(Van Buren, AR) Dennis started thirty-first in a field of thirty-seven Super Late Model drivers which include Kyle Busch, Eddie Mercer, Steven Wallace and many of the nation’s best short-track pilots. During initial qualifying Dennis missed one of the top thirty “lock-in” positions by only 7/100’s of a second. As a result, Dennis started on the outside front row of the 50 lap Last Chance Qualifier race on Saturday. After running second in the early stages, Dennis assumed the lead and took the checkers for a starting spot in his second Snowball Derby.

“I felt as though we had a good race car after Saturday’s win so we basically just needed to stay out of trouble, save our tires and avoid the carnage that usually occurs in Sunday’s race,” Dennis said. The thirty-seven cars lined up on the starting grid on a cool, crisp Sunday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd. Once the green flag flew the action was fast and furious. Dennis made steady progress through the field avoiding some of the early tangles. During a caution at approximately lap sixty Dennis came in for his first set of tires. Once back under green he knew he had to conserve his tires because he was now off sequence with the leaders and they would be getting fresh tires soon. At lap 160 Dennis made his second pit stop and discovered the shifter linkage had broken which meant he was committed to 4^th gear for the rest of the race. Not being able to shift from third to fourth on re-starts made life difficult but Dennis stayed near the rear of the field on restarts so he wouldn’t get run over. By lap 207 of the 300 lap race, in spite of his shifter problem, Dennis was still on the lead lap and was working his way close to the top ten. At one point Dennis passed Steven Wallace who eventually finished third. On lap 245 Dennis pitted under caution for right side tires but called an “audible” to make it a four tire stop. “That’s where our luck ran out and the tires literally fell off,” Dennis said. While changing the left side tires the car fell off the jack with no left rear tire on the car. Once the car was back on the jack and the tire change complete, the crew gave Dennis a push out of the pits but Dennis discovered that when the car fell off the jack it had knock the shifter linkage out of gear. Dennis radioed his crew; they pulled him back, jacked the car back up, Doug Schloss manually put it in 4^th gear and sent Dennis on his way.

Dennis did the best he could for the final 55 laps and finished fifteenth, one lap down to the leaders. In a post race interview Dennis stated, “We had a great race car, stayed out of trouble and to the best of our calculations we were running 9^th or 10^th when our fatal pit stop occurred. We finished eighth last year in our first Derby outing and it really would have been nice to have made it back-to-back top 10’s. We’ll try again next year. I really want to thank all of our sponsors and fans who made our 2009 season possible and look forward to an even brighter 2010.”

A special thank you to Five Star Bodies, Kluhsman Racing Components, Rick’s Used Auto Parts, Frost Oil Company, CSM Corporation, Schoenfeld Headers and Comfort Inn Pensacola Beach. We look forward to seeing everyone in 2010.