Story by: Mike Neff/Contributor to RACE22.com

North Wilkesboro, NC(April 11, 2011) — Chris Eggleston did what he had to do when he had to do it and that was enough to take home the trophy in “THE RACE” at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

The final 100 lap segment of the race ran caution free and Bubba Pollard ended up being just a little to tight to hold off Eggleston as the laps wound down. Pollard led the most laps in the race but in his words “I didn’t lead the only one I cared about leading.” With 24 laps to go Pollard was trying to pass a lapped car and got his car too loose coming out of turn four. Eggleston saw his opportunity and swept to the outside to take the lead and never looked back.

Eggleston felt “This is the biggest win of my career and hopefully it will open some more doors for me in Colorado and possibly give me a chance for some Truck and Nationwide chances later this year if we can get some sponsorship.”

44 cars hit the historic 5/8 mile oval at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday thanks to a rain postponement Saturday night. Johnny Clark led the field to the green thanks to drawing the number one pill from the bucket for the top 10 qualifier redraw. Jay Fogleman, the points leader for the series coming into the day, started on the outside of the front row with Pat Kelly, Andy Loden, Augie Grill and Bubba Pollard filling out the next two rows. When the green flew Clark took the lead with Pat Kelly following him through.

Andy “High Side” Loden lived up to his nickname and rode the rim to the lead by the end of the fifth lap with Augie Grill on his back bumper for second place. Grill dogged Loden for four laps and finally swept to the outside in turn four to take the lead on lap nine. As the leaders worked through traffic Loden was able to retake the lead from Grill on lap 32.

Lap 49 saw Grill regain the lead from Loden as the two encountered heavy traffic. With 50 laps in the book Grill was in the lead with Loden hot on his heels, Bubba Pollard in third, Chris Eggleston fourth, and Pat Kelly rounding out the top five. The biggest mover of the first 50 laps was Jody Lavender who started 21st and was running eighth when the caution flag flew for a spin in turn four on lap 52 for Joey Doiron.

The restart on lap 53 saw Loden use his outside starting spot to retake the lead while Pollard slotted in second and Kelly grabbed third postion. Lap 56 saw Pollard sweep past Loden to assume the lead for the first time in the race. Lap 62 saw the No. 66 of Brian Ickler slowed going through turns one and two while the No. 24 of Mike Rowe was spun on the front straight. Brandon Ward made multiple trips to pit lane with an ill running car.

As the field took the green and headed through turns one and two the cars of Rebecca Kasten and Kenzie Ruston got together after Kasten was bumped from behind. Both cars ended up in the outside wall with Ruston being able to drive away but Kasten with too much damage to continue. The quickest qualifier for the event Stephen Nasse took the opportunity to pit during the caution to make adjustments because his car was just not handling to his liking. As the field restarted after the cleanup Jody Lavender made a big move and got all of the way to second place behind Pollard with Grill and Loden behind them.

On lap 68 Patrick Laperle got a bump from behind and went around in turn two to bring out another caution. On the restart Lavender was able to complete his run to the front and take the lead away from Pollard. Lap 83 saw Scott Mulkern and John Batten get together on the back straight right before the entrance to pit lane. While Mulkern spun up the track Batten slid down the track and went head on into the water barrels at the end of the pit wall. Batten did get out of the car and walk away. After a lengthy caution to clean up the mess from the water barrels Pollard grabbed the lead from Lavender on the restart with Loden in third and Choquette battling Grill for fourth. The race completed the rest of the laps to the 100 lap break with Pollard first, Lavender second, Loden third,

Choquette fourth and Grill fifth. The rest of the top ten included Ross Kenseth, TJ Reaid, Ryan Blaney, Eggleston, and Erik Darnell. The race took an eight minute break to allow the teams to change tires and make adjustments.

The second 100 lap segment went green with Pollard on the point. Pollard and Loden took off first and second but Lavender seemed to struggle getting going. By lap 102 Lavender dropped to sixth behind Choquette, Grill and Reaid along with the two leaders.

