August 21, Fountain, CO - With the exception of some first lap excitement, Jeff Simmons dominated the rest of the field today with an astounding win at the Pikes Peak International Raceway.  Simmons already held the track record for qualification and had two previous poles.  This weekend, although he qualified second, he consistently had the fastest times in practice and was clearly the car to beat.  Yet, with the exception of a late charge by Nick Bussell, none of the other contenders could come close to Simmons' blistering pace.

Nick Bussell advanced from a ninth place starting position to finish second and Travis Gregg, the polesitter for today's event, finished third, eroding six points of Wade Cunningham's lead in the season points chase.

The cars formed up for the pace laps under a clear Colorado sky.  Jon Herb was late leaving the pits, needing to get a push start from his crew.  Eventually the car fired, but Herb only made it as far as Turn 2 before his car rolled to a stop.  "The car had electrical problems, " a disappointed Herb said, "It fired, but it wouldn't keep going."  The field took an extra couple of pace laps as Herb was towed to the pits.

The start of the race provided the fans in attendance with some heart-racing excitement...

As the field came out of Turn 4 to take the green flag, Jeff Simmons pulled alongside Travis Gregg, who had made a good start.  Then, from his position on the outside of Row 2, Wade Cunningham drove to the outside of Simmons.  That is how they entered Turn 1: barreling down the front stretch three wide into a turn that (maybe) could accommodate two cars. 

In a moment that (in retrospect) assured his victory by keeping his car intact, Jeff Simmons wisely elected to get out of the throttle and give the first turn to Travis.  About the decision, Simmons said, "The other guys don't really know… where the third car is.  They don't even necessarily know that he's there, so they won't usually leave room.  Obviously, I can't go up or down… I stayed in there about as long as I could.  Then when I saw nobody was giving it up, I had to back out of it."

Simmons didn't take long to regain his momentum though, passing Gregg on the inside in Turn 1 on the very next lap.  The incident also seemed to affect Cunningham as he fell back slightly on the backstretch but continued to run hard.  "I had to let out of the throttle a little bit," said Cunningham, "and just sort of slipped into third."

At that point in time, the race became reminiscent of watching a F1 event in 2004.  There was a clearly superior competitor (Simmons, in this case) and it quickly became clear that barring mechanical problems, he would win the race.

The front three competitors, Simmons, Gregg, and Cunningham, settled down into a single file line for about the next 30 laps as Simmons continued to extend his lead.  Interestingly enough, there was some really good racing going on back in the pack as Tom Wood battled closely with Marty Roth for many laps and Jay Drake methodically moved up through the field.  By Lap 20, after falling back to sixth, Drake was running in fourth and looking like he might be able to challenge Cunningham.

Lap 30 saw Marty Roth approaching a slowing Arie Luyendyk, Jr. in Turn 1.  As Roth tried to pass Luyendyk, he got high and had to slow down to avoid hitting the wall in Turn 2.  This loss of momentum allowed Tom Wood gain on and pass Roth on the entry to Turn 3.  Then, both Wood and Roth passed Luyendyk, Jr. on the next lap.  Ultimately, after several pit stops to try to correct the problems, Luyendyk, Jr. ended up parking his car on Lap 49 complaining of handling problems.

By Lap 40, Jeff Simmons was leading by several hundred yards.  Travis Gregg, still running second, was closing on the 8th place entry of Tom Wood (who Simmons had just lapped) and threatened to pass him.  At that point, something happened that surprised most of the fans in attendance:  Wood increased his speed and began to post lap times that were competitive with the leaders.  As Wood improved his lap times, Gregg and Cunningham did not seem to have the speed to pass him.  This allowed Simmons to further extend his lead and also put Wood on track to make an incredible run up through the field. 

Another driver making an incredible run up through the field was Nick Bussell, who started 9th, but by lap 50 found himself running in 5th.  Watching Nick catch and then pass his competition was some of the best excitement on the track during the middle of the race.  Nick, who had practiced and qualified poorly, obviously had made some changes to prepare for the race.  "[I] wasn't quite sure what the race was going to bring," Bussell related, "Starting ninth, I wasn't sure what was going to happen with the dirty air.  Actually, it worked out where the guys were spread out a little bit, their tires were starting to go in, that's the easiest time to pass them… I kept getting good runs off of Turn 2, that's where I passed everybody."

By the time Bussell was done, he had indeed passed everybody but Simmons, ending the race in second place after a fabulous drive from his 9th place start.

By midrace, Cunningham was noticeably off the pace and the gap between him and the cars behind him slowly dissolved.  "About Lap 50, we developed a bad vibration in the rear," Cunningham said, "so, I just slowly backed out of the throttle and slowed my speeds down.  The vibration kept getting worse and worse.  The whole car was shuddering."  Cunningham exercised discipline though and ultimately brought his shuddering car home safely to a fifth place finish.

Meanwhile, Bussell and Wood continued to pass people.  Bussell finally passed Cunningham on lap 76 and passed Gregg about ten laps later to take second.  Bussell, continuing to run strongly, began to eat slightly into Simmons' lead.  Wood, on the other hand, passed Camara, Festa, and finally, on Lap 96, Cunningham to finish a strong fourth.

As the checkered flag flew, Jeff Simmons won easily with almost a five second margin of victory, followed by a charging Nick Bussell, and then a consistent Travis Gregg in third.

Simmons dominance not only put the league on notice that he is a force to be reckoned with on short ovals, but also displayed a great bit of his development and maturity as a driver.

The three-wide battle entering the first turn of the race was reminiscent of an incident Simmons had in Kansas while racing in the IndyCar series where he ended up going three wide into Turn 1.  In that incident, Simmons (along with the other two drivers) elected to try to drive three wide into the turn and ended up in a multi-car accident.  Today, he wisely chose to back off and that decision gave him a resounding victory.

One of the missions of the Menards Infiniti Pro Series is to develop drivers to take the next step into the world of IndyCar racing.  By posting his second win of the season, Jeff Simmons demonstrated that not only does he learn from previous incidents on the track, but also that he has the poise, maturity, and talent necessary to take the next step.  Maybe the IndyCar teams watching the race today will take notice of that fact. 

The final finishing order at Pikes Peak was:

1. (2) Jeff Simmons, Dallara-Infiniti, 100
2. (9) Nick Bussell, Dallara-Infiniti, 100, Running
3. (1) Travis Gregg, Dallara-Infiniti, 100, Running
4. (7) Tom Wood, Dallara-Infiniti, 100, Running
5. (4) Wade Cunningham, Dallara-Infiniti, 99, Running
6. (6) Chris Festa, Dallara-Infiniti, 99, Running
7. (8) Marty Roth, Dallara-Infiniti, 80, Handling
8. (5) Jay Drake, Dallara-Infiniti, 78, Handling
9. (3) Jaime Camara, Dallara-Infiniti, 66, Handling
10. (10) Arie Luyendyk Jr., Dallara-Infiniti, 49, Electrical
11. (11) Jon Herb, Dallara-Infiniti, 0, Handling

The next race for the Menards Infiniti Pro Series will be next Sunday, August 28th, at the Infineon Raceway in California.