Bliss Lives Up To His Name With Victory

When a yellow caution flag comes out late in a race, it usually makes the driver in front nervous about losing his lead on the restart. Often a trailing driver can outfox the leader and sneak past, or just out drag him when the green light comes on.

It happened twice to Mike Bliss in the late stages of the No Fear Challenge 200 Saturday, but it didn’t faze the driver of Jimmy Smith’s No. 2 ASE Ford F-150 pickup. Bliss, the pole-sitter, was so dominant that he led 93 of the 100 laps and set a Craftsman Truck series record of 137.195 mph for the race.

“With that Robert Yates engine under me, I didn’t worry at all about restarts. I just drove around like I was on I-10,” said the 32-year-old from Milwaukie, Ore.

“I knew after the second lap that I had them covered. When I found I could go almost flat through [turns] three and four, and that’s what I did on the first and second laps, I looked in my mirror and said, ‘We got her.’ ”

Smith, who lives in Orange and was one of four founders of the highly successful truck series, was not so calm.

“I’d see those other guys right on Mike’s tail for the restart, and then he’d pull away and my heart would slow down to about 4,000 beats a minute,” said Smith, who tabbed Bliss, a former U.S. Auto Club Silver Crown champion, to be his driver when the series was formed in 1994.

“When we got here, I told Mike, ‘You know, this is sort of my home track so I want you to sit on the pole and win the race so we can keep our record intact of winning at least one race every year.’ And he did it. And what a fantastic place to do it.”

The first day of a NASCAR doubleheader attracted a crowd estimated at 40,000, according to a track spokesman. Today, Busch Grand National cars take over the track.

Bliss won $73,000 in becoming a record 11th different winner this season.

Although first place was no contest, there was a battle royal going on behind him as trucks at times were running four abreast through the corners.

Mike Wallace, who started 18th in a Ford, got up to finish second, just in front of a fender-banging battle between the Fords of Kenny Irwin Jr. and Ernie Irvan.

“It was a heck of a race, I’m just proud to finish second behind that No. 2 car,” said Wallace, whose older brother Rusty is a former Winston Cup champion. “Everybody ran hard from the first lap, that No. 2 just ran harder. He was in a different zip code than we were today.”

Irwin, a rookie driver who will take over Irvan’s seat in one of Robert Yates’ Winston Cup cars next year, said of the final lap incident, “I gave Ernie room to go on the outside, I guess he was just very upset he didn’t finish third.”

Irvan, after pointing his finger in anger at Irwin after crossing the finish line fourth, would only say later, “I’m just not real happy about Kenny Irwin.”