Pro Shocks Shock of the Week
This Week's Big Surprise in Short Track Racing
As Decided by the Staff of Speed51.com
Every week, our esteemed panel at Speed51.com will determine the most improbable, fascinating or "shocking" moment from the week and award the Pro Shocks "Shock of the Week." The winner each week will receive a product gift certificate from Pro Shocks, the leader in short track shock technology and performance. At the end of the season, the most "shocking" moment will be awarded the "Shock of the Year" and the winning driver will receive a special gift from Pro Shocks.
For this week's "Shock of the Week..."
Please raise your hand if you even knew who Sergio Pena was two weeks ago.
Anyone?
Pena headed out to the NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown last weekend with only a one-in-four shot of actually running the race. He, along with three teammates, would compete for the ride in the Revolution Racing entry by running a special 50-lap match race on Thursday night. The winner got the ride for the weekend.
Pena won the match race and earned the ride. After that, he really got impressive. Pena won the Showdown pole, fought hard with pre-race favorite Joey Logano for the lead throughout the race and settled into a strong runner-up finish - scoring a big coup for the NASCAR Drive for Diversity program in the process.
That performance earned Sergio Pena this week's Speed51.com Pro Shocks Shock of the Week award.
This time around, the vote wasn't even close. Pena won by a landslide and the comment of this panelist pretty much explains why:
"I vote for Sergio Pena for his performance at Irwindale, he raced great under pressure and against some tough competition and dealt with the media like he was a seasoned professional. I had never heard of him before Saturday but I will remember his name now."
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Also receiving votes this week were:
Sam Watts (PASS) - Going into this weekend, Sam Watts wasn't exactly a household name in Super Late Model racing. But in the PASS WInterFest at New Smyrna Speedway (FL), Watts scored a strong podium finish in the tire tracks of Brad Leighton and Johnny Clark - two highly accomplished champions of short track racing. Watts outfinished some big names like Jeff Choquette, Ben Rowe, Tim Russell, Jay Fogelman, Mario Gosselin, Lonnie Sommerville and Preston Peltier.
John Mickel, Toni McCray and Marc Davis (ASA) - Sergio Pena wasn't the only argument for short track racing diversity this past weekend, as the finishing order of the ASA Free State 500 in South Africa proves. 1986 Daytona 500 winner Geoff Bodine might have led for much of the race, but it was Englishman John Mickel, California Toni McCray and Marc Davis who swept the podium at the finish, prompting this ballot to be turned in:
"The Top Three at Phakisa. A Great Britain driver won, a female was second and an African-American was third. Nice diversity for an International stock car race."
Brad Leighton - Everyone knew that the pairing of Richard Moody Racing and Brad Leighton would produce results, but not many people expect those results to be so instant. In their first race together, Leighton drove the RMR #55 to victory lane in WinterFest at New Smyrna.
The Fact That SpeedFest Even Took Place - With rain on Friday night and all day Saturday, everyone stuck with the program at Lanier National Speedway and big Pro Late Model and Super Late Model features were both run on Sunday afternoon.
"That SpeedFest even happened with the crappy weather!" was what one of our ballots read.
Kyle Busch (SLM and PLM) - Kyle Busch put such a hurting on the field at SpeedFest that everyone expected him to sweep both the Pro Late Model and Super Late Model shows. He didn't. Busch won the SLM feature, but a rough driving penalty dropped him to the middle of the pack in the PLM main event.
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For his “Shock” of a performance, Pena will receive a product gift certificate from Pro Shocks, the short-track leader in racing shock technology and performance. Based in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Pro Shocks has helped drivers on both dirt and asphalt perform better for more than 25 years.
Pro Shocks is proud to have the largest and most knowledgeable technical staff in the racing shock industry. For more information about Pro Shocks, log onto www.proshocks.com or call 770-995-6300.
Sergio Pena
NASCAR All-Star Showdown
Pro Shocks "Shock of the Week"
Pro Shocks "Shock of the Week"
