Article Courtesy of

Speed51.com writer Mike Twist

Kirk Alexander won another True Value Modified Racing Series event this past weekend.  His latest victory came at Star Speedway.  That’s not really a surprise.  Alexander has won nine of the tour’s 13 events in 2005.

But the win did not come very easy for him this time out.

Visiting NASCAR Whelen Modified driver Jim Storace was the early leader at Star and he gave Alexander a run for his money in the middle stages of the race.  Alexander tried several different approaches when it came to taking the lead from Storace.

First, Alexander tried to stay on his rear bumper, hoping for the tiniest of slip-ups.  That didn’t happen.

Next, Alexander tired the outside groove.  He got along Storace’s door but couldn’t complete the pass.  After about a dozen laps of trying, Alexander tucked in again behind Storace’s bumper again.

Then, Alexander tried to nose under Storace’s #44.  But without an open lane, that wasn’t going to work.

Finally, with 25 laps to go, Alexander was able to just motor on by using the outside groove.

“That was good racing,” said Alexander.  “Jimmy was going wicked good tonight.  We battled with him and got together a little bit, but no big deal.  Nobody wrecked.  It was good for the fans.”

Between lap 75 and 100, the boxscore will show that Alexander led every lap and went on to the race win.

Once again, it didn’t come as easy as it might have appeared.  Late in the race, the cars of Dwight Jarvis and Peter Daniels weren’t very far behind.

And either car might have had a shot at the victory had it not been for a late race caution that left the track soiled.

“It’s so hot tonight and the track was getting slippery,” said Alexander.  “Towards the end, there was a lot of dirt and speedy dry on the track and we lost grip.”

“The car was going real good, but it tightened up after that caution with 10 to go,” said Jarvis.  “I couldn’t get it down low enough to get by him.  If it had stayed green, I think that I would have had a good enough car to get by him.”

Instead, Jarvis was forced to try and hold off a charging Daniels.

“We had quite a battle going there for the last couple of laps,” said Daniels.  “I don’t know if there was something on the track, but the tires just weren’t coming back after that last restart.  I was hoping that the leader and the second place car would have the same problems and they wouldn’t walk off and leave me.”

The fact that Daniels was even up in the top three late in the race was impressive.

“The crew did a great job tonight,” said Daniels.  “I missed the drivers’ meeting and had to start in the back, we had to run in the consi and we got into a skirmish in that.  To start 21st and finish third is almost as good as a win.  The car was good tonight and stayed nice and consistent.  We got boxed in a few times coming up, but once we cleared a few cars it got better.”

When all was said and done, it was Alexander, Jarvis and Daniels in the top three.  After the race, there were two questions that begged to be asked.

The first one was with all of his wins this year, can Alexander even keep them all straight?  The New Hampshire driver is quick to point out that he sure enjoys all of the winning moments.

“Every win is memorable,” said Alexander.  “Every win is fun.  I’ll remember that battle for the lead in this race. “

The other question is can Alexander be beat and what needs to be done to do that?

“I think we’re all thinking about that and if somebody knew, we’d be beating him,” said Daniels.  “We were closer to him tonight, so maybe he’s human after all.”

“I think we’re all learning something, this is all new to us running different tracks,” said Jarvis.  “It’s a learning curve and we’re gaining.  We’ll take second, we’re gaining each week.  Maybe next week, we’ll win one.”

The True Value Modified Racing Series returns to action this Saturday at Seekonk Speedway.  It will be their second points race of 2005 at the track and guess who won their previous stop there? 

If you picked Alexander, you are right.  Then again, with a batting average of .692, you didn’t have to go very far out on a limb to guess that correct answer.