Birthday Wishes Come True for Crew Chief!
 

07/5/02
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Don Erickson
WiddisRacing.com

When all the smoke had cleared and all the yelling was finished on Friday night Boyd Widdis was able to say his cupcakes were delicious and also he was one year older. As he blew out his candles and made his wish the crew wondered what he had wished for. Their earlier contemplation would soon be answered as son, Bret Widdis, driving his father’s #16 car, drove into victory lane in the Pure Stock feature race.

Bad news would knock on the #16 car early during the four car dash. Point’s leader Norm Miller and Larry Young Jr. continued to run side by side the first two laps of the race. Halfway through the dash the two connected on turn two spinning Larry around sideways directly in front of Widdis resulting in a vile wreck that would send Larry to the pits for the rest of the race. Widdis, though, was lucky he had such a fantastic pit crew to allow him to get back out on the track before the green flag flew. Widdis would end up snatching 2nd place from Josh Ware.

The most anticipated feature race of the night would not disappoint. On lap one the #32 car driven by Al Odbert III got too high coming out of turn two and rode in the dirt halfway down the back straightaway. As the #32 car tried to creep back into his position a near miss occurred as he nearly hit the driver beneath him! A lap later the #72 car driven by Art Lavigne spun around resulting in dirt flying, airborne tires, and cracked windshields!

Widdis would work his way up to the 2nd position and would fight Ben Huyck for 1st. He would finally obtain enough thrust to edge Huyck out on turn three taking the checkered flag with a beautiful photo finish! Widdis would be the first driver to capture two feature checkered flags in the 2002 season.