Photo Credit: B.K. Wilson - bkwilsongroup.com

At the beginning of the race though, it looked like the finishing order would be anything *but* Simmons, Roth, Bussell.  The event started with Sarah McCune on the pole, flanked by her teammate Travis Gregg.  The field came out of Turn 4 for the start rather slowly, but rapidly picked up speed and Sarah McCune jumped out to a early lead as Nick Bussell pulled to the outside of Travis Gregg to go side by side into Turn 1.

By the time the field emerged from Turn 2, McCune was still in front and Jay Drake who had started third had moved up to second.  Going into Lap 2, Drake applied some pressure to rookie McCune by attempting a pass on the outside of Turn 1.  The two raced side by side for almost a full lap until McCune was able to pull ahead of Drake again and re-establish herself at the front of the field.  Several laps later, Drake tried to pass McCune on the inside of Turn 3, but couldn't quite establish his position and had to let off of the throttle...

Then, on Lap 6, in what became a defining moment in the race, Jay Drake pulled inside Sarah McCune on the back straight.  They headed into Turn 3 with Drake about a half a car length behind and underneath Sarah.  At that point, it was unclear whether McCune did not see Drake, or if her spotter did not tell her he was there, or if Drake was trying to force a pass.  But, regardless, McCune began to drive down the track in the turn much as if she was using a single car line.  This left no room for Drake and forced him over the white line and onto the apron.  At a certain point, it was clear that Drake could move no further down without losing control of his car, and he attempted to slow down to get out of the situation.  The rear of Drake's front right tire caught the front of McCune's left rear tire and the two made contact.  They touched three times in rapid succession as their cars bounced together and skidded towards the inside of the track.

Then, McCune's car, sliding sideways on the track, seemed to catch traction as she released her brakes and rocketed up (backwards) across traffic towards the outside wall.  McCune's sliding car made heavy contact with the rear end of Wade Cunningham, driving high to avoid the crash, lifted off the track and over the top of Wade, and collected the cars of Bobby Wilson and Chirs Festa.  Cunningham made bone-jarring contact with the Turn 4 wall and the rear of the number 8 entry of Sarah McCune ended up on top of the rear of Cunningham's car as they slid down the banking of the turn. 

All drivers walked away from the crash unhurt, with the slight exception of Cunningham, who was experiencing some pain in his left hand as of this writing.

Of the incident, McCune said, "We were just going down into Turn 3 and he (Jay Drake) hit me, and kept driving right through me.  I don't know what he was thinking.  I have no idea."  Cunningham picked up the story from there, "The two people in the front (Drake and McCune) were just battling and it looked like somebody pushed the red car (McCune) down on the apron, and [it] slid back up the track.  I went high with a conscious decision.  She hit me and I hit the wall."

Bobby Wilson, Wade Cunningham's BSR teammate, driving in his first large oval competition ever, summed up what happened from his perspective, "I really had nowhere to go.  I saw the tire smoke early in the turn and saw the cars go on the apron.  I was off the brakes and she [McCune] rolled up the track and I had already made my decision [to go high].  I just had nowhere to go."

Once the track was cleaned up after the incident, there were only seven cars left running in the field.  Four were eliminated in the accident and Scott Mayer failed to start.  However, remarkably, Jay Drake was still running and continued to race.  Many observers may have thought that this would make for a quite boring finish to the race, but instead the spectators at the speedway were treated to 60 more laps of incredible side-by-side, and in some cases three-wide, racing.

As the field entered Turn 3 for the restart, Jeff Simmons was the race leader.  However, his car bogged down during the start, and he was passed by the entire field before he entered Turn 1.  This benefited Jaime Camara who assumed the lead after restarting in second position.  Simmons recounted the restart, "We had the same problem that we've been having for I think four or five races now in a row on the restarts.  Sometimes on the… starts the motor doesn't really want to clean out, it doesn't want to run right… The whole field drove by us."

While Simmons was falling back through the field, Jon Herb, Nick Bussell, and Jaime Camara were battling for the lead.  Also moving up through the field was Marty Roth.

By Lap 28 though, Simmons had moved back up through the pack and was fighting for the lead again.  In fact, on Lap 29 the fans in the stands rose to their feet as Jon Herb, Jeff Simmons, and Travis Gregg entered Turn 1 three-wide.  At this point, the field was running in one six car pack, followed far behind by a slower Jay Drake, who had obviously sustained some damage in his incident with McCune.

Again, on Lap 30, the leaders ended up three wide, except this time it was Simmons, Bussell and Herb.  This was notable, and Herb let off slightly and drifted back.  But what was *more* notable is that while Bussell and Simmons continued to race side by side, they were followed by Marty Roth, Jon Herb and Jaime Camara, who were three wide.  This configuration of five cars running incredibly close together created some extremely tense moments for the fans as well as for the drivers.  "This thing got a little crazy in the middle of the race, " Nick Bussell said, "Actually from the get-go, it was three-wide and two-by-two-by-two.  You know, part of why I wanted to get to the front of that was so I didn't have to be in that situation."

The next 30 laps featured some of the most exiting racing that the Series has seen all year.  Every lap there was a battle for position and clean side-by-side racing going on and Jeff Simmons and Nick Bussell were battling for, and exchanging, the lead.  Then, at Lap 61, something nobody was expecting occured.  Nick Bussell was running in the lead and Marty Roth, with a incredible run and Jeff Simmons running close behind him to give him a push, pulled alongside Nick on the outside.  Roth, who was previously in third, took the lead for his first time in his IPS career.  "We started on the back row and worked our way to the front, " an excited Roth said, "It was the first time I ever looked down the track and didn't see a car in front of me.  It was a really good feeling."

For the next six laps, Simmons continued to shadow Roth, running right on his gearbox, until on the last lap Simmons got a good run on the front straight, pulled to the outside in Turn 1, and completed the pass coming out of Turn 2.  Simmons continued to pull away from Roth and accepted the checkered driving away to take the victory.  Also on the last lap, Jon Herb made an attempt to follow Simmons and pass Roth on the outside on Turn 2,  but couldn't get the job done and fell back to fourth.  Roth and Bussell ended up finishing side by side battling for the second spot, with Roth ultimately finishing a half a car length ahead.

About his strategy in the end-game of the race, Simmons said, "Nick seemed to have a faster car than Marty overall.  I figured if I had Marty leading the pack, I had a better chance on the last lap.  I tried to push him by… That was what I was thinking.  I knew I had a better chance coming to the last laps if Marty's car was out front rather than Nick's.  After that, I tried to push Marty away and get a gap on the rest of the field so I'd be able to lay back a little bit and get the run that I needed."

Today Jeff Simmons proved that having a cool head, a solid strategy, and a car that is running at the end of the race can bring incredible results."

The next race in the Menards Infiniti Pro Series is at Watkins Glen.  Wade Cunningham, despite the incident on Lap 6, remained the series points leader with a total of 431 points.  Travis Gregg is second with 408 points and Jeff Simmons moved up significantly into third with 384 points -- within conceivable striking distance with two races left to go.

The final finishing order from Chicago was:  Simmons, Roth, Bussell, Herb, Gregg, Camara, Drake, Wilson, McCune, Cunningham, Festa.