After leading the reverse lap in honor of Will Davis with checkered flag in hand, Chris set out to make up for his disappointment at Peoria and go after the win on Sedalia's unpredictable and sometimes downright treacherous clay. He dominated his scratch heat and won his elimination heat, but fell one spot short of victory in the main as H-D factory pilot Rich King ran away and hid.
The Ford QCCPOV Team's Championship lead increased to 25 points over Johnny Murphree with six races left.
The second double header weekend at Springfield in 2002 starts this Saturday at the spectacular short track, and follows up with the Word's Fastest Mile on Sunday. Chris has four straight wins at the legendary oval and looks to add to his tally.
"Scratch heat worked out pretty good for us. I got the holeshot and got away from those guys, but it was the slowest one, so it wasn't really anything special. There was a lot of guys going about the same speed, and there were a few standout guys, and I wasn't one of the standout guys. We ended up having the slowest scratch heat.
"Got into the heat race and had a great race with Jake Johnson. He rode really, really well. I think we were side-by-side for the first eight laps of a ten lap heat race. I edged away from him just a little bit at the very end and was able to hold him off. He was going really, really good.
"We ended up having third-fastest heat race. (Rich) King was on the pole, and (Kenny) Coolbeth was second, I was third, (Johnny) Murphree was fourth.
"In the main event, I got a pretty good jump going into turn one, I was second, right on the outside of Rich King. I went up to an outside line, and four guys blew by me on the bottom.
"I'm like, 'Uh-oh. What happened there?' It took me a few laps to sort things out and find the line that worked for me. After that, I started picking them off, slowly but surely, one at a time. I came from sixth to second, and it took me twenty laps to do that.
"I got by Coolbeth and pretty much brought him with me and he stayed right in my wheel tracks the rest of the way. King got a good run up front and led that sucker wire-to-wire. He was gone, we had nothing for him.
"Improved our point lead and off to Springfield for the double header this weekend."