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FEILER FAST AT THE
FINISH, STEALS MILLER CLASSIC 100
AT MADISON INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY!
OREGON, WI. (May
7, 2006) - Dave Feiler of Sun
Prairie is no stranger to the
high-banked half-mile Madison
International Speedway oval, so it would
be no surprise that his name would
surface often as a pre-race contender
for victory in the Miller Classic 100.
The event marked the first ever
appearance of the Wisconsin Challenge
Series at the facility, a little over
one year after weather had stopped the
series debut at the track. On this
afternoon a large crown was greeted by
ideal weather conditions and a near
record field for the series in the pit
area. The surprise however was the
manner in which Feiler won the contest.
Making the show through a qualifying
race and then storming into the lead
with a late race pass of Kenny Richards
of Montello, with just 10 laps to go in
the event. His victory marked the
first time anyone has won a race after
having to working into the main event
through a qualifying event. The
win ended a wild afternoon with more
than it's share of surprises.
The upbeat weekend would begin with a
near record 64 cars entering the pit
area. The previous mark set last
July at Kaukauna had a showing of 65
cars participate. At both races, a
total of 63 cars turned in qualifying
laps. Since the series uses
qualified cars for establishing car
counts, the Miller Classic 100 will go
into the record books as a tie for the
largest field in series history.
To make matters event more exciting, an
association series sponsor for the 2006
season has been acquired with Simply Wow
and Cleaner/Degreaser product coming on
board and providing a solid contribution
to the 2006 series point fund.
With the pits overflowing, the series
provided fans with an additional
qualifying race and series officials and
Madison International Speedway agreed to
increase the feature field to 28 cars.
It's here the story begins.
Feiler, who owns several track
championships would make the main event
by winning one of the qualifying race
contests, with victories in the other
two races captured by Steve Carlson and
Jeremy Miller. This would place
Feiler 19th on the starting grid as the
field accepted the green flag for the
100 lap main event.
Veteran WCS campaigner Jason Weinkauf,
who holds the streak for the most
consecutive WCS appearances with 33
consecutive starts, brought the field to
the green flag with Kenny Richards to
his outside. Richards would gain
the upper had as the field raced to the
strip to complete the first lap.
Steve
Rubeck, who collected the victory in the
season opening contest for the Challenge
series one month ago at Rockford
Speedway slipped into the second spot,
with young hard charging Minnesota
native Dean Cornelius collecting third
moments later.
Rubeck would press into the lead working
by Richards on the seventh circuit,
leaving both Richards and Cornelius to
contest the second spot with both cars
sporting the number nine. On lap
15, Cornelius pressed his bright yellow
ride under Richards to grab the second
spot. Meanwhile defending series
champion Nathan Haseleu began to work
forward having settled into the fourth
slot.
The first caution of the afternoon would
appear when Weinkauf came to a stop in
turn two on lap 22.
Action resumed briefly before Jeremy
Lepak had mechanical ills coming to a
stop on the front stretch on lap 26.
Haseleu has dispatched Richards to claim
third before the caution.
After another brief caution Rubeck again
would show the way with Cornelius giving
chase. Haseleu meanwhile began to
work the lead duo looking for a way to
the front, and Jeff Kendall joined the
group making it a four way battle for
the top spot.
Haseleu's strong run came to an end when
his drive train let go on lap 36 forcing
the final caution of the day and ending
the defending champion's run.
The race resumed with Rubeck again
taking the lead but he immediately came
under challenge from Cornelius who would
find room to the inside of Rubeck and
the pair would battle side by side for
the top spot for several laps with fast
qualifier Andrew Morrissey in tow.
The yellow flag would flay at lap 50 for
a 10 minute break to refuel cars for the
final 50 laps of the contest with
Cornelius showing the way followed by
Morrissey, Rubeck, Kendall and Richards.
It
would be lap 52 however that became the
undoing of the lead group. Coming
off turn four Cornelius slipped up the
track allowing Morrissey to work to his
inside. The pair touched and both
headed for the wall collecting Rubeck
and Kendall in the process.
Kendall's car went under Rubeck's
flipping Rubeck's car onto its roof and
it slid down the front stretch, missed
by several other cars as the field
scattered.
Though none of the driver were hurt in
the accident Rubeck and Morrissey were
done for the day, while Kendall and
Cornelius would return after repairs in
the pits.
