Jefferson notches victory in Idaho 200

Seems that things continue to go right the more Jeff Jefferson turns left.

The Yakima driver cruised to a victory Sunday at the sixth annual NAPA Auto Parts Idaho 200 at Stateline Speedway in the dominant fashion one would expect from a star of NASCAR’s Northwest Series.

“The first half we were real loose and were lucky to start up front,” said Jefferson, the current Northwest Series points leader and winner of two of the five races he’s run.

Even though he might not admit it, Jefferson made it look terribly easy on a blazing hot day in front of some 2,500 sun-soaked fans. He finished a good three seconds in front of Hayden’s Darren Rupinski and nearly a half-lap up on Kevin Richards. The 2004 Idaho 200 winner, Rick Schultz was fourth. Jefferson’s fellow Tour competitor Garrett Evans finished fifth.

A roll of the dice decided how the field would be inverted for the start and the three rolled by Mike Hoover turned out to be Jefferson’s lucky number. It put him on the inside pole, a position he briefly came close to losing, but ultimately never relinquished all afternoon.

On a day when in-car temperatures were estimated to be in the 150-degree range, it was at the end of the first 100-lap segment and early in the second 100 laps that Jefferson felt some additional heat applied by Kevin Richards. The challenge was gone quickly.

“We got to the break, made some adjustments, tightened it up and man it was on a rail,” said Jefferson who has won two of his last three Northwest Series races and holds down that series’ points lead through the first half of the schedule.

The weekend wasn’t all a cruise for Jefferson, who experienced a lot of frustration in his Saturday night qualifying race.

“Last night I finished fifth in the late model race. We were off quite a bit,” Jefferson said. “I was concerned all day today,”

Like other drivers, the Jefferson team changed tires at the half. It didn’t deter his performance in the least. “My tires were the same as the first half.”

Runner-up Rupinski waged two battles, winning one and being very satisfied to come up just short in the other.

His first challenge was taking on and passing Richards for second place.

“It took all day to do it. I got him with about 20 laps to go,” said Rupinski, the 2003 race winner. “I waited for my time.”

In the first 100 laps, Rupinski’s goal was to stay on the lead lap. After the first 25 miles it was mission accomplished. “We started fifth and finished fifth,” despite being plagued by brake problems.

As the laps wound down it was evident there was no catching Jefferson, but that was all right in Rupinski’s mind.

“He’s a hell of a driver. Finishing second, it feels like I won.”

While Jefferson’s tire change at the half didn’t affect his run, it sure did take a toll on Richards, who came into the weekend as one of the hottest late model drivers in the area. He’d won four straight in the Inland Northwest Superstock Series and had a strong third place in the Montana 200, two weeks ago in Kalispell.

“We just had our worst set of tires on this thing in the second half,” Richards said. “We had a good car the first hundred. The second hundred it was so loose I just couldn’t drive it.”

The second half of the race ran flawlessly with just one caution. That was probably due in part to a first half that saw the yellow flag fly four times in the first 25 laps. Wrecks took their toll on a half dozen of the 22 cars that started.

The start of Sunday’s race was a bit reminiscent of Friday’s INSSA qualifier that saw a number of cars sidelined in wrecks. Luckily that pace didn’t continue.

The first yellow flew at Lap 5 when Jack Morse and Jimmy Johnson briefly collided, tearing a lot of fiberglass from Johnson’s car.

Barely another five laps passed before Jay Sauls stalled in turn two and was smacked by Dan Yonke. Sauls, who had put on a whale of a race in Saturday’s qualifier, finishing second, said “something let go,” turning him sideways.

Canadian Reg Midgely’s contact with the wall off of turn two brought out the third yellow in the first 20 laps. After an auspicious start, the next 175 laps went flawlessly.

Through the first 25 laps the top six cars – Jefferson, Brandon Reihl, Evans, Dave Garber and Rupinski – all ran nose to tail. By the midway point of the first segment Jefferson began to pull away and Richards was on a roll from his 14th place starting position.

Reihl stayed close for a while, but fell off the pace when a portion of his rear bumper was left flapping in the breeze after contact with another car. He later spun and was shuffled to the back of the pack.

The remaining half of the opening 100 laps ran flawlessly. The only drama coming towards the end as Richards began to track down Jefferson. He got within two seconds, but that was it.