Innocence means little on the race track

Those attending Toyota Speedway on April 10, 2010 witnessed racing at the country's finest half mile short track. The premier division arrived this week with Pepsi on board as the new series sponsor. With the combination of the poor economy, a lingering controversy, as well as some wrecked cars from opening night, 13 drivers arrived in the Super Lates to duel.

Despite the lack in quantity, the quality of drivers and cars outweighed the lack of numbers and qualifying's close times confirmed that, with Ryan Partridge laying down the fastest lap. At approximately 7pm, the engines roared for the first race of the night, a trophy dash consisting of the fastest 6 qualifiers in the Pepsi Super Late Models. The benefit to winning is a bonus pay check and the pride of winning tacos for a group of fans. In addition to the perks, the finishing order of the dash determines the starting order for the main event...and with only 25 miles from start to finish, where you start is critical.

Green flag flew for the drivers, and the racing was tight but clean for the first 4.75 laps, with a 3 wide battle for the lead between opening night winner Nick Joanides, Justin Johnson, and Scott Dodd. It was when the race reached turn 3 coming to the white flag where things went wrong, and mostly for the wrong people.

Dodd and Johnson battled feircely throughout the race, having contact going down the back stretch on lap 4. Johnson gained posession of the 2nd position entering turn 3, but going through the turn the front end of Dodd slammed into the back of Johnson and the melee was engaged.

Johnson's car spun up the track, blocking every car in the race minus the leader of Joanides. Dodd spun to avoid destroying his car, but unfortunately Ryan Partridge wasn't so lucky and slammed into Johnson, destroying the front end of his car. Despite having nothing to do with the initial confrontation between the two drivers, Partridge's fastest qualifying car was destroyed. If not for a back up car, he also would have missed the main event and taken a major blow to his championship hopes.

Racing is unforgiving and never dictates who is innocent and who is not. Often times drivers get caught up in a mess not of their making, but not usually in the race preceding the main event. Partridge finished in 7th in the main, with Johnson in 5th and Dodd in 8th.