Wall - Attended as a fan in the stands. $22. Modifieds, Sportsman, Factory Stocks and 4 Cylinders. Pretty solid crowd for a cold November day/night. Good atmosphere Liked: Andrew Krause continues to show the ability to get to cleanly get to the front. It's been great watching him develop into the top modified driver that he is. Great "clean"battle with Jimmy Blewett with Krause making the winning pass with about 10 to go. Car counts very good in all divisions. Didn't like: Another week where guys lining up in 2nd on a restart cheat the restart by having their front wheels ahead of the leader in the restart area. (I remember a few years' back talking posting about it here on the board and and calling it "the 2nd place creep.") This time it cost Shannon Mongeau the Sportsman win as Blake Barney in the #14 who was 2nd on the restart had his nose ahead of Mongeau in the #3x as they entered and continued into the restart zone, and Mongeau (leader) didn't go because of it... and Barney did... resulting in a huge pile up (at least 6 cars towed off) and damage to leader Mongeau causing a flat/damage... requiring a pit stop which took him from the lead... and the car was never right. End result... Leader Mongeau's race was pretty much over, and the driver that caused the mess, gets rewarded by getting to line up 1st since the leader had to pit! There is no penalty for when the 2nd place car puts/keeps his car ahead of the first place car as they are in the restart zone which is direct cause of more wrecked racecars, and as was the case Saturday, the results of the race greatly being effected. Expect more of the same this Friday and Saturday since unless they lay down the law in the driver's meeting and tell the drivers that if you're lining up 2nd on a restart, and any part of your car is ahead of the leader in the restart zone, the leader can/will go, and 2nd place car is then racing under a 2 position penalty. FM simulcast volume low. Either that, or my ears were too cold to hear in my headset! Listening to the announcers at Wall in a headset makes it a more complete experience, and keeps me from tuning out under yellows/etc., so it's really a good thing, but only if folks can hear it. ...I liked that they tried to move the show along faster as it got later and later (going green without taking as many laps to reset the field... The issue I have with that is that is what should be done throughout the entire show.... Maybe if they shut off the heat in the tower and opened all the windows, just maybe they'd find a way to get the cars lined up quicker.... Speaking of taking extra laps, if the rule is that a car gets 3 (?) courtesy laps if they pit for a flat/damage, then they need to get to the pits as soon as the yellow comes out. Should not wait for a driver that is riding around under yellow for a few laps... and then a few laps more..., who then decides he needs to hit the pits... to now have to wait another 3 laps or whatever they are given. Other: It's too late in the year, but would like to see them put down more traction compound in the outside lane early next season, as when they did it last year (?) it seemed to make the outside lane more competitive. Cars can pass as it is now, but it's back to where the inside lane still seems to be the best way around once they get back to green flag racing. Going back this year?: If the weather is good, I'll probably be back as it's the last chance of seeing racing form me until March.
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