Championship Night And Joe Murphy Night At Old Dominion Speedway

Championship Night

Over the last several races David had been building his point lead over the second place driver and heading into championship night he held an 85 point lead. With double races on the schedule and the maximum points available for winning a race being 45, David had to finish 17th or better in the first race to win the championship. For whatever reason the second place driver decided not to participate in the last two races. This meant that David was declared Champion before he took the green flag. The celebration, however, would have to wait until the nights racing was complete.

100 Lapper #1

David was slated to start the race from the 8th spot, normally a tough starting spot, but since there were 100 laps in each race there was plenty of time for him to be patient and work his way to the front. On the initial start of the race, heading in to turn one, the 5th and 6th place cars came together and wrecked right in front of David; fortunately, he managed to miss both of them. After the clean up, David restarted the race in 6th place. The car was handling well and David started making his way forward, passing one car at a time. By lap 50 he was in second place, trying to track down the leader. He was able to get up to the leader but was never able to make a challenge for the win and he finished 2nd in the first 100 lap race.

100 Lapper #2

David started 2nd in the second race alongside the winner of the first race. The leader was able to stay ahead of David. David ran 2nd for the first several laps as there seemed to be one caution after another. About 20 laps in David said the car seemed to be losing grip and his lap times started to fall off. By lap 40 he had slipped to 3rd place but was still over a half lap ahead of 4th
place. On lap 46 the red flag came out for a bad wreck. During the clean-up the team discussed since there were only eight cars on the lead lap that maybe David should pit for some adjustments to help the handling. Once the yellow came out David decided to pull in and make some changes. When the race went green again David was in 7th place; the leader had also pitted and came out of the pits after David. The handling on our car was better, but the guy who had been leading was very fast, passed several cars and David couldn't even come close to him. He made his way back to the lead in about 15 laps and David was in 6th and the car was still not as handling as well as it could be. David was having a tight battle for position, there was a little contact and around the other car went. After the caution David was in 5th place and he rode that out to the end. After post race tech the winner who pitted the same time as us was disqualified for putting unapproved tires on the car, giving David a 4th place finish.
David Celebrating with some Championship Donuts!

David's stats for 2011 At Old Dominion Speedway

4 wins, 16 top 5's, 17 top 10's in 18 starts, he has an average finish of 3.61 and won the championship by 105 points

Joe Murphy Night

Joe Murphy was able to make it back to Old Dominion Speedway Saturday night for the first time since his stroke on August 8th and with one of the largest crowds of the season on hand it made for a great night to have Joe Murphy Night.
In the racing community it is tradition that when one of their own has been struck down and is in need of help they hit the bleachers and pit road passing the helmet. So with a large crowd on hand it made for a very successful night.

Joe and his family got to the track in time for qualifying and spent the night in the pits with us. It was awesome to have him there again. Several of the drivers stopped by our pit stall to say hi and wish him a speedy recovery.
Seeing Joe walk down the front stretch to celebrate our championship with us was the highlight of the night for our team.

David Polenz and his whole team would like to thank all of the fans, drivers and the staff of Old Dominion Speedway for making this a successful and memorable night for all of us.