I
In
victory lane of Thursday’s Stan Perry Memorial 110, 18-year-old
race winner Derrick Griffin said one of the most over-used
clichéd terms in all of motorsports over the Angola Motor
Speedway PA system in his post-race interview. While fans in
the grandstands may agree or disagree, his credo Thursday night
set the stage for an exciting final lap with more than $10,000
on the line.
“The main thing I learned this weekend is you race people how
they race you,” said Griffin in his winner’s interview.
That one statement sent Angola Motor Speedway into a tizzy.
Beer cans flew onto victory lane from unruly fans and boo’s and
profanities rained down on victory lane like an Indiana
Summertime storm. The statement, and the subsequent unruliness
by the fans, was all because Griffin, after getting pinched off
turn-four with 25 laps remaining by race dominator and local
favorite Jeff Parr, rallied back and got into Parr’s rear bumper
on the final lap to steal the $10,110 paycheck.
“We just came down the frontsteretch and I was to his door – at
least to his door – and he came down,” Griffin told Speed51.com
of the incident with 25 laps to go. “From that point on, I knew
how I was going to have to win the race because he wasn’t going
to let anyone get beside him. We had to do what we had to do
(to take the lead on the last lap). It’s not what I wanted to
do, but I had to do it.”
Parr had a different opinion of what happened on lap 85 than
Griffin. And that different opinion, fueled by Griffin’s
post-race victory lane comment added to Parr’s frustration.
“I didn’t put him down there because I never saw him,” said
Parr. “He was never up far enough for me to see. I’ve been
running for close to 30 years now and I know what they’re
talking about. It bothered me my first few years of racing.
But you know what? I had to bite my tongue.”
After Griffin saved his #16 from going into the grass from the
lap 85 incident, he reeled Parr back as the laps clicked off.
With five laps to go, Griffin was up to Parr’s bumper. He tried
a few passes on both the low and high sides around Parr’s fading
#9 machine, but all efforts were thwarted. That was, at least,
until off turn-two of the final lap, when Parr got a tad
sideways off the corner and Griffin went in for the KO with
thoughts of the lap 85 incident fresh on his mind.
“We came off of two and he got a little loose and slowed up a
little more than I thought he was going to,” said Griffin. “I
got into him harder than I thought I was going to, but it was
just enough to keep me in front of him.”
Parr, on the other hand, wasn’t impressed with the move, to say
the least.
“What kicks me in the pants is that somebody else can nail you
as hard as he did,” said Parr. “That wasn’t
no love tap. That wasn’t no getting loose or anything. That
was, ‘bullseye.’
“I didn’t feel a little tap, I felt a lot. I guess I could’ve
spun it, but probably wouldn’t have gotten my spot back like
some of them do. You’d think there’d be a little bit better
officiating. Anyone can win doing that. I really don’t know
what to think. I’m still thinking about it.”
While Parr was left contemplating what could’ve been during this
year’s Stan Perry Memorial, Derrick Griffin celebrated his
10-grand-plus payday with his crew, never having even imagined
that the race would turn out the way it did.
““It doesn’t even feel real,” said Griffin. “About an hour or
so ago we were sitting in the pits hoping to just finish the
race and here we are with $10,000 and we still have a racecar.”
Parr summarized his night with one simple statement, just like
Griffin did in victory lane.
“(Finishing second) is the first loser.”