By Jeff Chaney | The Grand Rapids Press MLive.com
MARNE -- Johnny VanDoorn was in position to win the Rowdy 251 at Berlin Raceway on Wednesday night.
Then, things went bad for the Coopersville driver with four laps to go in the Champion Racing Association Super Series race.
Racing in second place behind Kyle Busch on a restart on lap 246 of the 251-lap race, Grand Rapids’ Johnny Benson ran up the rear end of VanDoorn, causing him to spin out and hit the wall on turn one.
That sent VanDoorn to the pits, and wondering what might have happened.
"It is pretty clear why Benson doesn’t have a truck ride," VanDoorn said. "He blew right up my ass going into the corner. I’d say that wreck was his fault.
"I’m pretty disappointed, but I guess that’s the way it goes. It’s racing," he added. "But that is how our year has been going, nothing but bad luck. It was a good ride, but not the results we wanted."
"We knew we weren’t going to win with the motor we had," VanDoorn said. "Busch was strong, but if my motor wasn’t bad and we could have pitted, we could have beat him."
VanDoorn led 150 of the 251 laps.
"We had a beautiful car until the motor started laying down," VanDoorn said. "It started missing real bad 80 laps back."
JORDAN DAHLKE has enjoyed the month of June. The 19-year-old Middleville driver won his second feature of the month in the USA Modified Series on Wednesday night. After winning June 11, Dahlke took the lead on lap 31 of 50-lap feature and never looked back. "We’ve got it going pretty good," Dahlke said. "We’ve had a good car the past two weeks." Dahlke pulled away from the field after taking the lead until a caution with three laps to go tightened it back up. Even after the caution, he wasn’t challenged. "I can’t complain," Dahlke said. "We’ve just got it dialed in right now." Dahlke then pulled double duty, racing in the Rowdy 251. Starting 29th, Dahlke finished fourth.
BRANDON HERMILLER kicked off the night by winning the 15-lap Last Chance Race for the Rowdy 251. The 18-year-old Walker driver started up front and never trailed in his first Super Lates win of any kind. It was a better Wednesday than Tuesday for Hermiller. "It didn’t feel too bad out there," said Hermiller, who also races in the Pro Stock series. "Yesterday, we blew an engine, and lost a lot of practice time. Today, we were just trying to shake things down." Hermiller was in the Last Chance Race because he missed qualifying by one spot earlier Thursday. The night didn’t end well for him, as Hermiller was involved in a large crash out of turn two on lap 85 of the main feature. His car had to be towed to the pits, and Hermiller finished 27th in the 32-car field.
ONLY THREE DRIVERS led laps of the Rowdy 251. Wyoming’s Brian Campbell led after the first lap, and VanDoorn or Busch led the rest.
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