EAGLE — Gary Dominguez has helped at Eagle Raceway for the past 20 years driving the pace car. On Sunday, he took his final lap, leading a 27-car IMCA Sprint Car RaceSaver Nationals field one last time.
It was a memorable night for Jake Bubak of Lubbock, Texas, too, as he became the sixth winner of the race.
Turn one proved to be a nightmare for the field, bringing numerous wrecks, allowing Bubak to shine in the final laps and weave in and out of lap traffic to move from second to first in the final five laps.
“Turn one was real tough because the hole at the top is always there and there was a big hole at the bottom that was hit on the opening lap; that about wiped us out there,†Bubak said. “It was kind of scary. Joey Danley kind of did the same thing; luckily I went to the bottom and was able to avoid it.â€
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Bubak joins two-time and defending champion Jason Martin, Kevin Ramey, Jack Dover, John Carney and Kyle McCutcheon in winning the IMCA event at Eagle.
The RaceSaver field had to wait nearly an hour to close out the season at Eagle after Dr. Danger, performing a stunt, needed medical attention after his car flipped onto its roof.
That caused Bubak to race in his mind before putting the gas to the floor on the dirt track for real.
“We've experienced this quite a bit,†Bubak said. “We knew the race was long and knew we didn't have to go real hard at the beginning starting up front like we did.
“We just needed to get to lap traffic and that's where this car really shines, in lap traffic. Except for tonight I was horrible in lap traffic, but we've been really close for a long time and we finally got it.â€