August 21, 2004 – Mosport - The action came quickly at Mosport. While Don Thompson (#4), set off on a dominant tour of the Mosport oval Kerry Micks (#02), who started in 6’th place dropped an oil line and wetted down the track in turn four of the first lap. The inevitable happened with a half dozen cars stacking behind him. JR Fitzpatrick (#84) was immediately behind Micks and could not miss the oil. When he went around he collected fellow Rookie of the Year candidate Pete Shepherd Jr (#50). As everyone behind checked up and scrambled for clear track Stu Robinson in the Team 3 Red Dodge (#3), Ken Forth (#86) and Ron Beachamp in the MOPAR sponsored #60. The action happened well behind Whitlock in his Avenue Motor Works NMT Dodge, who started 2’nd and teammate Mark Dilley who had gotten around Scott Steckly in the #22 to move the NTN Bearings Dodge into 4’th place.

The green came out again on lap 13. With the track absolutely littered with oil dry Dilley moved to the top to try Pete Gibbons on the outside. His momentum actually carried him past Gibbons and to the outside of Whitlock entering turn 2 but there was no room for him to get to the bottom and he fell back in line in 4’th. Whitlock was staying with Thomson in the early laps and was in fact the only driver to test Thompson all night. Trying the low side through 1 & 2 he was able to get nearly half way up the left side of Thompson but was unable to seal the deal before running out of track in turn 3.

Whitlock settled into second and the top 4 began to string out and click off the laps. Thompson, Whitlock and Gibbons maintained 6-8 car length gaps but Dilley had a mirror full of Steckly as he fought to maintain 4’th. The flow of the race was broken when a furious battle between Robinson, Beachamp, Fitzpatrick and Mike Alguire (#32) resulted in a wreck on the front straight. Alguire suffered the worst damage, his unsponsored Pontiac had to be cradled off the track with two tow trucks.

When the the green flew again to top ten were Thompson, Whitlock, Gibbons, Dilley, Steckly, Doug Brown (#10), Dave Jacombs (#88), DJ Kennington in the Castrol Dodge #17, Ron Van Es (#11) and Brad Graham (#19). Jeff Lapcevich, who had lost his 2’nd place qualifying position over a suspension infraction had moved from the back of the field to 11’th. Micks, now several laps down, started on the point and obviously held back to stay out of the way of the points contenders. His gentlemanly gesture however was unappreciated by CASCAR as in doing so he held up those cars behind him, some of whom were only a single lap down and he was shown the black flag and given a stop and go penalty. Dilley meanwhile took advantage of the open track and got under Gibbons through 1 & 2 but Gibbons outpulled him down the back straight and held onto 3’rd. Lapcevich got Graham and Van Es on the restart and was working on DJ Kennington within a lap. The next time around Gibbons visibly slowed off of 4 causing Dilley to check up and go wide. Steckly closed immediately getting under Dilley down the front straight and through 1 &2, making it stick in 3. Lapcevich meanwhile had moved to 8’th around Kennington. Whatever caused Gibbons to bauble was not terminal as he quickly closed on a slowng Whitlock and moved to second. Thompson meanwhile was moving into his own time zone out front. It did not appear as though anything was wrong with the Avenue NMT Dodge but rather it appeared that the cagey Whitlock, recognizing that he could not run down Thompson had opted to back off and save his equipment.

By lap 97 Thompson had lapped all but 13 cars. Whitlock was comfortably in 2’nd while Dilley in 5’th appeared to be fading. Watching the tell tale glow of the front rotors though told an interesting story. Nearly all the cars on track had the front brakes glowing red into turn 1 but the Whitlock Dodges showed hardly any red at all. Both were obviously saving their equipment. The long green flag run finally came to an end when Matty Tsoumaris (#41) went around in turn 4. Pete Shepherd Jr caught a lucky break with the spin as he was about to go a lap down in the Atto Insurance Dodge.

All 13 cars on the lead lap pitted. With Thompson’s absolutely dominant performance the move of the race came from the NTN Bearings team as they opted for a single tire stop and busted it off quick enough to move Dilley into 2’nd from 5’th. The Avenue NMT boys were fast as well giving Whitlock two tires and getting him on his way ahead of Gibbons but Gibbons had only to move forward a couple of feet to maintain his position. The restart had Thompson, Dilley, Gibbons, Whitlock and Steckly in the top 5 followed by Brown, Kennington, Graham, Van Es and Bryan Cathart (#71). Fitzpatrick, Sheperd and Lapcevich rounded out the lead lap cars.

