Story by: Andy Marquis

Manassas, VA(June 2, 2011) — Mike Darne went to victory lane Saturday Night in the $2,000 to win “Tornados 100 powered by On The Run” at Old Dominion Speedway. Darne fought power steering problems and a late race charge from Davey Callihan to score the win.

“We didn’t have any power steering so I don’t know that we were dominating,” Darne said in Victory Lane. “We kept it out front and Callihan drove me clean and that’s what this is all about.”

Callihan tried everything to make a clean pass on Darne in the closing laps en route to his third second place finish in the 2011 season. Callihan got alongside Darne several times in the race but he was never able to make it stick and could never complete a pass on Darne.

“I didn’t want to wreck (Darne) at all, I just wanted to run a good race,” Callihan said in victory lane. “Coming home second is better than anything so we’re just looking to move forward every week and that’s what we’ve been doing.” When asked how close he was to scoring his third career win at Old Dominon Speedway, Callihan said “this second place stuff is starting to get old.”

Darne received $2,000 on top of regular race day winnings for winning the race and Callihan received $1,000 on top of regular race day winnings for his runner-up finish. Both drivers received a “Tornados” hat and jacket provided by Ryan Newman. Tornados was the title sponsor of Saturday’s “Tornados 100 powered by On The Run”. Dustin Storm got $100 on top of his regular winnings for his eighth place finish as a result of a random draw promotion by another speedway sponsor.

In a more bizarre way of making up races (weather has been a major issue), Old Dominion awarded full points for the complete field based on their running positions at lap 50. As far as points go in the overall NASCAR Whelen All American Series, the race was divided in to twin 50 lap races. As far as the winning purse goes, that was not divided in half and race winnings were based on where each driver was running at the end of the 100th lap. Regardless, Darne was leading and Callihan was second at the 50 lap mark.

The most intense action on the night took place behind Darne and Callihan. David Polenz spent several laps trying to pass Brandon Brown on the inside lane of the race track. Polenz almost had him clear when they both drove hard in to turn one. This time, Polenz’s car didn’t stick resulting in two torn up racecars. Brown’s team worked to get him back on the racetrack but the damage was too severe. Polenz went out a couple times but the damage to his car was also too severe and he parked it shortly after.

“Through my perspective, I was just driving and he stuck his nose on the inside so I gave him room and ran him on the outside,” Brown told Race22.com after the race. “I thought I was running him fair and I knew he was getting looser and looser every lap but sometimes you’ve got to learn to drive like that if you’re going to hang down there and try to keep the position. What happened, from my perspective, is he drove it in way too hard, threw it sideways and came up in to me. He didn’t get past the center of my car, the gravity basically so physics says you’re going to go. If you can’t hang there, don’t go there, that’s just what I think.”

David Polenz saw things differently.

“I’ll be honest with you, I was running fourth and I had a good car,” Polenz said in a post-race interview with Race22.com. I got under Brown down in turn one and the guy cuts me off� I go down in there again and he hit me. Going down the straightaway, we locked wheels and in to one, I couldn’t turn but I was down in the middle of the straightaway so I didn’t know what else to do other than drive in there and we went straight. We locked and wheel hopped.

“He drove in to me, he drove in to Callihan and Storm and he ran in to Robert Bruce,” Polenz continued. “What else can I say? I run in to people but I’ll admit it, I bump them but I don’t wreck them.”

Mike Southard recorded the best lap of the race with a 15.595. The average race pace was 78.267 mph, slowed by three cautions. Nine cars finished on the lead lap.

RACE RESULTS
1 (21) Mike Darne
2 (41) Davey Callihan
3 (31) Dave Moon
4 (18) Les Miranda
5 (22) Adam Brenner
6 (11) Paul Green
7 (5) Mike Southard
8 (01) Dustin Storm
9 (56) Doug Liberman
10 (33) David Polenz
11 (29) Robert Bruce
12 (68) Brandon Brown
13 (17) Joel Brown