Published: July 17, 2014
Wausau’s Wimmer cashes in on Prunty’s late-race heartbreak
Kenseth takes 2nd
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
SLINGER — All of a sudden, the engine just shut off.
The result was a heartbreaking moment for a veteran driver
shutout from the biggest triumph of his career.
With just 23 laps remaining in the 35th Superseal Slinger
Nationals presented by Miller Lite, Dennis Prunty, with a commanding lead and
well on his way to his first Nationals triumph, had to pull off course as his
car had lost power.
From there he watched in agony as he saw Wausau’s Chris
Wimmer become the beneficiary of his misfortune and go on to win Slinger
Nationals in the late hours of Tuesday night at Slinger Superspeedway.
“Something with the ignition just shut off,” Prunty said.
“It never missed; it never broke up. It was like I just turned the switch off.
“It’s a shame. We definitely had a good car today.”
NASCAR star and Wisconsin native Matt Kenseth finished in
second.
“I didn’t think we had a chance to win tonight,” he said.
“We were just a little bit off.”
Casey Johnson was third for his second-straight top-five
finish at Slinger Nationals. Conrad Morgan was fourth and Dalton Zehr rounded
out the top five.
It was, in a way, a confusing victory for Wimmer because he
was all but settled on a second-place finish. That’s how strong Prunty’s car
was all race. He was strong throughout the day in practice and in qualifying.
And that matter wasn’t helped for the field when Prunty hit the invert after
qualifying and started on the front row.
So when Wimmer saw Prunty pull off the track, he was just as
stunned as anybody.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Wimmer said. “I honestly thought a
caution was out and the light didn’t come on yet.”
The unfortunate sequence of events was just part of what was
once a promising day for the Prunty family, but only ended in disappointment.
Earlier in the evening, Alex Prunty led the first 30 of the
35-lap limited late model race. His night ended after he and Danny Church made
contact while battling for the lead, resulting in a hard crash into the Turn 1
wall.
In the super late model 199lap main event, Prunty led 170 of
199 laps before the engine cut off on him.
In all, the Pruntys led 200 of 234 laps (85 percent).
It would also given Slinger’s most successful family, with
more than 20 track championships in more than 20 years of racing, just its
second triumph at Slinger Nationals. For now, David Prunty’s victory in 2001 is
the only Nationals championship for the family.
They’ve been close to adding to the list, specifically
Dennis Prunty.
Going into the evening, Prunty had finished in the top-five
in three of the last four Nationals, including runner- up finishes in 2010 and
2013.
Prunty is one of many drivers who have enjoyed success at
Slinger, but has never broken through with what most of the drivers in the
region call a short-track racers’ Daytona 500.
Prunty and Brad Mueller are just two of the examples at
Slinger who have competed at the track for more than 20 years and have won
track championships, but have never won Nationals.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Prunty said. “It’s
unbelievable to be that close.”
“The way I see it in a race like this, you only get one
chance,” he added. “Last year, Steve Apel had a chance and had problems in
tech. He had his chance last year. You don’t get a chance to win every year.
You get one chance to win this thing and I believe this was my chance. But I
will come back and try again.”
Prunty knew he was close.
“I stopped pressuring lapped cars,” he said. “I didn’t want
them to start hitting each other and spin out. I just sat where I was and I was
good.
“But I knew at any time if anybody started to catch me, I’d
just fly by them lapped cars and go. It just never got to that point I guess.”
It was a thrilling moment for Wimmer to win Slinger
Nationals.
“I can’t believe it,” he said.
It was also a thrilling moment for his family. Wimmer’s
uncle is the late Larry Detjens, who won the inaugural Slinger Nationals, in
1980. The Slinger Nationals trophy is named after Detjens.
As motivation for Wimmer, who made his first appearance at
Slinger in more than five years, he brought the trophy Detjens won in 1980 to
the track. And afterward, he posed with that trophy and his latest addition.
Johnson led the first six laps of the race. Prunty took over
from there and led until his ignition failure with 23 laps to go. Wimmer led
the rest of the laps.
“I’ve had that happen to me, so it’s just a racing deal,”
Wimmer said.
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