CONCORD, N.C. — Fierce voting down the stretch turned the inaugural Alltel All-Star contest into a virtual photo finish between UMP DIRTcar Open-Wheel Modified competitor Dave Hess, Jr. and sprint-car driver Wayne Johnson vying for the $12,000 top prize.
The online poll closed at 11:59 p.m. on March 16 with Hess, of Waterford, Pa., edging Johnson, of Mustang, Okla., by less than one percent of the overall votes. Of the thousands of votes cast for the 18 different drivers who earned victories in the 37th Annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals in February at Volusia Speedway Park, Hess earned 25.5 percent of the total votes, a shade more than the 24.6 Johnson received.
Hess, 23, was on his way home from watching Alltel Racing driver Ryan Newman compete at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway when he got the news Monday morning.
“That’s cool,” said Hess, who caught and passed Johnson for the Alltel All-Star lead in late February. “I just want to thank everybody. Every morning we were checking the AlltelAllStar.com Web site. That $12,000 is going to help. I’m going to put it back in the car to help our program and put on a show for all of the fans that supported me. I want to thank Alltel for putting this together. I’ll show them as much support as I can for them supporting this program. I can’t thank them enough.
“I’m not even sure what we’ll do with the money first. We’re going to be ordering parts real soon, and I’m sure it’ll cover some of the money we spent down in Florida. I just want to thank everybody, even those I don’t know personally, for being dirt-track fans.”