Dover Downs

Dover is always an exciting track, but nobody was prepared for the confusion during practice as Bryan White tried to take over the ride of Ralph Colford. Colford who normally drives the #29 Hardees Oldsmobile would get into a shoving match with newcomer White over the incident. Nascar officials would have to intervene to separate the two drivers before it came to blows. After several minutes of talks, Nascar impounded the #29 forcing both Colford and White searching for another ride. Richard Childress would find himself also looking for a last minute substitute driver as Aubrey Ward failed to show. Colford would jump in the black #3 and land the pole position with a 23.909 second lap good for 150.571 mph.

The race would get off to a clean start as the cars filed through turns 1 and 2 getting into single file for turn 3. Vince MacDonald would begin to flex his muscle on lap 5 as he over took Peter Seymour through turns 3 and 5. Mullin would also follow MacDonald through and the two veterans would give chase to the black #3 now 10 car lengths in front of them.

On lap 7 the Goodwrench car would drift high entering turn one allowing MacDonald to close the gap and mount a charge down the back stretch. Colford would give room to the #7 Zerex as MacDonald thundered into the lead. MacDonald would begin to pull away from the field over the next several laps extending his lead to 10 car lengths.

On lap 10 exiting turn 4 Colford would find himself slipping high once again this time grazing the wall which opened the door for both Mullin and Seymour to slip through.

Three laps later it would be Mullin finding himself in trouble in turn three as he drove his Havoline Ford in too hard. Symour and Colford would overtake Mullin and looks towards closing the gap on MacDonald.

Completing lap 23 Mullin would once again find the turn 3 wall this time scrapping the right side paint clean as he dropped from 3rd to 7th as cars passed low through turn 4.

On lap 27 the #27 car driven by Chuck Plaxton would take over the second spot from Colford. Geoff Bonner would follow the Kodiak machine through as he quietly continued to work his way to the front. One lap later, Bonner would overtake Plaxton and begin his chase on the Zerex of MacDonald.

MacDonald would have to surrender the lead on lap 38 to the faster Bonner. Once again tire management and strategy had played a significant role as Bonner had chosen to lay back and let the leaders burn off the tires.

Green flag pit stops would begin on lap 45 with Plaxton being the first car on pit road. Unfortunately for Plaxton he would get caught speeding and would be required to do a drive through as the rest of the field stopped for service. Vince MacDonald would stay out one more lap before passing the lead over to newcomer Bryan White. When White pitted for service John Agnew took over the point position for the next two circuits.

Dave Blaxland who had been enjoying much success as of late had a bad handling race car. The Miller High-Life team had been hoping for a caution since lap 20 when the handling went away on the #8 Buick. On lap 46 Blaxland would allow Bonner by putting the #8 one lap down.

The night would come to a premature close for pole sitter Ralph Colford as he lost 4th gear in the Goodwrench machine. It would be another disappointing race after fielding such a strong ride especially after all that happened during practice with his regular ride.

The caution flag would come out on lap 61 as Peter Seymour's ride would end for the night as he lost an engine and spun in his own oil in turn 1. The field would pit for new tires and fuel and reset everyone's strategy for a classic finish.

On the restart pf lap 66, Chuck Plaxton would spin the tires and get over into Vince MacDonald causing the field to bunch up as Bonner skated away. The resulting damage would be result in a ill handling car for MacDonald.

Mullin and White would give chase to Bonner but the Bulls-eye ride was on rails. During the final laps White and Mullin would battle amongst themselves over the second spot exchanging the position multiple times.

Coming to the white flag, Bonner would narrowly miss a spinning John Agnew as the 42 Maxwell House machine lost it coming off turn 2 crashing down the back stretch in front of the leader.

It would be Bonner's first win leading a total of 58 laps starting from the rear of the pack. It should prove interesting as next week at Talladega Bonner starts shotgun on the field with fellow previous race winners Dan Searle and Jason Day.