Matt Schow wins Midwest Mod feature by 0.024 seconds

Happy Harry's Bottle Shops WISSOTA Midwest Modified recap, presented by RydellCars.com

Matt Schow celebrates with his family in RydellCars.com Victory Lane. Photo by Mike Spieker.

By Mike Spieker

GRAND FORKS, ND (August 7) - Scott Vasichek and Aaron Blacklance battled side by side into turn one at the start of the Happy Harry's Bottle Shops WISSOTA Midwest Modified feature. 

At the completion of lap one Vasichek held the point as Darren Pfau took over second, moving Blacklance back to third. Simultaneously, the battle for fourth heated up as Jason Halvorson, Todd Johnson, and Ricky Hamel raced three wide. Hamel took the position as the yellow was displayed on lap two. 

On the Evergreen Insurance restart, Vashichek opened up a five car length lead over Pfau. On lap 11 Hamel and Pfau were battling for second when out of nowhere came Matt Schow, who not only moved by Hamel for third, but drove by Pfau on the outside to claim second. 

With five laps to go Schow was on a rail and had cut Vasichek's lead down to three car lengths. The caution flew once again with two laps to go for the point leader Austin Hunter, who was hit in the right front and spun into the turn one berm at the bottom of the race track. 

Schow was all over Vashicek as the race resumed. On the white flag lap Schow went to the high side of the speedway to try to get around Vasichek, who was protecting the low lane. Schow got a great run down the backstretch and threw his MDS Services #2s up on the cushion in turns three and four. Schow had a full head of steam off the corner and pulled even with Vasichek on the front stretch. As they crossed the line under the checkered flag, nobody knew who was deemed the winner. RCS officials quickly referred to the electronic scoring which showed Schow in first with a margin of victory of 0.024 seconds. 

"That was pretty neat, I've never finished a race that close before," said Schow after the race. "I went into turn three thinking that I was going to have to settle for second, but thought 'No we're going to go for it.' I just lucked out that we did end up getting it. I didn't even know I won it right away, I was waiting to hear the call from the officials," Schow concluded with a laugh. 

The win was Schow's sixth at RCS, which breaks a tie with Ricky Hamel for fifth on the RCS Midwest Mods all-time wins list. 

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