Full Throttle

The NCTS event in Kansas, the traditional holiday weekend stop at Daytona for NASCAR’s Cup Series and the ARCA stop also in Kansas produced more surprises than peeking under the skirt of RuPaul.

In Kansas Terry Cook used a little pit strategy hocus-pocus to win the O’Reilly Auto Parts 250. With 40 laps to go Cook stayed out while most of the leaders chose to take fuel and tires. That advantage created a lead of four seconds over Rick Crawford, who finished second.

It was Cook’s first victory in 94 events dating to August 2002 when he won the Power Stroke Diesel 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Points leader Todd Bodine scrambled to a seventh-place finish from the rear of the field after not being allowed to qualify because his truck failed inspection.

Australian rookie Marcos “The Tasmanian Devil” Ambrose provided the second surprise of the night by posting his best ever finish in third. Brendan Gaughan was fourth and pole winner Mike Skinner fifth.

In what has now unfortunately become an annual affair Kelly Sutton reprised her Kansas crash and rollover in ‘05 with a second episode. Her Sutton Motorsports Silverado smacked the wall on lap 104, rolled thru the grass starting a grass fire that caused a 9 1/2 minute red flag.

She was awake and alert after being examined at the infield care center and was to be kept in the hospital overnight for observation.

More on the ARCA and Cup events in later editions.

NCTS, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, NASCAR, Kansas Speedway, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle