Carr's points lead is a substantial 23 over friend and rival Will Davis. The series moves on to Joliet, Illinois and the Route 66 facility's half-mile oval this Saturday night.

"I was pleasantly surprised when I showed up. The racetrack was immaculately prepared and smooth. Very few ripples in it whatsoever, and it quickly developed a fairly wide racing line. It looked to be about a ten-foot-wide groove going through turn three and into turn four, and probably fifteen to twenty feet wide into one, and maybe fifteen feet wide out of two. It allowed an opportunity for people to pass if they needed to. I got off the line second behind Johnny Murphree and followed him for a few laps. He wasn't making any mistakes, so I attempted a pass around the outside of one and two, and it worked out. From that point, we took off and were able to build a significant gap."

What prompted you to stop by and compete in a Hot Shoe race?

"The reason why I decided to go there was that they wanted me up there, they made it worth my while to come up, they had a decent purse for a 600 race, plus I got a little show-up money.

"I was also in the area to ride the Buell Battle of the Champions on Friday in Milwaukee, and I had fun up there in that thing. I have no idea what place I finished in my race, but the highlight of the day for me was the opportunity to drag race Jay Springsteen in a Monster Truck. I got to drive the wrenchead.com Monster Truck, and he drove Medusa, and I beat him by a truck length. That was cool as heck."

What is the Buell Race of Champions?

"I guess you can call it an exhibition race in a sense. It brought together six dirt tracker with five road racers, and some of the road racers were also dirt trackers, so it was mostly dirt trackers. Pascal Picotte was there, and Tripp Nobles was there, and Shawn Higbee was there. Those were the main road racers, and everybody else was dirt track affiliated.

"We rode the one-mile oval at Wisconsin State Fair Park."

Dirt or asphalt?

"Asphalt. It's where they run the Indy Car race."

Were you dragging your knee, or did you wear a steel shoe?

"I was dragging my knee. I borrowed a knee slider from Tripp Nobles and taped it to the left side of my wrenchead.com leathers, and I was in business. I didn't have to use the front brake too much, and I turned left the whole time. We put on a good show for the fans and it was a good time had by all."

Moving on to Lima, you had a rainout and Saturday. That's two rainouts in recent weeks.

"I just think Mother Nature's testing our patience more than anything."

Does it affect your preparation?

"No, not really. If anything, it allowed me to have more time to evaluate the two bikes I had to choose from. Had the race gone on Saturday night, I would have raced a different bike than the one I won with on Sunday. After practice, I felt better on the bike I had chosen not to run the night before and for some reason, something was telling me to run that bike, and it just so happens that it was the same setup we had there last year when we won. To a 'T.' Chassis, engine combination, gearing, everything. It was identical to what we had won with in 1999. So we stood pat with what we had, and it worked again."

Any moments in the race? Was it a good race?

"I thought the race was real good from my standpoint. (laughs) I got off the line third and battled with Springer for a few laps, and I got by him and George Roeder was leading for...I'd say ten or eleven laps, and I had a significant gap, and he started to make a few mistakes. I was able to come back up to his rear wheel, and as soon as I caught him, I passed him. I tried to get away, and we had a pretty good lead for a while, then about lap 14, the red flag came out. J.R. Schnabel had crashed in the middle of turns three and four, and the track was pretty dry, being that late in the main event on Sunday. I think we ran the main event about 5:45pm. I was lucky to miss his (Schnabel's) bike. He was laying right in the middle of the line I was running, or at least his bike was, and the cornerworkers waved the flags pretty good, and I was able to slow down and just miss the bike. We dodged a bullet there and lined up for the dreaded single-file restart.

"When you're leading, thinking all of the things that can go wrong, and thinking back to last year - Parker was in the same position I was in, only that was a five-lapper. I got a good start- we split, pretty much. I won by about half-a-straightaway over Chris Evans. I think he was fourth on the restart, moved up a couple positions, Roeder dropped back three, Parker gained a couple, Davis came from seventh to fourth, Springer got the short end of the stick and went from third to seventh."