When the penultimate show of Pennsylvania Speedweek got its last checkered flag, veteran driver Keith Kauffman was in victory lane.
Maybe because he’s such a quiet, classy guy, Kauffman has escaped being called “legendary.” I, for one, think he is. Kauffman, who just turned 57 years old, has been flinging sprint cars around for 37 years. He is not the typical sprint-car racer.
Kauffman has done it by outracing and mostly outsmarting his rivals in one of the toughest regional circuits around. He has scored some 301 victories — 125 of them at Port Royal Speedway. He is leading the standings at Port Royal en route to what could be his 13th track championship at the historic half-mile oval.
He is soft spoken and modest. He has raced in flame-throwing nasty sprint cars probably without gaining an enemy. I doubt if anyone who kicks up 410 dirt is more respected.
Kauffman has cut down his racing a bit, competing at Port Royal every Saturday and in some special shows. I’m not looking forward to the day he decides he won’t race anymore. It’s been a genuine pleasure watching the “Man from Mifflintown” do his thing.
Another sprint-car great — Fred Rahmer — recently passed Steve Smith on the all-time winner’s list at Lincoln Speedway with his 151st triumph at the third-mile dirt track. Like Kauffman and Smith, Rahmer has won most of his races from deep in the pack, and this is in short races. Lincoln is a hard place to win, and because of its size, traffic is always a factor. Those three men have nearly 1,000 sprint-car victories among them, and Rahmer and Kauffman should win quite a few more before they are finished.
If you vacationed last week, you had a chance to catch a lot of racing in Pennsylvania. On July 18, Bob Miller had another Thunder on the Hill show at Grandview. The DIRT big blocks ran a 100 lapper. Randy Kane and I described the action for RCN Cable.
The next three days, Williams Grove had its Summer Nationals for the World of Outlaws.
I needed a sprint-car fix.
• ESPN is doing a nice job with its Outlaws TV shows. It’s the best sprint-car television since Thursday Night Thunder.
• Good to see Jamie McMurray break through with a victory at Daytona. I wonder what the Pepsi people thought of him sipping a Coke in victory lane?
• Tony Stewart, who is as subtle as a piano thief, really stuck it to NASCAR with his Prelude to the Dream late-model show at Eldora. It was an event that was totally pleasurable.
No infractions, no salivating all night about points, no sponsor plugs, just a night of great racing, and everybody had a great time.
The next PPV event might be the fathers of Sam Hornish, Jr. and Danny Lasoski going at it for three rounds.
• I think Larry McReynolds has a lot of nerve making fun of the way Bootie Barker talks.