Knoxville, IA - The Dead Down Wind Racing Team debuted a new J&J Auto Racing Chassis Saturday night here at Knoxville Raceway. The results were nearly immediate as Dakota timed in at 15.768 which was 17th out of 33 cars. This put Dakota on the front row of the first heat outside of California teenager, Cole Wood. Unfortunately the car was extremely tight and the team backed up to finish 8th.
This, along with an unfortunate crash by Ryan Bunton, put the team on the pole for the B-Main. Dakota and Wisconsin's Billy Balog seesawed the lead for the first five laps, until the Omaha teen exploded off the cushion in turn 2 and rocketed to a 4 car length lead into turn 3. Three laps later, Balog spun coming off turn 4 and that set up a restart with 2 laps to go. Dakota set the pace on the restart and motored away to a 1.5 sec lead at the checkers. Excited with the results, Dakota remarked, "The car was awesome in the B. I could go anywhere on the track and felt really comfortable. I think I could have run it harder across the middle of the track than I did."
Unfortunately, the results from the B-Main didn't transfer to the A-Main. Dakota struggled to find the same balance on the much slicker track. "There's a reason the veteran drivers like the track to get slick. You need a lot of laps or a exceptional race car to turn fast laps when it gets slick. The car was good, not exceptional, but the driver was less than spectacular, to say the least. Steve, Josh, and Kyle gave me a decent race car. I just have to get better on slick tracks," Dakota said after the race.
Crew Chief Steve Fitzpatrick said "The new car was a vast improvement over the updated chassis the team has been struggling with over the first three weeks of the season."