Division combination gives Krueger seventh in 'Bomber'

Keith Krueger didn’t race a Bomber Stock car April 30, but he finished seventh in the Bomber Stock main event at Barona Speedway.

Krueger, who drives a Factory Stock, competed in the Bomber division along with five other Factory Stock cars and five Bombers. He actually had the lead between the fifth and eighth laps of the 20-lap main event before four of the five Bombers and two Factory Stock drivers passed him.

“We were just trying to do the best we could with what we had,” Krueger said. “We were running okay, but you’re not going to overcome the size of the car.”

Barona Speedway opened its season April 30. Some of the Factory Stock drivers may have been told that the first Factory Stock race was moved back to May 14, but several other drivers did not receive such notice.

All six Factory Stock drivers who came to the track opted to run against the Bombers. “Nobody turned around that I know of,” Krueger remarked.

Krueger’s LTD has a new rear end, and he used the April 30 race as a test of the car. “We were there,” he noted. “We wanted to get some time on the track.”

Krueger finished fourth in the eight-lap heat race, giving him a second-row start for the main event. He took the lead shortly after a crash in front of him. “I missed the crash and went around it,” Krueger explained.

No yellow flag was thrown, and one of the other cars ahead of him stopped to avoid the crash. “It gave me a chance to get length down, to get a little bit of a lead,” Krueger noted.

Krueger held that lead for approximately three laps. “Then I started getting picked off,” he said.

“I wobbled a little bit,” he noted. “You don’t have to miss by much to get somebody to slip by you.”

That gave the faster cars the edge, especially over the 20-lap duration. “Twenty laps is tougher to keep them back there,” Krueger remarked. “I pretty much worked my way down to the bottom by the end of the race, but we just went out there to do to the best we could with what we had.”

Krueger was still able to finish third among the six Factory Stock cars. “Bombers have a distinct advantage against the Factories,” he noted.

“I wish I did better,” he said of his seventh-place overall finish. “I was hoping to finish in the middle.”

The primary goal of testing the car was more successful. “We went and we raced,” he remarked. “We learned some things that we need to do.”