IN THE END, PURSLEY'S LEAD A LAP SHORT.

Byline: TIM HADDOCK Motor Sports

Greg Pursley of Canyon Country was one turn away from winning Round 7 of the Miller Lite Big 10 Challenge last Saturday, but a determined Rip Michels slipped underneath him and scraped out a narrow victory at Irwindale Speedway.

Pursley led the first 74 laps of the 75-lap race before Michels finally squeaked by him and won the NASCAR Super Late Model event by .0629 seconds.

It was probably the closest race of the year at Irwindale Speedway and rivals only one other event in Pursley's career at the track.

Pursley also won a NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series race at Irwindale Speedway by narrowly beating Keith Spangler. He remembers the Southwest Series race more fondly, but that doesn't diminish the excitement of last Saturday night's race.

``It's hard to lead every damn lap of a race and lose it on the last corner,'' Pursley said. ``Rip's the one we're racing out here. We're racing each other hard for the championship.''

Pursley fought with a tight race car most of the night. He started out front and took the lead on the first lap, but he said by lap 10 his car starting tightening up.

``I dealt with a tight car the rest of the time,'' Pursley said. ``I was using up the whole track trying to find the best line. I had to use the car up, pretty much.''

Even though Pursley was struggling to find a line to loosen up his car, he stayed out front, thwarting every challenge made by Michels to pass before the final lap.

Pursley took the lead after the last restart of the race and made a move toward the bottom of the track. It was a tactic he later regretted.

``I started running the bottom of the track,'' Pursley said. ``The tightness got worse and worse. In hindsight, I wish I would have gone down lower later in the race. I had to protect the bottom of the track. I had to protect the bottom; it was the only place I could go.''

On the positive note, Pursley maintained his points lead in the Big 10 Challenge. But he lost ground to Michels in the Super Late Model standings. He is second, 44 points behind Michels, who won his second race in a row and his sixth of the season.

The NASCAR Winston West makes its only stop of the season at Irwindale Speedway tonight. Steve Portenga of Sparks, Nev., leads the series, with a 16-point edge over Mike Duncan of Lamar.

But it is team owner Bill McAnally who is looking to keep his consecutive win streak intact at Irwindale Speedway.

The Las Vegas-based team has won the last four Winston West races at Irwindale Speedway dating back to 2001, when Brendan Gaughan won all three races at the half-mile track.

Austin Cameron, who is making his return to racing after undergoing three months of chemotherapy treatments for non-Hodgkins lymphoma cancer, won the only 2002 Winston West race at Irwindale Speedway.

``It's a little intimidating,'' said Scott Lynch of Burley, Idaho, the top rookie on the series. ``We know that's the team we are gunning for. But it's something that's part of the game.''

Cameron, who has missed four races because of his illness, has won two Winston West races at Irwindale Speedway and set the track race record in last year's race.

McAnally is fielding a second car, driven by Jim Inglebright, who has won once already this year.

``I feel our odds are twice as nice, because both teams are competitive this year,'' McAnally said.

NASCAR Late Models are also on the tonight's schedule to race at Irwindale Speedway. Races start at 6.

--Indy Racing League: When Valencia's Bryan Herta won the Indy Racing League event at Kansas Speedway, he did it with perfectly timed pit stops in a car that was probably not as fast as others on the track.

His car in the IRL race at Nashville Superspeedway last Saturday night, on the other hand, was probably one of the best in the field, but a couple of cut tires led to a 12th-place finish.

``(It) just wasn't our day,'' said Herta, a Hart High of Newhall graduate driving for Andretti Green Racing. ``I think we had as good a car as anybody out there (Saturday). It's kind of funny. At Kansas we had a top-five car that won the race and (Saturday) we had a winning car and we finished 12th. That's just the way racing goes sometimes.''

Herta suffered the first of his cut tires when he made contact with Sam Hornish about halfway through the race. He cut another tire on lap 125 and fell a lap behind.

Before his tire troubles, Herta had worked his way to the front of the field and led for six laps before dropping back.

``We had a really good car, but nothing was going our way (Saturday),'' team manager Kyle Moyer said. ``The yellow flags would come out when we didn't need them and then we cut a tire and had to pit under green. Finishing 12th after the cut tire is the best we could have done.''

The IRL season continues Sunday with the Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

CAPTION(S):

2 boxes

Box:

(1) THIS WEEKS RACES

(2) IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY STANDINGS