Story of Dominance

Last Updated on Sunday, 16 May 2010 19:06 Written by DaleReynolds24 Sunday, 16 May 2010 14:49

I am warning you guys now, this is the whole truth from my eyes. That's what this is about...the whole season so far from my point of view. exactly how I feel is being expressed here. So if you feel like it can offend you, you have been warned. This is my TRUE feelings about the season so far. So if you would like to read, by all means, continue on. But remember, I'm writing this without a restrictor plate on my mind, or my mouth.

There is just about no way to explain it. When you get on a roll, you don't know how it happened or even why it happened. It's the same way when you have bad luck. You don't know how you managed to acquire it, you don't know why you got it. It's the same for both aspects. You can't explain how you manage to get it. You have to just ride out the wave, and get everything while you can while your allowed the time to do so.

I know I'm probably one of the last people you guys would like to hear from. Most of it probably due to the fact that it seems like someone who's been playing too much Final Fantasy 13; Someone switched my Paradigm to Relentless Assault after the Bristol race and have just been rolling to win, after win, after win in 2010. But that's also the same reason WHY I'm writing this. Even I myself am extremely humbled and toally floored by what I have been able to do. And as I said before, the worst part is that I cannot explain HOW.

I, for one, am not here writing this to rub it into anyones face. I do not rub things like this into peoples faces. That's just flat out arrogance. Also, that's a good way to be viewed as an asshole. Everyone knows that I don't like cocky people, just because I'm someone who has always been very grateful for anything good that comes his way. I'm almost here to kind of write and just let these feelings out, even though they are good feelings, and not bad ones. I like to give people my point of view, in the midst of all this hoopla.

At the start of the season, I really was not expecting any kind of one car, or one particular team to dominate, even myself. Even when EPR as a whole ran well and Kelley won the Daytona 500, I wasn't expecting anyone specifically to keep rolling. And with the next weeks results (Speedracer at Auto Club, Rafferty at Las Vegas), I was beginning to wonder 2 things... One was it seemed like my theory was blown out of the water. 3 races and 3 wins to EPR and related drivers. The 2nd thing was that DRR and company was not anywhere near where we wanted to be. We were not the same team that we left 2009 off of.

With finishes of 7th, 2nd and 5th, it was not how we expected to start the season off, especially when I managed to win the last 3 races of 2009, as well as 6 races during the chase. To some, those finishes are great. But to put it into perspective even more, we ran well at Daytona until a lap 198 mis-calculated move led me to lose the lead draft. At California, I was a 4th place car until 2 cars ran out of gas at the end. Las Vegas, I was a Track B car and nowhere near where guys on Track A were running. In my eyes, even though the finishes were still somewhat okay, we sucked. We were obviously missing something.

Some could have blamed the Corsica. Sure, it was extremely uncommon to see a Chevrolet Corsica race in NASCAR, but I felt that if we put enough testing and enough money into developing it, we would have no problem at all being contenders with a ridiculously weird car comapred to everyone else in the field.

We go to Atlanta, and DRR as a group was a bit better. I felt that we did some more extensive testing to get the program back on track. I felt we had done all we could to get the Corsica running fast. We had some struggles of trying to manage the Corsica's handling versus the Impala. The Corsica has more nose weight, which does not fit my driving style, because I like the least amount of nose weight on my car that I can run without giving up time through the corner. The curveball that the Corsica gave seemed to be one of many theories that were batted around for our lack of performance when we rolled into Atlanta.

With Atlanta, when we thought we made some very nice gains with the whole DRR program, it seemed to be well-founded. We ran well all week and qualified strong. Coming directly off the heels of Las Vegas, I was very happy to know that it wasn't the driver that lost his ability when we qualified 2nd to our DRR teammate Ryan Moyer. For the most part early in the race, it seemed that myself and Gift would have the same race as we did in the fall, where we both had a great race and have a photo finish to the line. With me celebrating the release of Final Fantasy XIII in 3 days, I was extremely happy that we could possibly pull off a win with the Final Fantasy car on the heels of it's release.

However, just when we needed a strong running (not nessicarily a good finish, a strong run where we ran up in the top 3 or 5 the whole race) to give everyone a nice boost of confidence, we ended up crashing. We couldn't just run shitty and eat a bad finish. We had to wreck the beautiful racecar while we were running very strongly. Ryan ended up winning the race, which meant we managed to do something right with our program, but I myself was extremely disappointed with wrecking. I was very happy for the team and Ryan, but it really hurt me inside that we didn't finish where I felt like we should have, and wrecked when we needed that shot of morale to keep things upbeat.

It was a long ride home back to Farmington, CT after Atlanta.

