by Jimmy McKinley
The All-American 100 is in the books as one of the biggest USA Series events in 1998. Fifty-one cars took qualifying times to make the field for the Outlaw and Late Model Stock Car divisions on the historic .596 high banks. In the Outlaws, Eddie Popwell cranked out a 116.196 mph lap to take the pole, with Kevin Morgan, Chris Rhynold, Jimmy McKinley, and Tim Bertaux rounding out the fast five. In the LMSC division, it was no surprise as Carl Culp took the top spot with a lap of 112.288 miles per hour. Jimmy McKinley, Emery Dryden, Don Adams, and the Netherlands' top oval track driver, Rudi Kusters, were the top five. After qualifying, the teams headed over to Opryland USA for a Race Week barbeque and pig roast, staying well into the night to ride the thrilling Wabash CannonBall roller coaster and other rides, along with signing autographs for fans all evening. Dave Russell, an Outlaw driver who travelled all the way from Australia along Greg Colgan, commented, "Jimmy has really shown us the city here in Nashville. The hospitality has been great, and we've enjoyed every minute of it. We work hard on these cars all week, but it's great to come back to the hotel and relax at the 'impromptu' pool parties being thrown by the drivers staying here. We don't have anything like Nashville back home 'down under'..."
Sunday morning, pre-race festivities
included presenting the two polesitters with their awards, along
with a stunt show from Joie Chitwood Thrill Shows. Then the
Outlaw cars made their way to the grid for their 100-lap grind.
The cars made their pace laps as the fans stood and cheered their
drivers. On the start, Kevin Morgan took his Dr. Pepper Chevrolet
and got a bit of a jump on Popwell, taking the lead while the
rest of the field fought for position. Jimmy McKinley and Chris
Rhynold battled for third the first five laps, with McKinley
finally coming out on top. The field settled down after ten laps,
with Morgan leading, then Popwell, McKinley, Sandy Rhynold, who
had worked her way up from seventh, and Ian Eichendorf. The
leaders were working traffic on lap 37 when Sandy Rhynold was
trying to get around Alex Albert, and the two came together. They
both were sent into the turn three wall with enough damage for
both to park it for the rest of the day. On the restart, Morgan
was still leading with pressure from Popwell and McKinley who had
gotten around Chris Rhynold. Meanwhile, Dave Russell had worked
his way up in the field from his 18th starting position. Russell
pulled up on the back bumper of teammate Tim Kellebrew, sending
Kellebrew's number 56 sideways. Russell backed off, allowing Tim
to recover. On lap 54, B.J. Phillips made his one and only USA
appearance go up in smoke as the rear end in his Milky Way Ford
let go, sending rear-end grease pouring out the back. The second
yellow flew and the leaders pitted for fresh rubber. Morgan
elected to take on four tires and fuel along with Popwell and
Rhynold, but McKinley and Eichendorf only took right sides and
one can of gas. This would give them the track position up front,
but with four tires, Morgan and the others were no match. The
race went green for only four more laps on lap 57, when on lap
61, Bobby Lasseter spun and tagged the inside front stretch wall,
ending his run in the Fletcher Muffler Chevy. This bunched up the
field yet again, allowing Morgan, Rhynold, and Popwell to get a
run on McKinley and Eichendorf. Morgan retook the lead on lap 66
as Rhynold followed Popwell through the two leaders at the time,
dropping McKinley and Eichendorf to fourth and fifth. The front
five stayed together, though, as they worked lapped traffic. The
last yellow came out on lap 84 as Popwell, trying lap Dave
Russell, got loose coming out of turn two, spun in front of
Russell, and collected Russell into the inside wall. This cuased
a chain reaction behind them blocking the track, and seven cars
ended up on the wrecker. Popwell said after the incident,
"We had a real good run going there. The car was driving
great. I think I just got a little off the line there off of two,
and looped it. I feel bad for Dave, he had a good run going as
well. I hated to see that happen, but we're ok. We'll be back
next week at Bristol." After cleaning up the mess and a red
flag, the green came out with only ten laps remaining. Morgan,
Rhynold, McKinley, Eichendorf, and Randy DeForest were the top
five, with DeForest having his best Outlaw run ever in 1998.
McKinley dove to the inside of Rhynold, putting on one of the
best side-by-side battles of the afternoon. McKinley finally
worked around Rhynold for the second spot on lap 92 while
Eichendorf treid to follow. He got into the left rear quarter
panel of Rhynold and slid sidways, allowing Rhynold to hold down
third. On lap 99, DeForest saw his great run come to an end as
the motor turned loose, dropping DeForest to an eleventh-place
showing. Joel Likness would quietly move from 12th to finish
fifth in the final run-down. Morgan took his seventh win of 1998,
followed by McKinley, Chris Rhynold, Eichendorf, and Likness.
After the Outlaws were moved off of the speedway, the Late Model Stock Car division were lined up on the front stretch. A strong field, including drivers from Australia and the Netherlands, pulled out behnd the pace car to begin the pace lap. Carl Culp and Jimmy McKinley led the field to the green. Culp and McKinley raced to the stripe side by side, with Culp coming out on top for the first lap. The field got spread out and it wasn't long before the leaders started working lapped traffic. attrtion wasn't as bad in teh LMSC race as it was in the Outlaws, with the race staying green until lap 58. Arthur Rymer had been riding along in the ninth spot, when the engine blew coming out of turn two. Rymer wisely got the car down out of the groove and onto pit road with minimal fluid on the race track. It brought out the yellow to clean up the mess, and some of the cars came on to pit road to take on tires and fuel. The leaders stayed out on th etrack as their cars were working great. McKinley's crew chief and wife, Lisa McKinley, said, "He thinks we can go all the way tires. Fuel won't be a problem. The car's working great; we think we may have have something for the 16 car."
On the restart, Culp, McKinley, Rudi Kusters, Emery Dryden, and Don Adams were the top five, but it was close. The race stayed green again until lap 83, when Terry Legner parked his machine along the frontstretch wall with a broken drivershaft. After a quick yellow to remove Legner's car, Culp and McKinley again led the field. This time, McKinley charged to the bottom in turn two and got the lead down the backstretch. Behind them, Jennifer Lindsay started 22nd but worked her way into 15th. She and Tim Kellebrew raced side-by-side for several laps before Lindsay came out with the 14th spot. Chas Bornemann, subbing for an injured Scott Worden, came from the rear to run in the 10 for most of the race. Mckinley would lead until lap 95, when Culp tried to get around him. The two banged together, allowing Kusters to close in and make it a three-car race with five laps to go. Culp was on the outside, with McKinley on the inside and Kusters behind Culp. With three to go, McKinley nosed ahead and Kusters tried to decide which way to go. Culp again got a front fender out in front of McKinley, but the number 12 wasn't about to give up. McKinley held his line through turn three and four coming down with two to go. Kusters dove to the bottom to try and make it three wide into turn one, but he tagged McKinley's left rear and snet himn sideways, which inturn knocked Culp sideways. All three cars dirt-tracked through tunrs one and two, with Culp coming out ahead on the backstretch. McKinley made another run on Culp going into turn three and pulled even onto the front straightaway as the trio headed for the white flag. Kusters got on the outside of McKinley going into turn one, but cut him off and turned himself sideways. This allowed McKinley to get another shot at Culp down the backstretch. Meanwhile, while all of this was happening, Rich Stranzl and Emery Dryden had closed in on the leaders. It was not to be, however, as Culp pulled off a car-length victory over McKinley, Kusters, Stranzl, and Dryden.
Race review republished by permission of Jimmy McKinley
