3/9/2018
Dennis Gile Victorious in Vegas
(Image: Adam Mollenkopf)
26 Promotions – Las Vegas, NV – (March 9, 2018) – Every time Dennis Gile shows up to the track he has one goal, and that is to end the night in victory lane as he tries to secure his first career Sprint Car win.
“My mindset going into any race is to try to win,” explained Gile. “Yes, it’s fun, it’s a blast, and it's an adrenaline rush but I’m competitive, and I go out to win. I feel really comfortable every time I strap myself into the car because my dad gives me such a good race car every time out. Sometimes we might be tight or loose to start the night, but always towards the end, the race car is where it needs to be for me to have the best chance at winning.”
Gile qualified eleventh and won his heat from the pole to kick off night one from Vegas. Those results lined him up on the outside of the front row for the start of the 25-lap feature, where Gile would struggle in the opening laps.
“The motor kind of fell on its face when I went to take off, and we dropped back to third,” said Gile. “Then going into turn three the car was really tight, and I almost turned it over which dropped us back to fifth. After that, the car kept getting better and better as the race went on. A couple of guys dropped out, and we restarted second at the end. I thought we were going to win, but Justin (Grant) was kind of sliding across the bottom and easing his way through the corner, and I was getting into the cushion, and once he got to the moisture, he drove off and left me.”
Gile finished second ahead of USAC veteran Brady Bacon and looked to carry that momentum into night two.
“It’s frustrating to get that close, but I had a lot of confidence going into night two,” said Gile. “That’s always a good thing, confidence has a lot to with how you drive, in my opinion. But, it kind of hurt me a little, I was overdriving the car in qualifying. I drove into three and four as hard as I could and jumped the cushion and nearly hit the wall because I wanted to set fast time.”
Qualifying seventeenth put Gile in a hole to start the night and he knew he’d need to make up ground in the heat to make the feature invert.
“We got up to third or fourth, and everyone was running the bottom while I was running the top,” explained Gile. “I should have gone to the bottom but stayed on the top and tried to make it work. It ended up costing me at the end, and we finished fifth.”
Starting thirteenth in the feature, Gile was making his way through the field before his night came to an abrupt end.
“At the beginning of the main, we were really fast,” he said. “We were up to seventh or eighth and went to the bottom for the first time in three and four and clipped a tire and broke the front end, without the driver error I felt like we had a fifth or sixth-place car.”
On Monday, USAC West Coast and Southwest Officials announced that the winner of Friday and Saturday night’s features had been disqualified due to a misinterpretation of the engine rules, awarding Wednesday night’s feature win to Gile.
“It leaves a bittersweet taste in my mouth,” said Gile. “We’ve been waiting for basically two years now to get a win, after being so close a handful of times, it leaves a pit in my stomach. On paper, it says we won, but we didn’t get handed the trophy or get to celebrate as a team on the front stretch, I think its huge in any sport to be able to celebrate with your teammates when you win. I don’t think the monkey is off our backs, for us we still need to go out and get that first win so that we can celebrate together. Bill Michaels is our family; we feel bad for him because he spends a lot of money, time and effort to make sure his cars are the best. The rules changed, and he didn’t know that. I know that he’s a very humble, respectful and honest person. My grandpa talked to him the other day, and he is going to give us the trophy and the big check, I thought that was honorable of him and shows the type of person that he is.”
Gile is back in action with the USAC Southwest Series on March 17th at Arizona Speedway.
Dennis Gile would like to thank Walker Performance Filtration, Sands Chevrolet, Dennis Gile Quarterback Academy, and Bobby Q’s for their support.
Night One Results
Qualifying: 11th, 18.064
Heat: 1st -> 1st
Feature: 2nd - > 1st
Night Two Results
Qualifying: 17th, 20.507
Heat: 6th -> 5th
Feature: 13th -> 19th
Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dennis.gile
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dgile13/
Article Credit: 26 Promotions