We rolled into Bristol not knowing what to expect. DRR finally was on the board for the win column in 2010 but we had no idea how we would run at Bristol. But Bristol is the magic weekend where everything came around back into DRR's favor. We typically run well at Bristol. But we ended up getting some help from FreshNJG24 (sorry to point him out) on how to be fast at Bristol. I will not disclose his advice, but needless to say it really helped out. And with my creative mind, I would go on and use that advice. Fresh still ended up winning the Bristol race. Okay okay, he ran circles around the rest of us. But one thing that I liked was that we were really great on the long runs. We had nothing for Fresh, but for the rest of the average Joes in the field, we stood out on those long runs. We managed to finish 2nd.

With some help of our program, here is where things became really stellar. We looked forward to racing Martinsville. I swept races there in 2009 and really thought we could win it. It didnt mean that our program was better by winning it, but it was a win we could surely use. We didn't have the dominant car like in 2009, but we still ran in the top 3 the whole race and with a few lucky breaks we managed to win the first race of the season. And thats the key words...LUCKY BREAKS. We didn't dominate the race. But I was very happy with how well we still managed to run the whole race.

Our next test was Phoenix. this was a race where we really managed to nail that setup. It drove exactly I like to drive, and we ended up being the dominant car on the long run and we won the 2nd straight race. We go from shot confidence to 2 wins in a row. It felt good. We were gaining on the competition.

We then go into Texas and this was the first real place where I thought we could really apply the tips that FreshNJG24 was so kindly able to give us. It proved to be the best thing to have ever happened. The car was so strong that even with positions 2-5 drafting, they still couldn't make time on me. Like I said, I'm not rubbing it in, but d**n that felt so amazing. That was THE perfect car if I ever got to drive one. We dominated the race and we win our 3rd race in a row.

But because we were so d**n dominant at Texas, we got our first accusations of cheating. I mean sure, if you beat your competitors so badly that they accuse you of cheating, then you had yourself a great race. But the one thing I couldn't understand was that people claimed to have seen me damaged. I got into a very small altercation with Brandon Butler early, but it was nowhere near the effect that it gave me damage. It led me to think that people were just frustrated that they couldn't hang with our car at Texas that they came to the effect that we just HAD to be cheating. There was no possible way we could be THAT fast for THAT long.

I tried ignoring it, but it really pissed me off. We worked our asses off to get our program back to where we were. And now that we seemed to be back, people wanted to accuse me of playing outside the rules to get here. It really got to me, because I knew it was the furthest thing from the truth. But who is going to believe my word; I'm the one being accused, and even if I said I wasn't cheating, people would think I was cheating, and now LYING about it to their faces. If I just opened my mouth more, the more I would be digging myself into an un-recoverable hole. So I just did what I could do, I kept my mouth shut and moved on.

The Talladega fiasco. Oh boy, the Talladega fiasco. This is where the cheating accusations blew out of proportion. The sad part about writing this, is the fact that winning our 4th straight race was completely overlooked in the eyes of many people, because of what happened in the race.

On a brain fart by myself, myself, TheGift and Bottlejuice were drafting closely too early in the race. Well, moreso me pushing Gift all the way around the track and Bottle juice just riding when we were not allowed to. So that was my messup. We ended up having about a 25 second lead on the 2nd pack who was doing everything the right way. Needless to say, that got everyone pretty ticked. But Mwils laid out the plan. By lap 100, if we didnt have a caution, myself and Ryan would have to take a black flag under green. I knew how Mwils wanted it to work. He gave us the "laxed" black flag penalty because we admitted fault. But also (and I understood his point) he was hoping that if it got to lap 100 and we had to take it under green, we would have LESS LAPS to try to work our way back to the front, than if wwe had to serve it immediately.

But low and behold, lap 91 a caution flew. So we ended up getting off easy. Then after the pit, we were allowed to gain our spots back as how we got off pit road. With that in mind, I really would use the time to go to the bathroom. Heaven forbid that I'm a human being and go to the bathroom like everyone else. Then we got back into line and we raced the race the right way (at least in my eyes) until we managed to win it at the end with a nice charge from Gift and Bottlejuice on the last lap.

What I didn't need was the absolute crap that followed this race. It seemed like that everyone from out of the woodworks had enough fuel to the fire now that I had managed to make ONE mistake about a bumpdrafting rule (one that was completely nullified with the 3 cautions AFTER the lap 91 cautions that gave me the free black flag pass), to go ahead and attack me from every single direction imaginable.

