The main event was interrupted twice, once for a crash, and a second time for a partial blackout of the track lighting along the front straight. The track crew fixed the problem and the race continued with Carr asnd Kopp locked in a heated battle for the lead. Carr prevailed by just a few inches at the finish.
"The day started off pretty good. We weren't especially the fastest guy in practice. We were trying a few things on one of the bikes, and it didn't really work out, and it kind of cost us the second round of practice, and we didn't get a second chance to go out.
"I got a good start in the qualifying heat race and led that wire to wire, and I was fastest qualifier for the night, so that worked out good. Got going, got the holeshot in my heat race and checked out on the guys. I think Kevin Varnes was running second and bailed off, then the red flag came out after I was coming around for the seventh lap or something like that. Did a single file restart, handily won the heat race, and we were sitting on the front row for the main event.
"Got another good start in the main event - things were rolling! Jumped out to about a twenty or thirty bike length lead on Joe Kopp. About lap nine, I guess the red flag came out because Rich King had crashed. So we single filed it, and we took off again, got going, and I ripped off my fastest laps of the night after the first red flag. I was talking with Joe Kopp after the race - we kind of caught a glimpse of the lights going out on the front stretch - behind us. But the rest of the pack had to go through the middle of it, through the blackout. Immediately the red lights came on, and we had to line 'em up again.
"So we had fourteen laps to go. I had been able to establish a really good rhythm the first two starts. I had been talking to Kenny (Tolbert)a little bit about it, 'Alright, where was Kopp faster than I was?' I knew I was faster most places, but I wanted to work on being faster in the area where he was faster than I was. He (Tolbert) had said that it was pretty much through the middle of turn one and two.
"So we got going on the third start, and I altered my line a little bit to try and stay a little lower, and it really just kind of screwed up my rhythm, and I couldn't really get going, and I heard Kopp behind me the whole time. I guess about lap eighteen, he got by me. I looked back to see if anybody was with us and nobody was with us, we had pretty much checked out. I stayed right with Joe, but we were running the same speed - I couldn't really get by him. I made a pass one time, and it didn't stick.
"On lap 23, I had run a line I hadn't run the whole race, and I went into three about in the middle, turned the thing hard, and came off turn four low, and showed him a wheel, but didn't get enough of a roll to be able to complete the pass going into turn one. We came around on the next lap and I rolled up high where I had been running it earlier in the night and getting away from them, and I didn't make up a whole lot of time there, but I stayed with him. We got the white flag, and on the last lap I was hoping that he didn't know which way I was going to come from. I got it into turn three and got the thing turned real good and early. It was a combination - I got a perfect drive out of turn four, and he made a little slip. He broke the thing loose just a little bit, and I was able to get by him. About the time we got to the penalty line, I knew I had the race won. We beat him by a wheel, I guess the official margin of victory was .025. To have a half-mile race end up that close - that's pretty spectacular for the fans, and it was certainly good for our race team."
You head to the Lima half-mile next week, are you looking forward to that race?
"I've won that last two there, so I'm looking forward to it. When I first started off my career, I hated Lima. But I've had some good finishes there every year since the first year. I haven't finished outside the top six, and I intend to be racing for the win again this weekend."