Yogi Berra once said, "It's not over 'til it's over."
Mike Monroe and John Nutley could say the same thing Saturday night at Illiana Speedway.
Both were pretty much settling in for second-place finishes in their respective feature races, only to have the leaders suffer mechanical difficulties just moments from the checkered flag.
The first unexpected turn of events occurred in the limited late-model feature.
Anthony Danta had taken the lead from Nutley on lap 15, and appeared in command even as there was a restart on lap 23 of the 25-lap race.
Danta stayed in front at the drop of the green, but shortly after he took the white flag, his No. 51 suddenly slowed.
"I just lost power," Danta said. "Taking the restart in the middle of the corner I went to pick up the gas and it didn't go. I don't know if it was a fuel pickup or what. Earlier, it didn't stutter at all. That's why I'm kind of confused. I don't know if we got some kind of dirt in there or what.
Nutley made a successful pass and went on to score the win over Len Koprowski, Doug Hayes and Tyler Middleton, Danta coasted across the finish line in fifth, ahead of Dennis Lyp.
"Man, I was just trying to keep up with him," an elated Nutley said. "We didn't buy tires tonight. We've got two-week old tires on the car. We're trying make points, that's all we were trying to do.
More late drama happened in the late-model main event, when race leader Mike White suddenly pulled into the pits just four laps from the finish.
White had spent considerable time tracking down and finally passing Monroe on lap 17. It didn't appear that White was going to have any problem closing the deal in his No. 00 until...
"It lost power," White said later. "I wasn't sure what it was. Maybe it was ignition, maybe it was something internally. It just really nosed over. Luckily Monroe was heads up there.
"As fast as this thing shut down, it could have been a heck of a wreck. He did a good job of getting by me. It's a shame, but we'll fix it. At least we've got it going in the right direction from opening day, when we were really struggling."
Monroe held off a last-lap challenge from Chris Cooling to prevail by 0.290 seconds. Jeff Cannon was third, followed by Doug Hayes, Bobby Gash and Shawn Wiltjer.
"The car was good," Monroe said. "The last 10 laps it started getting loose off the turns, so I just figured I'd run with Mike a little bit. I thought I might make a charge in the last few laps, and when he slowed coming out of Turn 2 there was a bang. And then I got by him.
"I'm probably one of the only guys who runs without radios, so it probably makes you more aware of the surroundings there. I hate to see him break like that, but I work hard too. So we'll take it."
Eddie Ligue held off a very strong challenge from Scott Gardner to capture his third turbo stox main event. Ligue inherited the top spot on lap 12 when leader Bobbie Jean Wall and second running Mark Ross tangled going into turn one.
Gardner ran close behind Ligue from laps 13 through 25, but a yellow flag a few laps from the finish cleared away any potential traffic problems for the leader.
"When I seen (traffic) that coming up like that I was like, 'Oh, boy. We don't need this right now,' " Eddie Ligue said. "The caution tightened things up, but it got us away from the traffic a little bit.
"From there, we had a little bit of door to door action with Scott. It was nothing but good racing."
Ligue beat Gardner to the finish line by 0.518 seconds. Chris Woodall was third, followed by Bill Serviss, Pat O'Rourke and Tony Neering.
The pure stocks "A" main went to Bob Rohweder, who beat out Dave Jacobs and Paul McKeague. Chris King captured the Legends feature over Nick Chiapetta and Alex Arelano.
Late-model
Qualifying: 1. Mike White (19.832), 2. Bobby Gash (20.043), 3. Marc Hankosky (20.113), 4. Jeff Cannon (20.233), 5. Chris Cooling (20.259), 6. Earl Counter (20.266), 7. Mike Monroe (20.288), 8. Doug Hayes (20.465), 9. Tony Brutti (20.585), 10. Dean Patterson (20.607), 11. Shaun Wiltjer (20.691), 12. Vincent Merry (20.751), 13. Don Sabatino (21.038).
1st heat: 1. Monroe, 2. Cooling, 3. Cannon, 4. Hankosky, 5. White, 6. Gash, 7. Counter, 8. Hayes.
2nd heat: 1. Wiltjer, 2. Merry, 3. Brutti, 4. Patterson, 5. Sabatino.
