PORT ROYAL, Pa. – Lance Dewease isolated himself on the Port Royal Speedway frontstretch Saturday.
The hurt of an eighth Tuscarora 50 title that suddenly vanished into the night consumed him. He needed some space
“It eats into me pretty hard right now,” he later said.
In 36 years of racing, Dewease had never experienced anything like Saturday’s whirlwind of events at Port Royal.
An astronomical oil leak foiled another classic drive to victory from the National Sprint Car Hall of Famer in another Central Pennsylvania Crown Jewel.
Logan Wagner raced by Dewease with two laps to go for the dramatic win. He and his Kreitz Racing team’s resolve, however, allowed them to at least go the distance.
“We gave it all we had,” Dewease said.
During the scheduled halfway fuel stop on lap 25, the Kreitz Racing crew performed five, absolutely-frenzied minutes of maintenance. The entire left side of the fuel tank became black. The right side guard streaked with oil.
Dewease, too, dripped with oil. He popped out of the car, yelled for a towel, a new strip of tear offs and demanded two quarts of oil to be replenished.
He wiped down his steering wheel that started to slip from his grasp. Five crew members attended to the No. 69K machine. Somehow, they got it back going.
Before the stoppage, Wagner closed in and Dewease’s 2.2-second lead dwindled to five car lengths.
Dewease fought more than a car on the verge of completely ceasing. A hose had jarred loose and dumped oil into the cockpit. It sprayed Dewease’s steering wheel, soaked his body, greased up his gas and brake pedals and impaired his vision.
“I was using my tear offs like crazy,” Dewease said. “It just got so bad.”
“I couldn’t even hold on to the steering wheel, really,” he added.
Dewease experienced an oil leak years ago in a heat race at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway but nothing to Saturday’s extent.
“The amount of oil in the car, you guys can go get pictures of it,” he said. “It’s pretty amazing. I’m actually shocked the motor even made it that far.”
Dewease is probably just as impressed his vision was good enough to be tactful in traffic. He could never restock on tear offs at the halfway fuel stop on lap 25.
“I couldn’t even see on restarts by myself, where I was going off of turn four to hit my marks,” Dewease said. “The easiest way to picture it was driving in fog. The shield was so oiled up. We tried to clean it, but you can’t clean oil off that easily.”
Through all the madness, Dewease clung to a one-second lead with five laps to go, on the verge of pulling off an effort for the ages.
But it remained in the balance as Dewease’s pace slowed considerably in traffic. Dirty air has been more of an outward problem for Dewease compared to surrounding frontrunners.
“I knew sooner or later we were going to have our hands full,” Dewease said. “I couldn’t see where they were running. It just killed us.”
With two laps to go, Dewease had to float his car through the middle of turns three and four because the bottom wasn’t visible to him. Wagner smelled blood in the water and unleashed the go-ahead slide job at that moment.
“It’s very disappointing,” Dewease said. “I’m not here [to run] second. We’re here to win this thing. That’s all we’re worried about.
“Logan has been pretty good recently,” he added. “I’m kind of glad he won it over maybe somebody (else).”
At 55 years old, Dewease genuinely enjoys the success of the younger Pennsylvania Posse drivers. He wants the area to be strong without him one day.
Wagner’s uproarious celebration captivated the sold out crowd at the Juniata Valley clay oval. Dewease briefly observed from a distance, then turned his back.
“We did everything right up until a mechanical issue,” Dewease said. “We can’t change that. … It hurts.”