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Mills breaks Ward’s streak.
Jamie Mills broke a four-year winless drought at Volusia Speedway Park Friday taking the checkers in night three of the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals. The Milford, Delaware, driver took the lead on an early restart in the 30 lap Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Modified Series.
Mills appeared to be on his way to sure victory, but Billy Decker made it close at the end.
“I lost the power steering on about the 20th lap,” admitted Mills in victory lane. “I didn’t know who was behind me, but we held on.
“It’s either feast or famine for us here. Hopefully we can turn around and get that $5,000 tomorrow night.”
The race started with Randy Chrysler and Jimmy Horton dueling briefly for first before Horton took the top spot. A pair of early incidents kept the field bunched up. They also kept dominant driver Pat Ward from contention as he was involved in both of the skirmishes.
The biggest mishap of the night came just four laps in when Jeff Brownell jr. caught the third turn wall and bounced back into traffic. Alan Johnson had nowhere to go, and the ensuing contact sent AJ Slideways barrel rolling through the corner.
Johnson was uninjured, but the car suffered severe damage. When racing resumed Horton battled Chrysler and Dan Vauter for second while hot shoes Dale Planck and Decker worked through traffic.
With ten laps in it was Mills with a straightaway lead over Horton with Decker running third in a tight battle with Chrysler and Planck. The trio of Horton, Decker and Planck tried every inch of the Volusia clay looking for bite before Decker broke free and Planck followed.
Mills kept his lead despite the power steering problems, and Decker wound up second by just a couple of car lengths.
“He was hooked up,” said Decker. “I had a good time dicing it up with Dale. I had a lot of fun.”
Planck held on to finish third in his RezX Racing entry.
“This place is really a lot of fun,” said Planck. “Last night we missed the set up totally. Tonight we didn’t ‘have a good heat race, and we changed things around and it was better. It’s got to be able to turn here.”
Sheppard and Andy Bachetti rounded out the top five. With just one night remaining in the 2009 Alltel DIRTcar Nationals Ward holds an eight point advantage over Planck. Saturday’s feature pays $5,000 to win.
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