| Starting on the pole it would be Ralph Colford in the
#29 Hardees Oldsmobile flanked by Vince MacDonald in his #7 Zerex
Thunderbird. In total only eight drivers would show up for the final run
at Pocono. |
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| The bigger news in the pits would be the release of
Scott Mullin from the Yates powered #28 Havoline Thunderbird. Mullin
would learn just prior to race time that his driving duties were no
longer required and that Graham Logan would be taking over the wheel of
the #28. In a frenzy to find a ride a one race deal with the #15
Crisco Ford was hastily put together. The field would get a clean start
with Colford taking the lead into turn 1. |
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| It would be poetic justice for Mullin when the #28
machine driven by replacement driver Logan would solo spin on lap 2 crashing into the turn 1 wall. |
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| Don Burchill in the #17 Tide ride would get it down on
the grass entering turn 1 of the same lap and would nearly collect it
back up but would get into the #21 Citgo machine of James Nowlan. The
caution flag would fly for the first time of the night. |
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| Restart on lap 6 with Colford still on the point being
chased by MacDonald and Mullin. Exiting turn 1 on lap 7 Mullin would get
up and past MacDonald to take over the second spot. |
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| Lap 10 and Logan would be into the turn one wall again
this time with an apparent brake problem. Fans monitoring their scanners
let out a hoot after hearing the radio transmission from Mullin back to
the #15 crew. |
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| The caution flag would fly and this time it would the
Ford camp getting off pit road first with MacDonald in the lead followed
by Mullin. In the scramble to get off pit road the #17 of Burchill would
clip the #31 of Seymore and send the Slender You Oldsmobile for a twirl. |
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| Mullin would take over the point on lap 17 entering
turn 3. MacDonald would get too high and graze the wall bleeding off
enough speed to drop back to fourth. Colford would close in on Mullin
with Nowlan in tow to battle for the point. The three drivers would wage
a war for the next thirteen laps. The last two laps it would be Mullin and Colford zigzagging back and fourth as Colford looked for hole and Mullin tried
to close it. Clearly Colford had the better car but Mullin was
determined to get to the checkers first. It would be the closest race in
Heroes history with a margin of just 0.003 seconds at the line. |
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| Mullin would later be heard in victory lane apologizing
to Colford. "I hate it for Ralph, we haven't run too much together
but what racing we have had has been a lot of fun. He had a lot better
car than me especially in turns 2 and 3. I needed the win more than him
though and hopefully someone will step forward and try me when we go to
Watkins Glen in two weeks. I also have to apologize to Vince, we were running down into
turn 3 and I had a run on him so I dropped to the inside and I think he
went too high trying to give me some room. I should have waited until
the front stretch but I just didn't have that Yates power that I was
used to in
the past. Hopefully I have proved myself to that 28 team, I belong in
that ride." |
