Chris Madden might make it look easy, but in his mind there is no such thing as an easy win at this point of the season.
On Friday, Madden set quick time, won his heat, sat on the pole, and led all 50 laps to capture the first of two scheduled nights of the Chi Town Showdown at the Dirt Oval at Route 66 in Joliet, IL.
He was never seriously challenged for the $10,000 victory, and he led Rick Eckert to the checkers by more than three seconds -- even though Madden had to survive two restarts.
Still, Madden is all-too familiar with having to deal with unexpected challenges.
"The competition is really strong out here, and we've had some ups and downs towards the end of the year with help quitting and people not being able to hang in there to get the job done,” Madden said.
Madden was racing a new Longhorn chassis for night one of the Chi Town Showdown, and he has only three more opportunities to use it in World of Outlaws Late Model competition this year. The series heads down to Charlotte for the three-night finale on Nov. 2-4; Saturday night's scheduled second night at Joliet was rained out.
“We broke this car out last week and we had some odds and ends that needed to be fixed on it, but we got it fixed this week and it was extremely awesome tonight,” Madden said.
While Eckert had to settle for second, he was not disappointed with the effort. Climbing from seventh, he ascended to the runner-up position despite experiencing mechanical issues.
"We've been fighting a gremlin in the motor," Eckert said. "It missed all last week, and we keep changing stuff and we're about out of stuff to change. I'm not sure where we'll go next. It missed all [during the] feature again, but it got slippery enough that it didn't hinder us too bad."
Eckert’s faltering power plant partly contributed to Madden’s considerable advantage.
Points leader Brandon Sheppard failed in his effort to secure a record-tying 17th win, but he climbed onto the bottom step of the podium with a mad dash five laps from the end. Sheppard raced alongside Devin Moran and Bobby Pierce. The argument was not settled until the final lap, with Sheppard getting the last word.
The discussion over third was not his only disagreement during the Chi Town Showdown.
"I got behind Shane [Clanton] there early in the race, and then I got into someone and knocked the nose a little loose, and then a clump of dirt came and caved it the rest of the way in," Sheppard said. "It made it hard to keep the front end on the ground, which made it a little hard to get through the middle corner, but we hung on and didn't give up. That track was a little bit treacherous but it was really racy.
Moran and Pierce finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Top 10 Finishers
1. Chris Madden
2. Rick Eckert
3. Brandon Sheppard
4. Devin Moran
5. Bobby Pierce
6. Tyler Erb
7. Brent Larson
8. Shane Clanton
9. Morgan Bagley
10. Eric Wells