Eddie Hoffman brought a new ride out to the ASA-sponsored Illiana Speedway Saturday night.
It brought some pretty familiar results.
"Pretty good for a first time out," Hoffman said after topping the late-model field in the 25-lap main event.
The win was Hoffman's first of the 2009 season at Illiana. The car wasn't the only thing that was new for the No. 8.
"We used a crate engine," Hoffman said. "Maybe we've got to park the high power stuff and start running the crates. That's what's been winning out here."
Dean Patterson roared into the lead at the start of the race and stayed at the point for six laps. Mike White, driving the Ray Wroblewski-owned No. 14, took over for the next four before Hoffman eased underneath and into the lead.
Last week Hoffman came from the back and wound up in a late side-by-side battle with Mike Monroe, losing by a fraction of a second. This time he had plenty of time to cruise, and he did.
"It helps when you start another row or two further forward and let some of them chase you," Hoffman said. "But we passed some good cars. We were testing and tuning the car for the ASA races, but if it runs good we're going to be here with it quite a bit in between."
Anthony Danta came from well back in the pack to challenge the leaders down the stretch. He took second away from John Nutley on lap 19, but was only able to close to within 0.471 seconds of Hoffman at the finish.
"(Hoffman) was a little bit better than me in 1 and 2 and I was better than him in 3 and 4," Danta said. "Maybe in another five laps I could have gotten to him.
"I got stuck in traffic a little bit in the beginning going three-wide with my uncle (White) and everyone else. It was good, hard racing. We just needed a little more time."
Third in the late-model feature went to Jeff Cannon. Nutley was fourth, followed by White and Dave Gentile.