Lap dogs

Look, before we get into a big "who woulda' won" argument here, let me just say one thing. Johnny Clark had 'em whipped at Wiscasset Raceway last Sunday.

But, boy, oh boy, does Scott Chubbuck ever have a beef with the way the race played out in the late stages of the PASS North Series 150. Chubbuck finished 2nd to Clark, but he had a shot at the win until a couple of heroes decided to mix it up right in front of him.

The lapped traffic at that PASS event was among the worst I've seen in a decade covering motorsports. I'm not talking about a few cars at the back end of a weekly Mini Stock feature here, either -- we're talking about a semi-professional tour with drivers who are supposed to know better.

With under 15 laps remaining and Chubbuck pursuing Clark in lapped traffic, the lapped cars of Bill Whorff Jr. and Mike Parks started racing one another side-by-side in front of Chubbuck after the leader Clark passed through. That held up Chubbuck long enough that Clark could be far more patient in picking his way through the other lapped cars ahead.

"I know if I'm a lap down with 10 to go, I pull right out of the way," Chubbuck said. "A couple of guys were racing side-by-side. I guess it's bound to happen."

It wasn't just at that point in the race, either.

Just after the halfway point of the event, as Clark was checking out to a 5-second lead, Cassius Clark, Chubbuck, Ben Rowe and Steve Berry were battling hard for positions 2 through 5 while having to dodge the antics of a number of lapped machines, including those of veteran Dave Dion and Trevor Sanborn. Heck, during one 6-lap stretch, Berry and Cassius Clark swapped the 2nd spot 3 or 4 times while wrestling lapped cars.

Of course, in my mind, it all goes back to PASS instituting its ridiculous "Lucky Dog" rule -- giving the 1st lapped car in the running order a lap back under each caution period. It's a NASCAR mimic, one that comes up woefully short and unflattering at the local touring level.

I'd like to say I'm digressing here by picking on PASS, but let's be honest. I'm not at all. That rule is the sole reason teams like Dion's and Sanborn's would be racing so hard and remaining in the way of lead-lap cars around them.

Johnny Clark stunk up the show at Wiscasset with a car that no one was equal to. But, in racing, the fastest car, as we all know, doesn't always win. Chubbuck had a chance to pull the upset on Sunday with a handful of laps remaining but was robbed by lapped cars.

Maybe, then, it's more accurate to say the lapped cars were the ones that stunk up the show. Big-time.