25-lap feature: 1. Monroe, 2. Cooling, 3. Cannon, 4. Hayes, 5. Gash, 6. Wiltjer, 7. Counter, 8. Merry, 9. Brutti, 10. Patterson, 11. Sabatino, 12. White, 13. Hankosky, 14. Segvich.
Limited late-model
Qualifying: 1. Anthony Danta (20.281), 2. John Senerchia (20.378), 3. John Nutley (20.557), 4. Phil Splant (20.566), 5. Len Koprowski (20.693), 6. Doug Hayes (20.718), 7. Paul Zolodz (20.791), 8. Rita Fields (20.798), 9. Tyler Middleton (20.823), 10. Dennis Lyp (20.927), 11. Bobby Gash (20.942), 12. Darrel Sills (21.098), 13. Kevin Moenk (21.311), 14. Kevin Offdenkamp (21.441), 15. Brad Plunket (21.487), 16. Matt O’Leary (21.775), 17. Joe Balser (21.956).
1st heat: 1. Zolodz, 2. Danta, 3. Nutley, 4. Koprowski, 5. Splant, 6. Fields, 7. Senerchia, 8. Hayes.
2nd heat: 1. Gash, 2. Middleton, 3. Lyp, 4. Moenk, 5. Offdenkamp, 6. Balser, 7. Plunket, 8. Sills
25-lap feature: 1. Nutley, 2. Koprowski, 3. Hayes, 4. Middleton, 5. Danta, 6. Lyp, 7. Senerchia, 8. Moenk, 9. Fields, 10. Plunket, 11. Balser, 12. Offdenkamp, 13. O’Leary, 14. Splant, 15. Zolodz, 16. Sills, 17. Gash, 18. Segvich.
Turbo stox
Qualifying: 1. Ed Ligue (17.968), 2. Bill Serviss (17.974), 3. Tony Meier (18.015), 4. Scott Gardner (18.029), 5. Jerry Barnett (18.124), 6. Chris Woodall (18.144), 7. Billy Jarrells (18.147), 8. Michael Moore (18.238), 9. Mark Ross Jr. (18.303), 10. Butch Wood (18.325), 11. Pat O’Rourke (18.348), 12. Bobbie Jean Wall (18.476), 13. Bobby Blood (18.561), 14. Tony Neering (18.562), 15. Pat Ligue (18.595), 16. Josh Easto (18.614), 17. Jacob McKown (18.683), 18. Dan Witt (18.846), 19. Ed Hast (19.013), 20. Crystalyn Sehr (19.454), 21. Bobby Thompson (19.718), 22. Lahcen Bouhaddi
1st heat: 1. Gardner, 2. Meier, 3. Serviss, 4. Woodall, 5. E. Ligue, 6. Jarrells, 7. Moore, 8. Barnett.
2nd heat: 1. Ross, 2. O’Rourke, 3. Blood, 4. P. Ligue, 5. McKown, 6. Hast, 7. Thompson.
3rd heat: 1. Neering, 2. Wall, 3. Witt, 4. Easto, 5. Sehr, 6. Bouhaddi.
25-lap feature: 1. E. Ligue, 2. Gardner, 3. Woodall, 4. Serviss, 5. O’Rourke, 6. Neering, 7. Ross, 8. Meier, 9. Barnett, 10. Moore, 11. P. Ligue, 12. McKown, 13. Blood, 14. Hast, 15. Sehr, 16. Thompson, 17. Wall, 18. Jarrells, 19. Easto, 20. Witt, 21. Bouhaddi.
Pure stocks
1st heat: 1. Mark Ross Jr. 2nd heat: 1. Shawn Coulter, 3rd heat: 1. Mike Lindemulder.
“B” feature: 1. Helen Nester, 2. John Hensley, 3. Dee Warren, 4. Craig Schultze, 5. Casey Martin.
“A” feature: 1. Bob Rohweder, 2. Dave Jacobs, 3. Paul McKeague, 4. Chris Czaszwicz, 5. Craig Miller.
Legends
Heat: 1. Alex Arelano, 2. Nick Chiapetta, 3. Mickie Kudlicki, 4. Matt Van Drunen, 5. Cullen Camasta, 6. Chris King, 7. Racheal Pinkerton, 8. Ben Fidone.
Feature: 1. King, 2. Chiapetta, 3. Arelano, 4. Kudlicki, 5. Camasta, 6. Van Drunen, 7. Pinkerton, 8. Fidone.