This placed Richards back into the lead,
followed by two-time series champion
Mark Eswein and Feiler who had patiently
worked his way though the field.
With action resuming Richards shot back
to the lead while Feiler marched past
Eswein for the runner-up spot.
Richards would keep Feiler at bay
through the next two cautions on laps 58
and 80 both for minor spins.
During each restart Feiler would
pressure early before Richards would
squirt away. That is until the
final caution on which flew with ten
laps to go. As the green flag
flew, Richards drove up the track after
his car hesitated momentarily.
Feiler used the opportunity to blast
into the lead. Richards regained
his momentum to slide into second ahead
of Eswein, regular NASCAR Midwest Series
competitor Josh Vadnais and Andy Monday
who had quietly worked into fifth after
starting dead last in the 28 car field.
Over the final laps Richards would hound
Feiler, but Feiler was able to maintain
a three car length lead to claim the
victory, his first in WCS competition,
and the second for the Maynard
Motorsports team who has tasted victory
with Terry Baldry wheeling the car to a
win at Marshfield Speedway at the end of
the 2004 season. Richards,
the current Golden Sands Speedway point
leader would finish second followed by
Eswein, Vadnais and Monday in the top
five.
Steve Holzhausen would finish sixth,
Carlson held onto seventh, NASCAR
Craftsman Truck series competitor and
2003 Wisconsin Challenge Series champion
Erik Darnell laid claim to eighth. Scott
Ollerman would finish ninth, and
Kendall, worked his way back to the
final top ten position with a car
missing almost all of it's front end
body panels.
The program would conclude with a 28 car
B-feature which was won handedly by Jeff
Storm. Tommy Pecaro, Todd Kropf,
Matt Kocourek and Jeff Way completed the
top five finishers in the 30 lap
contest.
The Wisconsin
Challenge Series presented by Simply Wow
Cleaner Degreaser now heads to Wisconsin
International Speedway for the Budweiser
/ WAPL Spring Classic. The event,
which will be held on Sunday Afternoon,
May 21st. will see qualifying take place
at 11:30 a.m. and the racing action will
begin at 1:00 p.m.
In addition to the WCS
Super Late Models, the Wisconsin Sport
Trucks will be on hand, and the show
will conclude with a wild Figure Eight
finale.
Wisconsin International Raceway is
located near the intersections of
Highway 55 & KK south of Kaukauna,
Wisconsin. Additional information
can be found at
www.wirracing.com or on the official
series website at
www.wisconsinchallenge.com
Miller Classic 100 - Madison
International Speedway - May 7, 2006
100 Lap
Feature: -- Feature: 1.)
Dave Feiler (Sun Prairie), 2.) Jeff
Richards (Montello), 3.) Mark Eswein
(Wisconsin Rapids), 4.) Josh Vadnais
(White Bear Lake, MN), 5.) Andy Monday
(Appleton), 6.) Steve Holzhausen
(LaCrosse), 7.) Steve Carlson (West
Salem), 8.) Erik Darnell (Beach Park,
IL), 9.) Scott Ollerman (Sun Prairie),
10.) Jeff Kendall (Montello) 11.) Tim
Schendel (Sparta), 12.) Jonathan Eilen
(Elko, MN), 13.) Jason Tyler
(Stoughton), 14.) Jeremy Miller
(Rockton, IL), 15.) John Zimmerman
(Markesan), 16.) Jason Weinkauf
(Merrill), 17.) Bryan Roach (Goodhue,
MN), 18.) Frank Kreyer (Pardeeville),
19.) Trent Snyder (Ironton, MN), 20.)
Adam Royle (Farmington, MN); 21.) Chris
Weinkauf (Merrill), 22.) Dean Cornelius
(Chaska, MN), 23.) Andrew Morrissey (DeForest),
24.) Steve Rubeck (Cherry Valley, IL),
25.) Nathan Haseleu (Pardeeville), 26.)
Brian Johnson Jr. (Roscoe, IL), 27.)
Jeremy Lepak (Wausau), 28.) Dale
Nottestad (Cambridge)
Fast Qualifier: Andrew Morrissey –
DeForest 17.558 (102.52 mph)
Qualifying Race #1: Steve Carlson- West
Salem
Qualifying Race #2: Jeremy Miller-
Rockton, IL
Qualifying Race #3: Dave Feiler- Sun
Prairie
B Feature: Jeff Storm- Waterford
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