Dripps' tire moves a highlight of busy weekend at Benton County Speedway

VINTON — On Sunday night at Benton County Speedway, the racing surface got to a point where there was only one fast lane — around the bottom.

Sometimes that happens in racing, and many times it's unavoidable.

But what doesn't happen many times is a racer taking it upon him or herself to remedy the situation while still sitting in their racecar. Yet that's exactly what Corey Dripps tried to do from the seat of his No. 31 IMCA Modified.

You've probably seen the video by now (if not, watch it here). Dripps pushed the large white tractor tires out into the racing groove to force cars higher and theoretically create better racing. When he was told he had to go to the back for the first instance, he decided he might as well make it count. When he got disqualified for ignoring race director Mike Van Genderen's direction to stop, he decided to leave the track in style. A couple front stretch donuts later, the crowd roared and Dripps was done for the night.

'They informed me it was on TV,' Dripps said. 'I thought, 'Well heck, if it's on TV, I might as well give a goodbye to the crowd; thanks for coming out.'

To what should be no one's surprise, Dripps' text messages and Facebook notifications were off the charts.

'I had to put my phone away because the messages wouldn't stop,' Dripps said. 'I thought I'd try to show them we could have some better racing and do a little adjustment. I probably should've done it a little differently, but it's just the way it went.

'(Van Genderen) was awesome and professional about it. I tried to be after as well. No one wants to hurt the sport. We all want to make it better and put on the best show we can for the fans. I was doing what I thought was best for the show.'

Both Dripps and Van Genderen laughed about it at Monday's Hawkeye Dirt Tour opener at Benton County Speedway. Just a few hours after Dripps put on his show, the pair hashed it out before the driver's meeting.

Dripps and Van Genderen stressed there were no hard feelings about the situation. Dripps made his point and Van Genderen agreed he wanted the show to be the best possible. They also agreed Dripps' point could've been made differently — even if it was probably the most entertaining part of Sunday's show, and a moment fans in attendance won't soon forget.

'We laughed about it and we both understand what you have to do with the tires when it gets like that,' Van Genderen said. 'There are absolutely no problems between us whatsoever. He said he knew he couldn't do that during the race and knew he was going to get kicked out. He proved his point.'

SOBBING TAKES FIRST DEERY WIN

IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series for Late Models rookie Jesse Sobbing has had an interesting — to say the least — first season in an IMCA Late Model.

He added to it Monday with his first Summer Series victory in the Memorial Day special at Boone Speedway. The well-traveled Modified racer took home $2,000 for his victory, checking off an item on his career checklist along the way.

'At the end of last year, we decided we were going to race an IMCA Late Model and one of our goals was to try and win a few of these races. Now we've got one,' Sobbing said in a news release from IMCA. 'We've been right with these guys and it feels good to be able to get a win.'

Sobbing — who drives the No. 99 — became the 99th different winner in series history, and got the win ahead of Chad Holladay, Todd Cooney, Darrel DeFrance and two-time series champion Justin Kay in fifth.

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