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round, a nearly exact replica of their earlier grudge race with“ Shadow 2.0” in the right lane and“ Enigma” in the left. It was just after midnight on Sunday night after a long week of racing, but a considerable crowd still escorted the two cars as they rolled into the beams. The two drivers followed the same starting line procedure as they did in their previous meeting, with Jackson leading Haney into the pre-stage and stage beams, then through every incremental to the 660-foot mark. Haney’ s 3.77 at 199.52 wasn’ t enough to overcome Jackson’ s starting line advantage and 3.742 at 199.67.
“ I would’ ve had to go. 012 red to even have a chance at beating him to the finish line,” Haney realizes.“ There wasn’ t a chance to win that particular race at that particular moment. Had we run that. 77 pass the round before, I believe we could’ ve came back and had a. 75 or. 74 in the final, but that would’ ve been hanging the tongue out of the front of the car – and those Roots cars – I’ m going to say it out loud in front of
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everybody, but the Roots and the turbos can go a lot faster than us. They have a lot more in the tank. The nitrous cars have to hang the tongue out. I wasn’ t willing to blow my motor up to win the race because I promise you it was going to cost more than 50 grand if I’ d done something like that.”
Meanwhile, Jackson admits he was fully expecting Haney to lay up a low- to mid-3.7-second pass, so he came to the starting line with every ounce of horsepower he had.
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“ We went up there to run. 74,” Jackson says.“ I looked at it like this – Keith Haney has basically the same drivetrain that I had when I went. 75 when I set the world record with a nitrous car. He’ s got basically the same engine, transmission, and set up – same type of car. So I went up there to play him to run. 75. We had just went. 78 or. 79 – the smart move was to try to beat him on the tree. I told Phil,‘ If I was racing that car, it’ d go. 75 right now.’ I didn’ t want to be a hundredth late and outrun him by a hundredth and get beat. I didn’ t take him lightly. Brandon is a home-run-ball type of guy like me and I knew he was gonna go for it. We went up there to run. 74, it wasn’ t something that just accidentally happened. I had the full, maximum wick turned up on that thing.”
Even in the final round, Jackson brought out one of his signature grudge racing moves: after he turned on the win light and dropped the parachutes, Jackson slipped into neutral and whacked the throttle a couple times, or“ hossed the gas”.
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“ I hossed the gas on Haney both times,” Jackson points out.“ I’ m never going to race somebody in a grudge race and not hoss the gas, especially when I’ m driving away from him. It’ s just a courtesy pat – I want to let‘ em know that they’ re doing a good job but they’ re not quite there yet.”
Haney, who planned to give the $ 50,000 payout to his crew if he ended up winning, admits that he didn’ t quite have enough to take down Jackson on the stage where he is perhaps the most comfortable. Considering the fact that Haney and his tuners, Pesz and Switzer, come from a big-tire background and have only an estimated 50 laps on the small-tire“ Enigma”, it was a strong showing for the Oklahoma businessman.
“ With the amount of talent that was there in that particular class, I couldn’ t have asked for a better weekend,” Haney says.“ I don’ t think anybody, other than Stevie – he got the great weekend – had a better weekend. Stevie won the race, but I won the show. That’ s how I look at it.”
– NATE VAN WAGNEN DI
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