The car Thomas drove, an immaculate IROC machine, was the last one painted by his father, Bob Thomas – who died unexpectedly three months ago. Carl worked for hours on end and spent thousands of dollars to turn chassis and body into a car that would honor his father in the biggest racing event of the year.

"It seems weird that you run 20 to 25 races toward a championship at your local track and then run 20 to 25 laps in one race and still call that the most important race of the year," crew chief Ed Larsen said, and then he cracked the only smile of the day. "Especially in a Strictly Stock. But I guess it kind of was."

Bob Thomas worked for Roger Penske and IROC for almost 25 years, until IROC closed last March. Thomas had hoped to then take the job at Wall Stadium as the pit steward, only to receive word in April that Wall, too, was closing.

Carl Thomas had no place to race anymore at the track he’d called home in virtually every full-fendered and Modified division it offered. On July 20^th, he learned of his father’s sudden passing.

"The last race my father saw me race was at Mountain Speedway, and I almost won it," Carl Thomas said, his words escaping his mouth into the frosty chill of Thompson’s mid-October air. Then he looked at the ground, his eyes fixed to the asphalt. "Had a flat tire."

For 15 years, Bob and Carl Thomas brought a car to Thompson for the World Series. In August, just about a month after Bob’s passing, Carl decided Bob’s car would make it back.

"It was like, let’s give 110 percent and put it together, and that’s what we did," Carl said. "He painted the frame and the interior and the body work. It was the last car he painted before he died.

"It’s very important. I gave Eddie my credit card and told him to do whatever it cost to get it here – and it cost me a lot. It was the house I could have bought in North Carolina... I didn’t care. I’ve been coming here to this race since I was a kid in 1979 and racing here since 1992."

Larsen estimated he worked almost 50 straight hours last week to get the car finished, and he then drove through the middle of the night on Thursday to be at the track when it opened for practice on Friday morning at 8.

Thomas started eighth in the 34-car field on Saturday, but the clutch failed on lap 8 and it was retired for the night.

Racers want to race, and they want results. Naturally, Thomas and Larsen were disappointed.

But in the bigger picture, this was just about getting a car to a track for a race that provided a racing family’s bond.

"It was a great feeling to see it out there," Larsen said of seeing the car line up for the feature. "It was upsetting, but it could be a lot worse. It was just an unexplainable feeling to see it out there, but racing put us all together.

"And now we always have the option of coming back."

Thomas said the car will continue to race. He may take it to New Smyrna next February for Speedweeks, and he will certainly rent a track or two and test.

If nothing else, though, you can bet it will be back at the World Series of Speedway Racing again in 2009. And it will look exactly the way it did when it got here this year. Just the way Bob left it.

"We’ve always come close here, but we never got the win," Carl said. "It’s just tough that my father wasn’t here. Normally, he’d be here to work on the car, watch the races, partying, talking to everybody. It’s very emotional that he’s not here.

"I will win here someday, I can promise you that. This place owes me one, and I’m going to get it."

Posted at 12:00 a.m. by TBarrett