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WEST SALEM, Wis. — For Brent Kirchner, it almost was like hitting either a yellow or red light at every intersection. His timing just wasn’t where he wanted it to be.
Yes, it was fun having a car good enough to lap the drivers in the back of the pack. But Kirchner was seemingly always running into them on the turns, not exactly spots conducive to pick up speed.
By the time Kirchner had won the Kwik Trip Late Model Division feature race Saturday night at the La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway, his pulse rate had picked up considerably.
The comfortable lead he had enjoyed for roughly half of the 25-lap feature evaporated courtesy of J. Herbst. Herbst also had a pretty good car. He also was passing the drivers in the back of the pack. And he was doing so in the ideal spot to both pick up speed, the straighaway.
Kirchner picked up a driver in Herbst who was glued to his back bumper the last 10 laps. But in the end, he picked up his second feature victory of the season. And he was glad his timing didn’t end up costing him a spot in Victory Lane.
“Before I started lapping the cars in the back of the field, I thought I had a good lead. And I guess I did,” Kirchner said. “J. was just hitting the lap traffic a little better than I was. He was passing people on the straightaways, and I was passing them on the corners. Obviously he was making pretty good time.”
And just like that, a crowd estimated at 2,800 had itself an entertaining race to watch. It was one that, for a rare occasion this season, didn’t two of the Fairgrounds Speedway’s heavyweights.
Dutch Mill Trucking teammates Steve Carlson and Kevin Nuttleman had won five of the last six Late Model feature races entering Saturday night’s competition. Carlson also are one-two in the points standings, and likely will continue to fight it out for the track championship over the final three weeks of the regular season.
But both Kirchner and Herbst are making their presence known. Kirchner, whose last feature race victory came on May 24, has racked up 13 top-10 finishes and entered Saturday’s races fourth in the points standings. Meanwhile, Herbst, who is running an abbreviated schedule at the Fairgrounds Speedway, also has a feature victory and nine top-10 finishes. Judging by the way his car ran Saturday, he thought he had done enough to win.
“I thought I had (Kirchner) a couple of times. ... But I wasn’t going to hit him to win (the race). To bump and run on the last lap is, in my opinion, a chicken move,” Herbst said. “What we did tonight gives this team a lot of confidence, but I’m sure what Brent did was a big morale-booster for his team, too. In my opinion, I had one of the fastest, if not the fastest, car on the track tonight. I just came up a little bit short.”
Kirchner simply was grateful to be in a position to win. He won his heat race, but had to replace his right rear tire after running over debris. Kirchner had a few doubts that his car would have what it took to run well the entire feature race. And he also wondered if he could hold off Herbst.
But in the end, everything worked out fine.
“When you think about it, a 25-lap feature race really isn’t that long,” Kirchner said. “You hate to lose the race on the last lap. I was glad to have that race done.”
Ty Reedy finished third. Paul Proksch and Carlson rounded out the top five.
SPORTSMEN: Larry Bolster Jr. captured the Sportsmen Division feature. Matt Englett was second, while Jake Arneson was third.
THUNDERSTOX: Steve Owen won the Thunderstox feature, followed by Adam More and Jason Stark.
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