LEWIS WINS FIRST RACE OF 2002 SEASON

ON RAYBESTOS BRAKES NORTHWEST SERIES

YAKIMA, Wash. (July 20, 2002) – Gary Lewis passed Chris Hart with just under 50 laps to go in the Frank’s Chevrolet 125 held at Yakima Speedway, to capture his first victory of the 2002 Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series, NASCAR Touring season. Pete Harding would get by Hart late in the race to finish second as Hart held down third place.

above: Gary Lewis drives inside Chris Hart on turn four and on to the win at Yakima Speedway

 (photo courtesy of NASCAR)

Joe Benedetti and defending series champion, Kevin Hamlin, rounded out the top-5

Hart and Jason Jefferson led an all Yakima front row with a 24-car field in tow. Troy Conrad captured his first career Bud Pole Award on the series and started sixth based on the inverted field.

Jefferson and Garrett Evans got together racing for third place on lap 20 to bring out a caution. Jefferson would finish the evening in 16th place while Evans was able to stay on the lead lap and came home in ninth.

Hart stayed on the point for 78 laps to claim the Gatorade Front Runner Award for leading the most circuits around the .500-mile Yakima speedplant. Hart recovered nicely from an incident at Evergreen Speedway the weekend before which forced the Yakima Implement/Speck Chevrolet team to bring out the back-up car for their hometown race.

Ron Eaton chased Hart for dozens of laps but was unable to complete the pass for the lead. By lap 51, Lewis had moved to fourth place and took over second place on a restart at lap 70, passing a fading Eaton who was battling brake problems exiting turn No. 2.

Lewis reeled Hart in at the beginning of lap 77 and grabbed the lead exiting turn No. 4 on lap 78. Five laps later Lewis moved out to a six-car length lead on Hart as Harding began to close the gap on second place.

Harding passed Hart on lap 89 for second place and set his sights on Lewis as the race entered the closing laps. Lewis picked up the pace and moved to a two second lead on Harding by lap 100.

Lap 109 found Lewis in heavy race traffic and Harding closing fast. The events final caution on lap 121 bunched the field up and gave Harding one last shot at the win. On the restart Lewis exited turn No.2 quickly over Harding and never looked back in earning his first win of the season and 22nd of his career.

“Our team has become very strong,” Lewis said. “We were struggling and we finally got things figured out. I told you we were coming back; I knew a win was just around the corner. The Sign Factory USA and Sandblasters along with my team, man without their help I could not have gotten it done.”

above: Lewis dials in his race set up during practice at Yakima Speedway (photo courtesy of NASCAR)

Late in the race Lewis began to coax the race car around the famed Yakima Speedway surface he said. “It wanted to get loose on me and I had to tiptoe on the gas coming off the turns which let me use this AC Nutter Engine to pull’em down the straight-aways.”

After starting in 13th position after being the first car to attempt to qualify, Harding was happy to earn a runner-up finish. “I had to come from a little ways back there, Gary was just a little bit better there at the end. I was able to reel him about lap 100 but even when I got to him I didn’t have enough car to get past him.”

For Hart, just ending up with a top-3 finish made up for the late night work to prepare the back-up car after the Evergreen adventure of the week before. “This was a good pay-off, it would have been nice to win the thing but the tires got greased up there at the end. We need to get a win but it sure was nice to lead some laps here tonight,” he said.

View the Northwest Series on NASCAR.com with Results - Standings & Driver Profiles