint being a slight vibration that still lingered. The remaining vibration was diagnosed as a rotor issue and was quickly fixed before the heat race.

 

      

 

Lined up on the outside of row 3 for the race, David knew he wanted to get into the lower lane as soon as possible. With the cars in the fast heat being so equally matched, the opportunity to get to the bottom didn't open up. David ran more than half the race, wheel-to-wheel with the #82 of Jason Shaw before finally finding an opening on the bottom lane behind Shaw. Although he finished 6th in the heat, David still moved into sole possession of the points lead with Shawn Chenoweth's 7th place finish.

 

            

 

The team made minor changes to the car in preparation for the feature race. David started in the 10th position, however the outside lane got a great jump at the start and the #37 Pennzoil Impala was running in 5th by lap 3.

 

David had climbed to 4th when a caution flew. Shawn Chenoweth had made contact with the #44 of Steve Laking, causing the #44 to spin. Chenoweth was sent to the back of the pack and David knew that he just needed to have a clean run to the finish and he would have a nice lead in the point standings.

 

David made it past the #05 of Brad Corcoran for third place, then when the two leaders, the #56 of Jeff Stewart and #8 of Paul Howse made contact, David flew by the out of shape #8 into second. For the remainder of the race, David was all over Stewart's back bumper.

 

Despite the urge to payback Stewart for nearly spinning out the #37 in the first Grisdale race, David ran the #56 clean for the remainder of the race...not wanting to ruin a fantastic points night.

 

"Tonight was awesome, we are really on a roll," said an ecstatic David after the race. "I've never had a string of great finishes like this in a Late Model before...it reminds me of my days in a Vintage Modified."

 

Over the past four feature races, David has one win and three runner-up finishes.

 

UPDATE

 

David and his entire team will be dedicating the rest of the season to Eileen Askin, wife of crew chief Eddie and mother of crew members Jon and Will. and mother of Becca. Eileen passed away peacefully on June 26th after a hard-fought battle with cancer. Eileen, you will be missed.