Elite Racing Las Vegas race summary 2011-03-04

Sin City Scorcher: Jason Meyers Finishes Second and Sixth in the Capitol of Second Chances

In the middle of the Mojave Desert is not where you would expect to find the Entertainment Capitol of the World, but that is part of the mystique that is Las Vegas. In a city where the sun shines on average 300 days a years, Jason Meyers and his Elite Racing team were hoping that the sun would shine on them and bring them some luck this week. After two races at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Meyers came within 0.389 of a second of first victory of the season.

Jason Meyers

A few laps short in Sin City

After last year's amazing win for Meyers at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Elite Racing team was hoping to repeat but came up a few laps short on the first night of racing action. The Champion would begin the evening's main event in the sixth position. On the initial start, Meyers fell back to 8th in his #14 GLR Investments KPC, but did not stay there long. After a Lap 4 caution flag, the Californian used the restart to catapult himself back to the 5th position.

Meyers would then set his sights on Craig Dollansky. He would pursue the #7 car on the cushion, but was not able to complete the pass. When Dollansky passed the #91 of Cody Darrah which was fading, the Californian took the opportunity to also get past on Lap 20. Running in 4th, Meyers would track down Dollansky again, but not before the red flag flew on Lap 23.

On the ensuing restart, Meyers used the inside line to move into the top-3, so the victory was within his reach. Another caution flag slowed racing action with just five laps to go. The Champion used the double file restart to close on second place running Donny Schatz. Meyers in his #14 DDNI racing machine closed using the low side, but was able to make the pass to move into the second position on the outside on Lap 28.

The California Champion was one spot from the victory and was quickly closing on leader Joey Saldana. Unfortunately, the two lap charge was not enough, but Meyers was able to close within 0.389 before the checkered flag flew.

"We have had a good car, but we have to wait for the fuel to burn off," explained Meyers. "We have these big tanks this year and it really slows you down at the beginning of the race. We just set it up to be good at the end. My crew worked hard all night. At the start it did not look good, but as the fuel burned off we got going good. It is sad this is our best run of the season for us so far, but my guys have not given up and we are continuing to work hard. They work to make the car better each night and we almost got it done. We had a little bit of a run on Joey down the back stretch, but could not quite get it done. Thank you to DDNI, Media Tile, GLR Investments, Elite Landscaping and everyone that makes this possible. It is great to go out there and have a good run for them. We will take tonight's set up and work on making it better for tomorrow night and hopefully start a little closer to the front."

Scintillating Sin City

RESULTS QUALIFIED 7 HEAT 1 DASH 3 START MAIN 3 FINISH MAIN 6

Sixth on the Second Time Around

The second night of racing at Las Vegas began much better than the first with Meyers securing the 3rd starting position in the dash, but unfortunately it would not end that way. The A-Main began with a six car incident, but Meyers came out unscathed. When racing action got underway, Joey Saldana got to the inside of Meyers. The Californian would cross the line in the 4th position after lap one. Early on the top-5 were racing in close confines with the top-4 competitors running within a second of each other.

Meyers would hold his own in the fray until a hard charging Donny Schatz challenged him on Lap 14 using the top line. Meyers would fight back using the bottom, but Schatz had the upper hand powering back around the top. Once Schatz also got past Saldana, Meyers attempted to chase down the #9 in his #14 Elite Landscaping KPC.

With 10 laps to go, Meyers was running in the fifth position, but the Champion would have to endure three late race restarts. The final red flag set up a green-white-checkered dash to end the race. During the final sprint for positions, Cody Darrah would get around the 2010 Champion, so Meyers would have to settle for a 6th place finish to end his Vegas campaign.

"We had a great car, but I had a bad restart at the end and fell out of the Top-5," Meyers stated. "It was still a good run for us, but we wanted to get a better finish going into the California races. The track was a little tougher to pass on than it was last night. I have to thank all my guys for their hard work and we will work on getting our first victory of the season at home in California."

Up Next

The California Champion is returning home for a month of racing at in front of his Californian fans. The Californian swing will begin at Silver Dollar Speedway on Saturday March 12.