Joe Zrostlik was 10 again.
He felt like he'd just won the Daytona 500. The kid in him climbed atop his No. Z50 Late Model and let out a "woo" victory yelp that would have made Ric Flair proud.
Zrostlik had plenty of reason to celebrate Sunday night after winning a haywire IMCA Late Model 25 feature at Dubuque Speedway in which bad luck befell race leaders like a virus.
Zrostlik rejected Charlie McKenna's hard inside push on lap 24 to claim the biggest Late Model victory of his career and survive an ominous feature that saw leader and former Deery Brothers Summer Series national champion Terry Neal blow his engine on lap 15.
It's been a breakout year for Zrostlik, a Long Grove, Iowa driver who braved negative 25 wind chills to win January's Hangover 200 Enduro Classic at Farley Speedway.
"This is sweeter than the 100 wins I got in the four-cylinder class (Farley Flyers)," said Zrostlik, returning to the scene where he scored his first feature win in 2003. "This is my favorite place to race."
* Andy Eckrich went
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Larson was turning the feature into a laugher, rolling off lightning 16.2-second laps, keeping four cars and 4.8 seconds between him and Jake Meier and owning the three-eighths mile track when a caution flag erased his cushion on lap 15. On lap 17, Larson retired to the pits with car issues.
Larson's exit from the lead was the only opening Eckrich needed. He revved into the lead out of restart, then cashed in on some more luck when challenger and runner-up Steve "Ace" Ihm jumped the cushion on the track's fast high lane twice on lap 23 -- taking him out of passing range.
"When we're lucky, we're lucky," said Eckrich, Dubuque's two-time defending Late Model champion. "'Bones' Larson had me covered."
* Why wasn't Tim Current losing his composure during a yellow-marred B-Modified feature that was eight times over 9 laps.
"I'm a calm, cool guy," he joked in Victory Lane.
Current waited through the flood of restarts to score the 10-lap feature. He gunned into the lead with a 17-second sixth lap and didn't relinquish it in an ugly race that ended under caution.
* Sunday night's roll call of winners also included Josh Lowe (Farley Flyers) and Tyler Soppe (Limited Stock).
