DNK Select 250 may return in ’05 Sponsor happy with car count, fans

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Although a decision hasn’t been made as yet, Doug White of DNK Select Used Auto Sales in Farmingdale indicated that the DNK Select 250 could become an annual event.

The first one was held on Sunday night and 72 cars turned out at Unity Raceway as well as a near-capacity crowd.

“We haven’t made any clear decision about next year yet. We’re waiting for the bills to come in. We’ll see what the bottom line shows,” said White. “It was a great time. We were very pleased with the fans and the car count.”

DNK put approximately $200,000 into the event, including the purse.

Tickets were $40 for general admission and $45 for reserved seats.

“We haven’t added up the ticket sales yet,” said White.

However, White feels the race will make money for them although it will be impossible to put a number on it.

“The biggest thing was getting our name out there. That has a value you can’t count,” said White. “We couldn’t be happier.”

He talked to several fans after the race and has asked people who worked at the race to write a critique of the event.

“When you’re building a new program, you want to look at the good and the bad and see how to improve it,” said White. “I’ll be curious to get the responses back.”

“I was very happy with it, other than all the [21] cautions,” said Johnny Crawford, who leases and manages the track.

There weren’t time trials but there were heat races and the lineups for those races were determined by a draw. Then there were several 20-lap consolation races for those who didn’t qualify in the heat races and a final 35-lap qualifier.

That determined the top 30 and there were four provisionals.

“As a racer, I’d like to see time trials,” said Farmingdale’s Johnny Clark, who won the race and took home $25,000. “But if I was a fan, the format would be pretty good. You could have someone like [Ralph] Nason start dead last in a heat race and see what happens [as he tries to make his way through the pack].”

There were a lot of cautions in the preliminary races in addition to the 21 in the DNK 250 itself.

“I’m not a big fan of the lucky draw. It promotes wrecks,” said Mercer’s Jeff Taylor, the owner of Distance Racing Products who was a victim of a lap-six wreck that resulted in a 33rd-place finish.

“Time trials are boring to watch for the fans but at least you could line up your heat races by speed so the heat races wouldn’t be that rough,” said Taylor. “If you’ve got guys starting up front who are half a second slower [than the cars behind them], everybody will be trying to get by them and that causes wrecks.”

“With time trials, you’d end up with your fastest cars up front and that makes for better racing,” added Taylor.

Taylor also thought the track itself “needs a little work. There were too many cars on the track at one time and it isn’t that big a place.”

Taylor enjoyed the event and thought the payoffs were well dispersed. He also liked the fact it was held early in the season.

All of the qualifiers were guaranteed at least $2,000.

“It’s better when everyone gets a piece of the pie,” said Taylor. “For some, the money they made will carry them through the summer.”

He said one of the negative aspects of the lucrative Big Dawg Challenge at Wiscasset Raceway last October was “a lot of people were broke then [because it was at the end of the season].”

The Big Dawg winner, South Paris’ Sam Sessions, won $100,000 but the total purse was similar to Sunday’s so the other drivers weren’t as well compensated as they were on Sunday.

Those who showed up but failed to qualify still earned $300.

White said he was pleased with the media support and said it’s “always nice having one of your own cars win.”

Clark was driving a DNK Monte Carlo. His uncle, Charlie Clark, co-owns the business with White.

White also said he was pleased with the performance turned in by Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre, the defending two-time Busch North points champ and current points leader who finished seventh after starting last in a DNK car.

He had very little practice time in the car.

“Andy did a good job. He hadn’t driven a pro stock car in eight years. He brought three of his crew members and they really helped us. They kept adjusting it. It was great,” said White.

Clark has plans for $25,000

So how is Clark going to spend his $25,000?

“I’m going to pay off the trailer and I’m not going to worry about tire bills. I’ll pay off a few bills. I’ll put some in the bank. It will help our team out a lot,” said Clark.

He said it was the biggest win of his career “without a doubt.”

He said getting involved in a wreck with 18 laps remaining was one of the big keys to his victory.

“We went into the pits and put two new tires on,” said Clark, who could afford that luxury because there were only six cars on the lead lap.

When Ben Rowe bumped his father, Mike Rowe, on a restart, that gave Clark his opportunity and he made the most of it.

“I didn’t know I was good enough to beat Mike but Ben disposed of him,” said Clark, who sailed inside Ben Rowe and swapped paint with him before pulling away thanks to the two new tires and superior grip.