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An ‘Almost’ Weekend at Indy
September 7 - On a weekend on which Eric Medlen took the Castrol SYNTEC Ford Mustang to the final round of the Skoal Showdown and on which John Force qualified the Castrol GTX Start Up Ford No. 1 for the first time this year, Team Castrol came up empty-handed at the conclusion of the 51st annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Medlen, the hottest driver on the circuit the last six weeks, was victimized by a loss of traction in the Skoal Showdown final that allowed Del Worsham to drive away to a $100,000 payday. Worsham went on to win the U.S. Nationals, as well, raking in an additional $110,000 including a $50,000 double-up bonus from the NHRA.
Force, bidding this year for his 14th series championship, lowered the IRP track record to 4.726 seconds to qualify No. 1 for the 125th time in his career and for the 10th time in the last 15 years at the U.S. Nationals.
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Unfortunately, the 118-time tour winner wasn’t able to turn that performance advantage into a victory. Instead, his car lost traction in the very first round, allowing Phil Burkart Jr. to claim an upset win. A similar fate befell Hight, who lost traction against Tony Pedregon. Medlen, winner of three of four races coming into the Nationals, survived only one more round before falling to Frank Pedregon.
The upshot is that Hight lost the POWERade lead in the race forthe 2005 championship, but the five drivers who came into the race separated by 71 points now will move to Reading, Pa., separated by just 55.
“We’ll be okay,” Force said. “We didn’t get hurt too bad. There are still five races left and I expect we’ll all be there at the end.”
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