Sunday afternoon = PASS North Series date

It's just another sleepy racing Sunday afternoon here on the PASS North Series tour.

The PASS guys just wrapped up their heats at Speedway 95 in advance of their 150-lap main event later on today. Richie Dearborn, Mike Rowe and Scott Chubbuck won their respective 12-lap heats.

There are 21 cars signed in and ready to go, an unsurprising drop-off following a 30-car field last weekend at Wiscasset Raceway. Like at Wiscasset, today's field picked up a few of the track's weekly regulars, though one would think a Sunday afternoon would draw a few more cars out of the woodwork. Maybe everyone's summer racing budget is kaput.

Maybe it's because bear hunting season starts this week...

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PASS car owner Jay Cushman, who fields the No. 29 Fords for rookie Trevor Sanborn, made it back from Bristol, Tenn., in time for last night's regularly scheduled Pro Stock feature at Speedway 95.

The lady in Cushman's life won a trip through Citibank to the the guest crew chief for the No. 90 of Stephen Leicht in Friday's Busch Series race at Bristol. Because Cushman is a Ford man, tried and true, he already knew a bunch of the guys on the Robert Yates Racing Busch team.

How'd that go?

"Just like my own guys," Cushman said. "I had a whole list of changes I wanted them to make to the car, and nobody listened to me."

Leicht finished 20th in the Food City 250.

Cushman had some bad luck in the Speedway 95 race, opting to pit Sanborn under a yellow flag. Rain then came and the race was red-flagged and never restarted.

"We finished last," Cushman said. "Don't pit during a red. No matter how good the changes you make to the car, you can't win under red."

Good point. I'll have to remember that.

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Two PASS drivers are looking for an improved showing over their efforts at Speedway 95 in May.

Cassius Clark nearly had the field lapped in that event, but he was tagged for an illegal rocker arm and stripped of his win later that week. Mike Rowe crashed not once, but twice, in practice with faulty brakes and ended finishing a somewhat miraculous 11th in the feature.

Clark was 2nd fastest in all 3 of the practices he participated in this morning.

"We're the only car with a crate motor going well," Clark said. "You're not going to be the fastest with one of those."

But Clark was consistently turning laps in the 14.7- and 14.8-second bracket on the odd .333-mile layout where the outside groove is by far the most preferred.

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There are just 3 races left in the PASS North season after today.

Heading into the PASS 150 here, Ben Rowe leads his father, Mike Rowe, by 12 points. It's a little further back to defending series champion Johnny Clark, who is 49 points out of the lead and in need of some big-time help from the Rowes (read: misfortune) to win his 3rd series title and equal Ben's championship total.

Richie Dearborn and Trevor Sanborn are 54 and 122 points back, respectively.