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Russ Dugger's name is a lot more familiar to ARCA fans today than it was 24 hours ago.
The Owasso, OK native battled back from spins, near-misses, a chronically loose race car, and a troublesome helmet radio, to earn two Aaron's "Lucky Dog" awards and finish on the lead lap in 14th position in Friday's ARCA Rattlesnake 150 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Thursday qualifying for the Rattlesnake 150 at was rained out, meaning Dugger - who was 22nd quick in practice - would start in 31st position based on 2009 owner's points.
That also meant he'd be seeing lots of opportunities to pass - and potentially, lots of opportunities to be caught up in wrecks.
Dugger was clear of the early incidents and maintaining his position for the first half of the race, but things had not yet begun to get interesting. On lap 48, a car had spun and hit the backstretch wall causing the field to slow as the caution came out.
Dugger was unable to see clearly through the haze, but saw an opening below the damaged car, and took it. Unfortunately, his loose race car spun as he tried to move back up the track, barely grazing the inside wall.
The save was replayed on SPEED TV a number of times, which seemed to spark a surge of interest in the Owasso native on Twitter and Facebook.
Dugger definitely had his hands full behind the wheel. The #12 Accell Construction Inc. Chevrolet Monte Carlo was loose for nearly the entire race, forcing Dugger to drive within narrower limits.
Conventional wisdom says that cooling conditions plus rubber build-up as the race progresses, equals a tighter racing surface, but on this evening, getting the car tightened up was an elusive challenge.
In the last 30 laps of the race, Dugger described the car as being "about an 8 out of 10" loose - especially full of fuel - which is like walking on a very high tightrope when you're carrying 200 MPH into the turns.
"It just never tightened up for us tonight, but we dealt with what we had and tried to run a smart race," Dugger said.
On the last pit stop with just over 10 laps to go, crew chief George Church called for a major track bar change, and just like that, Dugger had a hot rod. The next green flag laps were his fastest of the race, and he was able to make two passes for position prior to the checkered flag.
Only two drivers gained more positions than Dugger on the evening, who finished 17 places better than he started.
"I wish we'd had more laps," said Dugger. "We'd just made that big track bar change, and I finally felt like I could get through the turns without it getting away from me. I could take it a lot deeper into turn 1, made a good pass out of (turn) 4 for position."
Mario Gosselin's DGM Racing team did an exceptional job working with him throughout a challenging race. Dugger was being helped on-track by veteran spotter Ron Lewis, who works with Mike Skinner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS). Church is also a NCWTS veteran, serving as Crew Chief for DGM Racing's #12 driven by Gosselin himself.
The entire Dugger family was in Dallas for the race, with heavy hearts. Dugger's aunt, Elynn, was laid to rest earlier that week after battling an illness. Dugger dedicated the race to her memory, and carried her name on his car for the event.
But they all left with light hearts following a very impressive top-15 performance by the man with "the greatest stock car name you have ever heard."