Whitlock's smooth drive in the lead pack was seriously interrupted on the restart. As the field came up to speed Whitlock appeared to miss a shift, with Steckly getting into his rear end hard enough to jack the rear wheels up in the air. There was no wreck, but by the time things settled down Whitlock was back to 11’th and Steckly was 12’th with a damaged front end and bowed hood. Steckly would never really recover although he did manage to finish 8’th. Whitlock never did miss a shift; “ When I went for fourth it simply would not go in. I pulled it back into 3’rd and for the straightaway and managed to get it into 4’th once I was off the gas going into 1”. It was the same thing on every restart after that. Whitlock would hold back in 3 to get the run he needed in order to be able to shift the car into 4’th. Notoriously strong on restarts but struggling with the transmission problem Whitlock was unable to utilize his usual strength and had to grind it out the rest of the way picking off the competition under green flag conditions.

Whitlock’s march back into contention rivaled Lapcevichs two charges to the front as the the highlight of the show as Thompson continued to lead without challenge up front. Both drivers showcased some incredible car setup and handling as they worked their way back to the top 5 before the end of the night. When Tsoumaris spun in turn 2 for the 3’rd time on lap 148 Lapcevich was up to 6’th and Whitlock was 8’th but the field was stringing out. It was unclear at first if the much needed caution would fly as the starter allowed the race to continue for 3 laps before finally throwing the yellow to rescue the stranded Tsoumaris. After a quick restart Steckly spun in turn 1 on lap 162 setting up a 35 lap Saturday night shootout. Lapcevich was now 5’th with Whitlock still in 8’th.

When the green flew on lap 167 Shepherd took advantage of Whitlocks restart troubles and got around the Avenue NMT Dodge. The points race was not looking good, but on the next lap everything changed as Gibbons caught the wall off of 4 and began to fade fast. Post race, it was revealed that Gibbons steering box had broken clear off of the frame and was bouncing around the rest of the race between the oil pan and the frame. In a truly impressive bit of driving, Gibbons, the points leader going into this race, finished 9’th in a car many others would not have finished in at all. His misfortune opened the door for Whitlock’s Championship drive, a door which only a few laps earlier had seemed to be slammed shut and sealed tight.

With Gibbons fading and seriously in the way, Lapcevich got a huge run off of 2 and moved to 3’rd around Kennington but the success of that move was short lived as Kennington slammed his way inside of Lapcevich in turn one of the next lap to regain the position. Whitlock meanwhile had regained his momentum, taking Shepherd on the outide before moving under Brown only to be blocked by slower traffic. Undaunted, the veteran from Wyoming simply moved it upstairs and drove around Brown on the outside to grab 6’th. Gibbons had faded to 8’th and was obviously struggling. Whitlock now had his sights set on the 84 of Fitzpatrick and had turned it up a notch in his characteristic late race charge. With each position now worth 4 points towards the Championship the pressure was on and it showed. Fitzpatrick did a good job of racing Whitlock clean while doing all he could to maintain his position but when he finally slipped, Whitlock was there to slip underneath and into the top 5.

Kennington was now catching Dilley and it appeared as though there might not be a Whitlock Motorsports car on the podium for the first time on an oval track since the opener at Delaware but Dilley responded and pulled away again. The final caution flew on lap 193 when Doug Brown spun out of the 7’th position with Thompson leading Dilley, Kennington, Lapcevich and Whitlock. Rookies Fitzpatrick and Shepherd were both turning in strong performances in 6’th and 7’th respectively with Steckly, Gibbons and Cathcart rounding out the top 10. Graham, Van Es and Brown were still on the lead lap as well.

The last 5 laps of all CASCAR races are run under green, no matter how many circuits it takes of the track so it was all on on the line now and there were 4 more points ahead of Whitlock in the form of Jeff Lapcevich. On the restart, Whitlock again struggled but having had a few opportunities to work with the failing tranny he had his timing on and managed to get up to speed without losing touch. Within a lap he was right on Lapcevich’s bumper, digging hard and waiting for any slip. Lapcevich appeared to lose it with 3 to go. Whitlock got into him fairly hard and got a nose under him but Lapcevich gathered it up and maintained position. This race was not over yet though with Whitlock moving to the high side on the final lap with a deep run into 3 to move most of a car length ahead. Lapcevich, with the preferred line on the inside stuck it in deep as well and fought back. It was a drag race off of 4 with Whitlock grabbing 4’th by mere inches at the line.

With the strong comeback Whitlock was able to inch 4 points closer to the Championship lead heading to Peterborough where the Whitlock cars dominated earlier in the year. With Delaware to follow Dave likes his chances. “Hey, this season is only ¾ of the way through, we’re still in it”. Dilley, who was as strong in second as Thompson was in the lead over the last 100 laps went from 36 points behind Lapcevich to only 14 points behind Micks and remains in 6’th in the standings. Dilley already won at Peterborough and has been bad fast at Delaware for the last several trips there.