Fan Notes from the All Stars at Millstream Speedway

Max Stambaugh (Tom Myers) Aug. 28, 2016 - Tony Stewart's All Star Sprints visited Millstream Speedway for their second visit to the Findlay, Ohio facility this racing season. Dale Blaney won the first meeting here back in June, during the annual Ohio Sprint Speed Week event. In that race, Chad Kemenah finished second and Kyle Larson wound up third. Now it's late August and with the All Star season winding down, we find Chad and Dale locked in an epic points battle and not too far behind them is Sheldon Haudenschild. Chad, who finished an impressive 7th in this year's Knoxville Nationals A-main, came into this race with a slim, single digit lead over Dale with Sheldon 60 some points behind the top two. Needless to say, this is getting interesting. In the pits, you can feel the tension is a little higher now. Dale Blaney is normally very relaxed and smiling but underneath that, you can tell he is really wanting to win the 2016 championship. The same focus is noticeable with Chad Kemenah. He and his team are all business. Gosh, could this end up being decided on the final day of the season?  I love it!

Jared Horstman 31 cars signed in to do battle. Notable racers in attendance were Carson Macedo, Stuart Brubaker, who won the FAST race at Attica Friday evening, Joe Swanson, Dean Jacobs in the Ferris sponsored 38, Jac Haudenschild, Randy Hannagan and Danny Smith.  Also present were Caleb Armstrong, who is returning after being out for awhile with an injury, Max Stambaugh, Jared Horstman and brothers Jordan and Hunter Mackison.    

Right off the bat, mechanical problems plagued many of the teams. Jac blew a motor in hot laps. Bradley Howard had a sputtering engine because of a magneto problem. Jac was done for the night but Bradley got it running for his heat race. During hot laps I said to myself,  "The motors sound amazing here. The outside wall that circles the entire track catches the engine noise and echoes it around the place. It sounds really cool as the cars circle the track. Different echoes in different turns......

Dale Blaney The track was smooth and in great shape. As proof of that, Dale Blaney sets the fast time and it is a new track record. Guess who timed second quick?  Chad Kemenah. It looks like these guys are throwing hay makers at each other! 

During time trials, a Lear jet,  coming from the north, made a really low pass over the track as it headed towards the south. There were two guys sitting next to me who had headphones and other walkie-talkie-like listening, electronic devices and when this jet flew over they told me that it was Tony Stewart flying into Findlay. Nice entrance Tony!  After that a helicopter circled the track a few times and landed out beyond the south side of turns 1 and 2. I was told that this was someone other than Tony because Tony, evidently, had already made his way from the airport to the track and was seen riding around on his mini-bike. So we were having a kind of "Where's Waldo"  thing going on, only with Tony Stewart and maybe another NASCAR person that everyone speculated about but no one could name with any certainty.  

Bradley Howard We then had a rain delay. And it was kind of weird. The sky was clearing to the west, and the clouds didn't look like rain clouds necessarily, but we received about 15-20 minutes of a sprinkle with big drops mixed in.  The forecast said there was a 50% chance of rain on the day but the hourly forecast said a 20% chance around 6 pm with a decreasing chance as the evening went on. Well, the weatherman is struggling this summer. In June and July, it was rain in the forecast and we didn't get any rain at all. None. Now it's a slight chance of rain and we get steady rain or we get downpours with hail. I don't know too much about math, but 20% chance is not much of a chance. 10% is even less of a chance. 50% is kind of half and half, right? Well it seems recently, that no matter the percent  chance of rain, what that really means is that it will rain 100% of the time on those occasions you are at a race.  And the percent chance the weatherman gave you means the percent of total potential water that will come out of any given cloud. So if it is only a 10% chance of rain, what that really means is you get 10% of the potential water out of that cloud. In that case you are doing better than say, 25% or 50% of the water you could get........    

When the rain stopped, the push trucks ran the track in again...and after much persuading, the super stocks and super trucks came out and helped too.....

Chad Kemenah Heat 1 finished with Brubaker at the front, followed by Sheldon, Shaffer, Philo, Paulker and Hannigan. Holtgraver retired with mechanical problems. Heat 2 got us Helms, Kemenah, Horstman, Henry, Armstrong and TJ Michaels. There was some hair raising moves in that heat race. Sometimes you are in danger of being pinched into the wall here at the exit of turn 2 and it can get pretty close quarters. Heat 3 finished Macedo, who was flying, Blaney, Foos, Dean Jacobs, Lee Jacobs and Kraig Kinser. The track is tacky and smooth after the rain and passing is still at a minimum. In the dash, the finish was Sheldon, Horstman, Helms, Kemenah, Blaney, Michaels, Henry and Paulker.   The B Main winner was Max Stambaugh followed by Broughton, Hunter Mackison, Danny Smith, Bryan Nuckles and Kory Crabtree. 

Sheldon Haudenschild We got the A-main started and many more mechanical gremlins hit the racers. Sheldon jumped into the lead and Kemenah used a slide job to gain second going into the first turn. We would see 3 or 4 laps of green racing and then someone would come to a stop. Helms, Lee Jacobs, Holtgraver, Henry, Paulker, Nuckles, Broughton, Armstrong and Macedo all stopped at one time or another. Some went to the work area and returned and some just pulled off. As the race wore on with starts and stops, Sheldon clearly was too fast. Blaney moved up to third after a long battle with Horstman. Dale then challenged Kemenah on occasion, but wasn't able to pass. Tim Shaffer came on in the late stages, up from 11th and pressured Blaney for fourth but didn't get it done. After another late caution, there was a fuel stop with just a few laps remaining. But the running order stayed unchanged among the top 4 during the last few laps to the checkers. Philo and Foos and Kinser were the biggest movers coming up from 13th and 12th and 18th respectively. The points chase didn't change too much with Sheldon winning and Chad getting second with Dale finishing third. Chad leads Dale by 8 and Sheldon trails Dale by 58 now. 

Hopefully some of the teams can freshen up equipment and get rested in the next few days because this weekend in Ohio is a big one for the All Stars. Two shows paying $10,000 to win, Saturday at Attica for the Dirt Classic and Sunday at Wayne County for the Pete Jacobs Memorial.