NASCAR SJAPS: Query Goes Home to Land Another Victory
6 October 1998
Concord, N.C. - - At a track where he has accumulated seven championships, Mooresville, N.C.'s Freddie Query took another step towards a NASCAR championship when he won the $47,160 Food Lion/Greased Lightning 200 at Concord Motorsport Park on Saturday night. The win was Query's eighth Slim Jim All Pro Series victory of 1998 and he pocketed $8,700 for the NASCAR Touring Division race."It (the win) couldn't come at a better time. To be able to come back home here at Concord Motorsport Park, there had to be a little something in our corner but it really makes us sweat because I've run good here over all the years and I've had some of my best races here and just hoped that we could come back and get another one this week and thank goodness we did," stated the Slim Jim All Pro Series point leader.
For the second week in a row Milford, Oh.'s Jeff Fultz drove his Jani-King Chevrolet to the pole position and earned the $300 Bud Pole Award. Fultz blasted around the tricky 0.500 mile trioval in a time of 16.198 seconds at an average speed of 111.125 mph. Local driver Dean Clattenburg earned the outside front row starting position in his first ever All Pro start.
Clattenburg grabbed the early lead as the duo headed side-by-side into the backstretch trioval. His lead was short-lived as Query pushed his Greased Lightning Cleaner Degreaser Chevrolet out front on lap three. Query maintained the top spot until lap 58 when he pitted for four tires during the second caution period, which was brought about when Clattenburg's car came to a stop on the backstretch.
Rookie David Moyer assumed the lead at this point, after electing not to pit with the leaders. Moyer led until lap 67, choosing to pit when the third caution was displayed for a front stretch crash that involved Ricky Marshall, Wayne Anderson, last week's winner Derrick Gilchrist and Hal Goodson.
Yet another rookie took over the top spot as Brian Sockwell led his first laps of 1998 at the wheel of the C&C Boilers/Cleaver Brooks Chevrolet. Sockwell took over after Moyer pitted and Anderson could not avoid Marshall's spinning car.
Sockwell led a total of 48 laps before being overtaken by Query. Sockwell wound up one turn short of capturing the $300 Gatorade Front Runner Award as Query took control at lap 115, with lap 115 representing the fifth consecutive green flag lap after the fifth and sixth caution periods straddled the lap 100 halfway point.
From that point forward Query's exhaustive experience proved to be beneficial as he deftly worked his way through lapped traffic. Greer, S.C.'s Steven Howard drove equally well in his Greer Flooring Center/Trucks & More Chevrolet but when the checkered flag waved Query held off the sophomore speedster by 0.23 seconds. Howard's second place finish proved to be his career best, topping his third place finish last week at Winchester, Ind. Rookie Scott Kilby also drove to his best career finish of third at the wheel of his Arndt & Herman Windows Chevrolet, a new car that he was running for the first time. Sockwell nabbed his first top five finish with a strong fourth place run and Goodson persevered in his Nortel/Northern Telecom Chevrolet to round out the top five. Rounding out the top 10 were Raybestos Northwest Series driver Garrett Evans, Steven Christian, Moyer, Conrad Burr and Ron Young. Nine drivers completed all 200 laps and Young was the first car to finish one lap in arrears.
Query covered the 200 laps in a race record one hour, 26 minutes and 54 seconds at a winning average speed of 69.044 mph. There were a total of 8 caution periods totaling 64 laps and there were five lead changes amongst five drivers. Twenty of 30 starters were running at the end of the race. Query extended his points lead to 64 points over Goodson with just two events remaining on the 1998 schedule. Gilchrist, Steven Christian and Billy Bigley, Jr. continue to round out the top five.
By virtue of his career-best third place run, Statesville, N.C.'s Kilby earned the Rookie-of-the-Race honors. Kilby now leads Ronnie Burkett by eight points.
Alex Query serves as his father's crew chief and he picked up the $300 Jasper Engines & Transmissions Crew-Chief-of-the-Race honors for the eighth time this season.
The Food Lion/Greased Lightning 200 will air on Fox Sports South on Monday, October 19 at 8:00 p.m. Air dates and times for Home Team Sports and The Sunshine Network are still to be determined.
The next event for the Slim Jim All Pro Series is Sunday, October 18 at Nashville Speedway U.S.A. in Nashville, Tenn. The 18th Annual Greased Lightning All American 400 will be the 18th event on the 19-race 1998 Slim Jim All Pro Series schedule.
