After essentially rebuilding his car in the off season, Craig Miller put it to the test and passed with flying colors at Shadyside Dragway in the first big Outlaw 10.5 race of 2007.
Sometimes it just takes a fresh approach. At least that’s how it appeared Mar. 11, when Craig Miller drove to the $10,000 Outlaw 10.5 win before a huge crowd at Shadyside Dragway’s 6th annual Garland Buff Memorial event. Putting into practice tactics he’d described even before eliminations began at the Shelby, NC, eighth miler, Miller was able to chase down Jack Barfield in the final round to post a .009-second margin of victory.
“In past years we’ve been very conservative, trying to run just fast enough to beat the guy beside us. We did okay, won some races, but just felt like we’d never done as well as we could have. So this year we’ve decided to go all out for every run,” the Savannah, GA-based driver explained. He admitted his team sometimes felt frustrated by getting to the late stages only to fall short of keeping pace with the quicker competition they’d find there. “Now we want to build our tune-up along the way instead of waiting until the final round to try and work it out against fast guys like (Steve) Kirk, or (Chuck) Ulsch, or Barfield.”
Jeff Plemmons of Old Fort, NC, was going for the win against good friend Kevin Dalton in the Outlaw Real Street final at Shadyside when things went horribly wrong for him about half-track. Plemmons’ 1974 Nova lost traction and sashayed a little before veering almost head-on toward the left guardwall. |
After qualifying seventh for the 16-car field, Miller worked the plan to perfection at Shadyside, improving from a 4.621 opening-round win over Scott Hartley to a solo 4.560 inround two after Kirk was shut off on the line with an oil leak. In the semis, Miller again went quicker, going 4.532 at 163.24 mph to earn a holeshot win over Ulsch, who posted 4.512/162.82 in Gil Mobley’s ’02 Camaro.
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Meanwhile, Barfield, also from the Savannah area, led a charmed life on the opposite side of the ladder starting with an off-the-pace competition bye when Stacy McIntyre was unable to answer the call for round one.
