When people hear the name Princeton, they normally picture the hallowed halls of the University, but there is a second Princeton in Minnesota that is home to a racetrack. One may not think the two are related, but one theory on how the town got its name states that a group of homesick New Englanders named the town in honor of Princeton, New Jersey. On Saturday night, Jason Meyers and his Elite Racing team were looking to be the head of the class at Princeton Speedway, but came a few spots short. Then when the team traveled to Huset’s Speedway they met with their #1 adversary this season: Mother Nature.
An on track lecture
When the Elite Racing team entered the pits, they were looking to school the competition, but after qualifying 9th they had to make time count in the heat races. During Meyers’ heat he had a fierce battle with Craig Dollansky to finish second and as a result he transferred to the dash. In the dash, Meyers finished 6th and secured the 6th place starting spot in the feature.
For the feature, Meyers would be lined up to the outside of Brook Tatnell. On the start, Meyers fell back to 7th. During the early part of the 40-Lap feature, Meyers felt out the narrow groove of the track and found the best line for the #14 GLR Investments KPC. At around the half-way point is where Meyers started making his move.
On Lap 18, the 2010 Champion first got around Joey Saldana to take over the 6th position. Then he saw his chance to move into the top-5 and started tracking down Brooke Tatnell. Meyers was able to get to the inside of Tatnell in the #14 DDNi KPC, but the door was slammed.
On Lap 27, the first caution flag of the race flew and Meyers used the restart to get on the inside of Tatnell and complete the pass. Now that Meyers was in the top-5, he had to defend his position. On Lap 30, he would loose a position when Steve Kinser got to his inside.
Three laps later, there was another break in the racing action. Meyers held on to the 6th position up until the third and final caution flag flew with five laps to go. On the restart, the California Champion was able to get past both Sammy Swindell and Mark Dobmeier and took over the 4th position. In the closing laps of the race, Meyers tracked down Steve Kinser. As the checkered flag loomed in the distance, he got to the inside of Kinser looking for 3rd, but ran out of time.
Meyers crossed the finish line in 4th to record his 12th top-5 finish of the season in his #14 Allstar Performance KPC. Donny Schatz would go on to take the win. As a result of his finish, the champion holds on to the 3rd spot in the point standing behind both Saldana and Schatz.
“You never know how close you are to winning until you get it done,” Meyers explained. “If you keep running in the top-5 five every night like we have been and if the fans keep cheering us on, we will get that win. We have had a streak of top-five finishes and now we are ready to get our streak of wins started. My team has been working really hard and we had a good car tonight, just not great. We will keep battling. GLR Investments and DDNi who have been putting this together for us has given us a consistent year, like we need to be. We just need to get to Victory Lane now.”
Up Next
While the Nation is getting ready to celebrate its birthday, Elite Racing will be traveling to Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas for the Boot Hill Showdown. In last year’s Boot Hill Show Down, the Champion finished 5th the first night and closed out the event with a 2nd place run. In 13 starts at the track, Meyers has one victory and 10 top-10 finishes. With the team still looking for their first victory of the season, they will be hungry for more than a 4th of July BBQ this weekend.