I'm not going to lie, it was extremely hurtful. Part of it being hurtful was that it was the furthest thing from the truth. Another was that people were now taking PERSONAL shots to me, something un-related to the actual topic. Making fun of the Corsica. Claiming I was a crybaby and needed the rules to go my way. Saying I have an XBox mod. I had eaten the fact that I messed up a big bump drafting rule. That I apologized for and ate up the mistake on my on accord. But it was just like everyone was waiting for me to mess SOMETHING up, and then they could all come out of the woodworks with "feasible" proof that I cheat, because there was nothing but SPECULATION that I was cheating before. Obviously this cheating stuff was just laying under the covers for a while.

There is NOTHING like the feeling of being accused of something, and have almost EVERYONE accuse you of something that isnt true. And the worst part is that you can't do anything to prove to them that you are not doing what they are accusing you of. Stuck is the word. I'm being eaten up and theres nothing I can do to make myself taste bad, so that I could get spit out and save my life, instead of being swallowed.

Some people that really put fuel to the fire (INSANETURTLE and Drivinmanky), those two people of everyone that accused me, didn't even race on the same track. But regardless, they tried formulating their own opinions and views of me and the race anyways, which really just irritated me. Especially INSANE TURTLE, who has the very close-minded jock view of how I 'didnt man-up and didn't serve the penalty right away and BITCHED my way through the penalty' and more random incoherent spewing. To this day, I have since forgiven Drivinmanky. I know how he gets and I known him for a long time. Not so much INSANE TURTLE, who is the close-minded person that seems like no matter what proof is presented to him, he will still stick to his close-minded opinions, I don't forgive that. If you're still going to be close minded with me, I'll still be close minded with you, and I won't forgive you until you apologize to me first. That's my honest to God opinion. It's that close-minded "I'm not giving an inch" attitude that I loathe the most. It reminds me of my older brother, whom I have not been on best terms with either.

But the week after Talladega, I had to find my friends where I found them. It was that week, I made the biggest announcement that would shake the NRL universe, especially since most of my "haters" were from the EPR-affiliated teams. I had signed Kelley to drive for DRR. If I had to choose someone to be on my side against a war of the rest of the garage, Kelley would have been one of my top 3 picks. And I'm happy that he kept his faith in me, when it seemed like nobody else did.

We roll into Richmond and I just wasn't myself. It was the first major encounter with everyone after the whole Talladega fiasco week. I ended up finishing 13th in a seemingly non-eventful race for me. I was way too concerned with trying not to add more fuel to the fire and start more crap that I didn't want. I was more focused on staying out of the way more than trying to win. I just wanted to get that first major encounter with everyone out of the way and start mending some broken bridges. Gift ended up winning the race, which was really nice to see.

Then we roll into Darlington and THAT was the most perfect racecar I ever had. Myself and the rest of DRR were very confident with the car on the Monday before the race. That was the best week I ever had as far as getting everything right. Then we get into the race and that was another great race. The car handled amazing the whole race. We ran well and had a small spin mistake at the end. But we ended up taping the grill and was able to race against Kelley to the end of the race, and holding on to the engine that would have surely blown.

Darlington was the beast I worked hard to try and run well. Darlington was the only track I did not have a top 5 finish at up until the win. It was amazing to have a car that great and amazing the whole week and to win it. Man that to me is how all weeks should be! Very low-stress for the first time entering a race that I have felt in a very long time.

Then we go into Dover, and many of the bridges that were burned seemed to at least have foundation again. I was not happy with the car the whole d**n week. It was the exact opposite of Darlington. I struggled all week with trying to get the car the way I wanted it, with the balance of driveable but managing to stay off the right front tire. The car was not the same car we had swept the 2009 races with. The car was a struggle to drive the whole d**n race. But again, opportunity presented itself when FreshNJG24 has gotten into the returning Abbotttazz and knocked him out of the race. Not only that, Fresh himself had something go wrong and he blew up and was out of the race. You had the 2 biggest threats to win wiped out right there. But KahneKid sure as H**L didn't make it easy. We had a great fight for the lead early, then Kahne got some damage.

Then Shooter had challenged but his car was a little bit worse than mine on the long runs. Kelley and xChuckx all gave me H**L. xChuck was awesome on the long runs, and had it come down to that, he could have easily won. Kelley was the same way, and was catching me at the end until TECHEN spun out with 10 to go and the long run was wiped out of the equasion. Just like that, we won 6 of the past 7 races after working our asses off to get our program back on track after a somewhat slumpy start to the season.

Come H**L and highwater, my Story of Dominance this season has been nothing less than an adventure. And the best part about it too; I'm able to say this stretch was amazing, without having any doubt in my mind that it didn't take any form of dirty tatics to do it. Like I always say...what you see with me is what you get.