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Carlson Dominates Swiss Colony All-Star Challenge By Dan Margetta Oregon, Wis., June 24-The old saying 'if it's not broke, don't fix it' played out perfectly Tuesday night at the Madison International Speedway as Steve Carlson drove to victory in the Swiss Colony All-Star Challenge, leading all 100 laps before holding off Matt Kenseth at the checkered flag. "I ran real good here last month and just literally parked the car in the garage and waited for this race," Carlson explained from victory lane. "I felt we had a real good car and everything was going good until that last caution," Carlson continued, "I was real nervous with Matt (Kenseth) behind me. I thought he might have been just waiting in the weeds there, but I guess not." The final caution flag for debris on the speedway flew on lap 88 and allowed Kenseth to close to Carlson's bumper for the restart but while the NASCAR Sprint Cup star could make up ground in turns one and two, Carlson proved to be too strong off turn four, leaving Kenseth with a second place finish. "Steve's (Carlson) awesome and I've raced with him for a long time," Kenseth stated. "He did just about what I thought he was going to do on that last restart and I made a 'Hail Mary' pass but just couldn't make it stick. It was a great race and I had a lot of fun." Andrew Morrissey took the checkered flag in third place despite a red hot glowing front brake rotor and afterwards seemed pleased with the result. "We weren't too bad and we came out of here with a third place finish," Morrissey said. "I was too hard on the brakes early on and that made the car too tight." "I thought we might have had something for them but we were just too tight." Fast qualifier Nathan Haseleu crossed the finish line in fourth place while Travis Sauter charged from his 22nd starting position to finish a strong fifth. Rich Bickle got shuffled out of line just past the halfway mark and worked his way back to a sixth place finish, ahead of Chris Wimmer and Steve Rubeck who were seventh and eighth respectively. Tim Schendel spent the first half of the race glued to Carlson's bumper before the handling went away and he fell to ninth at the finish while Dave Feiler rounded out the top ten. Visiting NASCAR Sprint Cup stars Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart turned in the second and third fastest times in qualifying but couldn't keep the momentum going in the 100-lap main event. Busch appeared to struggle with his car in the first half but ran a strong second half to finish twelfth while Stewart spun on lap 39 after contact with another car and wound up with a sixteenth place result. "I had a terrible night on the racetrack but the day was fun," Stewart stated afterwards, "It was probably more driver than car but it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone." "Maybe if they put dirt on this place and I could bring my dirt late model, I would have done better." A strong field of 34 late models timed in for the Swiss Colony All-Star Challenge and the event was slowed under the caution flag a total of three times, all for single car spins or debris. Dan Jung won the 15-lap last chance race by holding off Travis Sauter. Eugene Gregorich Jr. finished third and Andy Monday nipped Blake Horstman at the stripe as the top four finishers advanced to the main event. 1, Steve Carlson; 2, Matt Kenseth; 3, Andrew Morrissey; 4, Nathan Hasleu; 5, Travis Sauter; 6, Rich Bickle; 7, Chris Wimmer; 8, Steve Rubeck; 9, Tim Schendel; 10, Dave Feiler; 11, Steve Holzhausen; 12, Kyle Busch; 13, Chad Wood; 14, Frank Kreyer; 15, Andy Monday; 16, Tony Stewart; 17, Dan Lensing; 18, Jonathon Eilen; 19, Dan Jung; 20, Nick Hammer; 21, Jeremy Lepak; 22, Bobby Wilberg; 23, Zach Riddle; 24, Eugene Gregorich Jr. Race Recap Courtesy of Roy Kenseth Promotions • • • • • • • © Copyright 2007 Madison International Speedway - All Rights Reserved | ||||
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