Published: July 1, 2014
Egan catches break, wins 1st feature
Leader pulls off track with 2 laps to go
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
SLINGER — Nick Egan has watched his father, Mike Egan, do
his fair share of winning on the high banks of Slinger Superspeedway.
For the first time in 45 career feature starts, the younger
Egan reached victory lane, winning the 30-lap area sportsman feature Sunday
during the Firecracker 75 presented by Keith’s Marina.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Nick Egan said. “I have the
greatest amount of support, the greatest sponsors and the greatest crew. It
just hasn’t all hit me yet.”
And the way it happened was quite a surprise.
Egan led the opening 23 laps. With about 10 laps to go, a
caution came out when Rich Wagner spun in Turn 4. Already at that point, Egan
was starting to lose the handle on his car.
To make matters worse, Egan was being chased by Kyle Chwala,
the division’s driver-to-beat the last two seasons. The caution bunched up the
field.
When the green flag came back out, Chwala, last season’s
track champion, made quick work of Egan and got around him. Chwala then quickly
pulled away.
Egan thought he had just about lost his chance to win his
first feature.
“I knew he had a better car than I did,” Egan said. “Before
the caution I knew that was pretty much the end of it. I knew I just had to
bring it home in second place.”
“It was a handful those last ten laps,” he added.
With two laps to go, Egan noticed Chwala had stuck his hand
out the driver-side window and began to pull off the track. When Chwala got to
Turn 2, he entered pit road, relinquishing the lead to Egan with less than two
laps to go.
“I saw his hand come out the window going into Turn 1 and my
jaw dropped to the floor,” Egan said. “I couldn’t believe it. It took me about
a lap until I got the white (flag) to realize I was in the lead.”
Chwala lost oil pressure, which forced him off the track.
Egan’s job wasn’t done yet. Egan had Mark Deporter hot on
his bumper for the last set of turns.
Still fighting a loose car, Egan somehow managed to keep his
No. 13 car straight and beat Deporter and the field to the checkered flag.
“I was pretty doggone excited,” Mike Egan said. “I was more
excited than winning myself.”
It capped a memorable night for Nick Egan. Earlier in the
evening, he also won one of the division’s heat races.
After the evening’s events, he was still trying to piece
together what he had just accomplished as his two trophies sat on top of his
car.
“There’s not even words to describe it,” Egan said. “With
all the circumstances and everything that happened tonight, to get two wins the
same night, it’s absolutely unbelievable.”
As one would expect a father to be, Mike Egan was happy to
see his son experience a triumph at Slinger. Egan can attest as to how tough it
can be to win at Slinger.
In 2010, Egan snapped a five-year drought when he won a
super late model feature. It also took him 25 years until he won a feature, and
he’s never won a heat race and a feature on the same night.
“There’s more losers than winner,” Egan said. “It’s a real
tough thing to do. All the divisions have great drivers. It’s really tough to
win against guys who win all the time.”
Nick Egan started racing at Slinger in 2011 with the
thunderstock division. He made six starts that season, with his best finish
being a sixth-place showing. In his first career start, which was May 29, 2011,
he finished ninth in a 17-car field.
His first full season was in 2012 and showed signs of an
ability to contend for race victories. In the second week of the season in
2012, he cracked the top five for the first time. Five weeks later, he led in a
feature for the first time and went on to finish second. He went on to post
five top-five finishes in 14 starts.
This year, going into Sunday’s event, Egan had one top-five
finish in six starts. However, he had three sixth-place finishes.
“My dad’s raced here for so long; he’s taught me so much,”
Egan said. “Winning the feature is an indescribable feeling.”
Growing up, Egan was into hockey. He started doing that as
early as 5 years old. He went on to play hockey for the Germantown Ice Bears
co-op, while attending Slinger High School. Last year, was the first time he
didn’t play hockey.
Egan’s itch to get involving in racing started when he began
to spend more time with his dad in the garage. Then about five years ago, Egan
told his dad that he was thinking about getting into a race car himself.
Since he’s jumped into a car, Egan has been a student of the
sport.
“He just keeps reading and studying, trying to figure it
out,” Mike Egan said.
Egan wasn’t able to congratulate his son right away, but
when he did he reminded him of how proud he was, no matter the result. Winning
just made it easier.
“Even if Nick would’ve finished second, he ran a heck of a
race,” Egan said.
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