Shirley’s anti-kryptonite was the super-smooth top line in Turns 3-4, which he took almost the entire race. But once he got that top off and got rolling, he was just too good up there.” “I thought, at one point, I hit the bottom pretty good there for a couple laps in-a-row, and I thought maybe there was a chance. “He was definitely better it would’ve taken a mistake for me to get by him,” Blair said of Shirley. Using the bottom lane, the Centerville, PA-driver nearly pulled even with Shirley at various points but was unable to match Shirley’s speed on the top. Max Blair was his biggest threat for the lead in the closing laps. “I was hoping about two or three before the final one that we could just go green for a little while and get some laps, because at that time, I could gap ‘em pretty good.”
“I was definitely nervous, I’m not gonna lie,” Shirley said. At least five cautions were thrown in the final 20 laps of the 40-lap affair, forcing him to be extra sharp on the gas at the drop of the green.
#Leegit bend it git it drivers#
Once he got the lead, Shirley’s drive to the finish was peppered with yellow flags, putting him through several restarts with a field of relentless drivers behind him. “He wanted to be up top too, and that’s where I wanted to be.” “I was able to get a better drive there off of Turn 2 on that restart and was able to launch in front of in Turns 3-4,” Shirley said. Starting outside Row 2, Shirley had to work to get the lead in the first half of the race, working around Joe Godsey for second on Lap 8, and later getting past polesitter Payton Freeman for the lead on a Lap 18 restart. The tire held just enough air in it for Shirley to motor across the finish line, holding off hungry challengers Bobby Pierce and Max Blair to record the 37th DIRTcar Summer Nationals win of his career and first at the big quarter-mile oval of Springfield Raceway. Though it was going flat in the final laps, it didn’t seem to bother the four-time Hell Tour champion. I couldn’t bend with the tire being that flat.” “I didn’t know I had a flat tire, but I knew… something was wrong,” Shirley, of Chatham, IL, said. SPRINGFIELD, MO – J– On a restart with three laps to go, leading the Feature for the second time in three days, Brian Shirley could feel something was amiss on his car.Īs he rolled into DIRTcar Summer Nationals Victory Lane Tuesday night, the crew discovered the culprit immediately – a flat right-rear tire on the Bob Cullen Racing #3s. NO AIR, NO PROBLEM: Shirley Wins at Springfield with Deflating Right-Rear Tireīlair finishes third, notches third top-five in four starts