The final round at Las Vegas saw Ashley and Payne meet for the second time in just three races in what is developing into a very intense rivalry between the two camps. Payne’s supercharged ’05 Stratus represents the new school of Pro Mod while Ashley’s ’67 Mustang would have to be considered "old school.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Aside from the marked difference in body styles between the two teams, the rules for the AMS/TLR series for 2005 require Pro Mods with late model body styles to carry an additional 100 lbs. of weight. That weight penalty doesn’t seem to bother the Dodge Stratus at sea-level tracks like Gainesville and Houston. Payne won one of those races and set the AMS speed record at over 236 mph! But at the Las Vegas track where the dry air’s temp hovered above 90 degrees each day and the corrected altitude was over 4000ft, it appears that the 100lbs may well have had an effect on the performance of Brad Anderson’s cars.

In the final round Mike Ashley’s ’67 Mustang had an absolutely dominant performance, strapping a 6.277/227.84 win on Jay Payne’s 6.361/228.58. Not only was the Mustang the quicker of the two but Ashley had a .051 light to Payne’s .072. After the race Ashley was quoted on the developing rivalry between the two teams.

"There's already a lot of talk about a Mike Ashley-Jay Payne rivalry, but I don't know if I look at it exactly that way," Ashley said. "Certainly, it's very rewarding to beat him; all you have to do is look at who is tuning him [Brad Anderson] to know that they are going to be very stiff competition all season.”

Despite the fact that just 16 cars showed up the field was still a stellar one. Houston winner Ed Hoover made the long tow from the Carolinas to Vegas, qualified fourth and went a couple of rounds. Dave Wood’s driver Troy Critchley and his tuner Darren Mayer went to their third consecutive semifinal of the season and now sits third in the Cup battle with 926 points. Despite some problems the Barklage clan has managed to get Zach and Cody qualified and has made every race. Zach Barklage went three rounds in his Larry Jeffers built ’36 Chevy at Vegas and climbed to seventh in the points chase.