MECHANICSBURG, Pa. – The best summarization Danny Dietrich could offer of his Friday at Williams Grove Speedway was through a good laugh and the consumption of a beer.
For the seventh time in eight races, Dietrich finished in the top-four without a trophy in hand. He has two wins through 51 features to date, and it’s not from a lack of speed, at least not recently.
“We’re almost in repeat mode,” Dietrich said in a light-hearted tone. “Just tweaking little things.”
Dietrich did everything in his power to overtake Lance Dewease at his stomping grounds on Friday, but no matter what the Gettysburg, Pa. driver tried, it just wasn’t enough. His runner-up finish at Williams Grove stood as the third straight podium for Dietrich this Pennsylvania Sprint Car Speedweek
It’s a nice run, one that’s nudged him ahead in the PA Speedweek standings by 50 points over Brent Marks as the series rolls to Port Royal Speedway tonight for the semifinal round. But Dietrich is chomping to turn this uptick in speed, a great turnaround from a previous 31-race winless drought, into more wins.
“Man, we’re fast again,” Dietrich said after taking another sip of his beer. “Can’t catch a break with Lance.”
He shifted to another light-hearted tone.
“I wish [Lance] wasn’t running for points or wasn’t here or would retire or something,” Dietrich said. “Good car, good night. Just struggling to get that win.”
From last night: @dannydietrich on another podium effort at @WilliamsGrove.
— Kyle McFadden (@ByKyleMcFadden) July 3, 2021
Seventh top-four for DD the past eight races … just no trophy to show for … yet.
He has a 50-point @PASpeedWeek lead going into the semifinal round at @PortRoyalSpdway. pic.twitter.com/cgOSf28zA5
This year has been far from what Dietrich envisioned but he’s knocking on the door of the ultimate goal.
Two weeks ago during Ohio Speedweek with the All Star Circuit of Champions, Dietrich finished second in the series race to Tyler Courtney and snapped his aforementioned 31-race winless streak on June 15 at Sharon Speedway.
This week, runs of eighth-to-third, fourth, 13th, 10th-to-fourth, 12th-to-third, third, and fifth-to-second have Dietrich on the verge of his second PA Speedweek title and first since 2016.
He entered Friday at Williams Grove clinging to a 10-point lead over Marks, and that five-folded after another unblemished showing. As he’s had numerous times over the previous month, Dietrich had chances on late-race restarts to sneak his way to victory.
Three restarts occurred over the last eight laps on Friday, with Dietrich sticking close behind to Dewease each time and trying every line he could think of.
The only thing not working toward his advantage was positioning and Dewease owning clean air.
“We’re just as fast as [Dewease],” Dietrich said. “He has clean air and he’s in the lead. And it’s Lance Dewease. He isn’t going to screw up. … Simple as that.”
“I don’t think if I was in his boat, I would’ve screwed up either,” Dietrich added. “You know what you have to do to win.”