The  "Racing For Clean Air" Team Captain Andy Santerre
Widens Points Lead With Top-5 Finish At Beech Ridge
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SCARBOROUGH, Me. – Mike Olsen won Saturday night’s Irving Oil 150 NASCAR Grand National Division, Busch North Series race at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, taking the lead for the final time when Mike Johnson was given a time penalty for a restart violation with two laps remaining. Kelly Moore, Eddie MacDonald, Jerry Marquis, and Andy Santerre completed the top five, with Dave Dion, Matt Kobyluck, Travis Benjamin, Brian Hoar, and Dale Quarterley making up the balance of the top ten. Johnson was credited with 13th place.
The dramatic conclusion ended a two-man race which saw the lead swapped four times between Olsen and Johnson, the first three coming in heavy traffic created by an 84-lap green flag run from lap 38 to 121. Kelly Moore fought off MacDonald in a similar battle after MacDonald passed Dion on lap 87.
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The caution flag which ended the extended spell of green flag racing, for a spin by Carey Heath, saw none of the leaders pit, but Marquis and Benjamin, near the tail of the lead lap, took new tires and were rushing toward the front as the laps ran out. The final caution, for a spin involving Quarterley, Joey McCarthy, and Brad Leighton, extended the race to achieve a green-white-checker finish and produced the decisive restart.
Olsen also won his first Bud Pole of the season and led the most laps by a margin of just two laps over Johnson. Santerre, by advancing 11 positions from start to finish, captured the PowerAde Power Move of the Race Award for the third time this season, while Ryan Moore, despite finishing 15th, was the Raybestos Rookie-of-the-Race for the tenth time.
Santerre's point lead grew to an even 100 over Kelly Moore with five races remaining in the 2003 season, as Mike Stefanik's 14th place dropped him to third in the title chase, 122 points behind.
Olsen's fourth career Busch North Series victory was accomplished at 55.089 miles per hour as only four caution periods for 29 laps slowed the action, and 23 of the 24 starters were running at the finish. The series moves to Olsen's home track, Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre, Vermont, for next Saturday's True Value 150, where Olsen is the defending winner.
NEXT RACE: True Value 150, Thunder Road International Speedbowl, Barre, Vt., Saturday, August 30. |
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