Lap 131 found Loden getting back past Grill as the front runners began to get into the back of the pack. Pollard continued to lead but Loden was making inroads working the high side through traffic. The halfway crossed flags saw Pollard in first for the halfway leader bonus, Loden in second, Eggleston holding down third, Choquet running fourth and Grill fifth. Two laps later Eggleston took Loden for second with a pass on the high side coming out of turn four while Pollard put the fast qualifier Nasse down a lap. After 63 laps of green flag racing to start the second segment Justin Wakefield lost it coming off of turn two and spun to the inside, bringing out the caution flag.

Pollard led the field back to green for the restart with Eggleston in second place. Lap 179 saw Garrett Evans get tapped coming out of turn four and turn into the outside wall. Corey Williams slid into Evans while Laperle tried to go to the inside and ran up and over the back of two cars who were slowed to work around the wreck. When the green flag flew again Choquette got under Eggleston and took away second while Reaid got by Loden for fourth.

Eggleston worked under Choquette in turns one and two and retook second place on lap 187 while the front four cars distanced themselves from the rest of the pack. Eggleston was able to get under Pollard going into turn three and took the lead on lap 197. As the leaders got to the line for lap 200 Alex Flemming spun in turn two to bring out the caution flag. The top 10 at lap 200 were Eggleston, Pollard, Reaid, Choquette, Loden, Kenseth, Blaney, Ben Rowe, Jay Fogleman and Johnny Clark.

The final 100 lap segment went green with Eggleston on the inside of Pollard. Pollard grabbed the lead at the drop of the green with Eggleston in second. Lap 276 saw Pollard get loose coming out of turn four while trying to pass Johnny Clark and Eggleston, who was right on his back bumper, pounced on the opportunity and took the lead. Lap 285 saw Rowe duck under Loden out of turn four to assume fifth position. Amazingly the last 100 laps ran caution free. Pollard was unable to make a charge over the final laps and Eggleston kept his nose clean and picked his way through the traffic to take the checkered flag.

Eggleston admitted that he was confident as the race went along. “I was messing with him in the second segment and then messed up and had to run him down and pass him at the end. With the sun going down it really tightened up but I could see it tightened him up too. He had so much wheel in it that I was getting more forward bite. I just had to pick and choose my opportunity and when I saw it I had to jump on it and make it happen.”

Third place finisher Jeff Choquette spent most of the third segment in no man’s land, too far behind the leaders to contend for the win and far enough ahead of fourth and fifth to not have to worry about them. “I could have pushed it to run up there with those guys but I don’t think I could have beaten them if I got there. We were running the same lap times but I was out of touch. If I pushed it to get up there I would have used up my stuff and not been able to pass. The car came home in one piece and I’m happy I got the chance to run for these guys.”

Second place Pollard, who won the award for leading the most laps was very thankful to the organizers for putting on the event. “I’d like to thank Tom Mayberry and PASS for putting on this race. No one else has the guts to put on a show like this. This was my first time here and this is a neat track. I hope I get the chance to come back.”

“The RACE” Results:
1 – Chris Eggleston
2 – Bubba Pollard
3 – Jeff Choquette
4 – TJ Reaid
5 – Ben Rowe
6 – Andy Loden
7 – Ryan Blaney
8 – Ross Kenseth
9 – Mario Gosselin
10 – Augie Grill
11 – Patrick Laperle
12 – Pat Kelly
13 – Cale Gale
14 – Jay Fogleman
15 – Johnny Clark
16 – Jody Lavender
17 – Mike Rowe
18 – Stephen Nasse
19 – Erik Darnell
20 – Alex Fleming
21 – Ryan Moore
22 – Cassius Clark
23 – Steven Legendre
24 – Brandon Ward
25 – Gary Smith
26 – Jimmy Weller
27 – Justin Wakefield
28 – Trevor Sanborn
29 – Trey Mitchell
30 – Preston Peltier
31 – Scott Mulkern
32 – Scott Alexander
33 – Heath Hindman
34 – Randy Turner
35 – Corey Williams
36 – Garrett Evans
37 – Geoff Bodine
38 – Kenzie Ruston
39 – John Batten
40 – Gray Gaulding
41 – Becca Kasten
42 – Brian Ickler
43 – Joey Doiron
44 – Sterling Marlin