ROCHESTER, WA – Darrell Midlgey drove the Northern Provincial Pipelines Ltd/Alien Chassis #81 Dodge to an 11th place finish at South Sound Speedway Tuesday night.  The result however does not tell the complete story.  “On Monday we tested the entire day with Chuck (Carruthers).”  Midgley hired the veteran NASCAR crew chief for the race at the Rochester, Washington track.  “That was a good test.  He’s got so much knowledge.  We got better and better as the day went on.  We ran a 13.69 which is a very good lap here.  We called it a day at that point.”  The car was put in the trailer for Tuesdays Wes Rhodes Firecracker 126 event.  “We had a couple practice sessions on race day,” says Midgley, “we tweaked the car a little bit more but the car was a little off in qualifying but we knew what we had to do.”  Midgley qualified 8th with a 14.00 second lap time.  At the drop of the green Midgley began his move forward.  “We were moving up slowly in the field.  The car was just incredible.”  Just past lap 50, while running 5th, Midgleys lap times started to slow.  The Team NPP #81 Dodge developed a major tire problem.  “The right rear started going down.  We stayed out there for a few extra laps but we just had to bring it in.”  Midgley pitted under green flag conditions.  “We ended up down five laps,” sighs Midgley, “but we came back onto the track.  It took some time but we ended up getting one of our laps back.  We passed every car.”  With dwindling laps remaining in the race, the goal of winning was out of the question, however getting another lap back was in the back of Midgley’s mind.  “The car was on rails.  It was just point and go.”  With 30 laps to go the sparks began flying along with a lot of bent metal. “They started wrecking left, right and center,” says the Sidney, British Columbia driver, “it was at this point I decided to park the car.  Its running good no need to risk it.”  Yakima, Washington’s Chad Hinkle was the race winner.  Midgley would be credited with an 11th place finish.  Ironically this was the same finishing position for Midgley when made his debut at South Sound Speedway back on July 29, 1989.  Midgley was running in the NASCAR Winston West Series.  “Fun track to run at.  Hopefully we’ll be back the end of August for the Miller 200.”

NEXT TEAM NPP RACE: Lane Zerbin and the Northern Provincial Pipelines/Alien Race Car #81 Modified are at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Washington on Saturday, July 7th.