It wasn’t just that Robert Ballou ended a winless streak in the USAC National Sprint Car Series dating back 546 days since November of 2022, but how he did it, defeating Kyle Cummins in Eldora #LetsRaceTwo by 0.016 seconds to claim his seventh career victory.
How he did it was simply staying in gas and not lifting out of Turn 4 until he either saw the afterlife or a checkered flag and he lived to see the latter.
This was the third closest finish in a USAC national race of any kind over the past decade. This was Ballou’s seventh career victory in USAC Sprint Car competition.
“I didn’t even know if I was going to make it,” said Ballou, the 35-year-old affable open wheel veteran of two decades. “My car was not very good, and I was being a little girl and wasn’t being very good up top, but after that last caution I finally got brave enough to run straight and it was getting faster. …
“I was counting down the laps, because I knew it had to be getting close and I got to third and realized (Kyle) was slowing down but I still didn’t think I could get to him. They threw the white and I decided we were either going to have to pull down the backup car (for tomorrow) or we were going to get a win.
“”I sent it into Turn 3 and wondered if I was going to end up in the suites but it luckily held on.
For those who don’t watch this kind of racing, understand that running the top means staying in the gas and carrying that momentum around a high speed track like Eldora Speedway but it’s also treacherous because it may not stick.
Ballou could have landed in the wall, catchfence or suite, as he put it, but it landed in Victory Lane instead.
From that standpoint, Kyle Cummins is hard pressed to complain about being beat that way, especially since he was running the conservative line on the bottom.
“That stings a little bit, but I’ll be honest, if I’m going to win, I want to be the guy running up against the fence and not winning at Eldora running the bottom,” Cummins said.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
