The "Dyer Flyer" made it six victories in 2003 with a sterling effort in which he did some fancy driving early to slip into contention, took the lead from Biff George on lap 13 and finally shook off a challenge from White over the final seven laps.

Weltmeyer came into the night 26 points ahead of White and gained a handful on him with Saturday's effort.

There are two point nights remaining.

"We're happy with it, but we're still close, and it's not over 'til it's over until the final lap," Weltmeyer said. "It (misfortune) can happen any time."

George, making one of his rare appearances at Illiana this season, grabbed the lead from Mike Pockrus on lap 2.

A mishap by Doug Kowal on lap 2 set up an early double-file restart in which Weltmeyer made a critical decision. Choosing the outside groove allowed him to start in the second full row, a significant improvement on where he was running at the start.

Weltmeyer wasted no time in working his way up. By lap eight he was in second place behind George. By lap 12 he caught him, and with a move down low in Turn 1 began the process of taking the lead.

White soon followed Weltmeyer past George, and for several laps stayed right on his tail. White ran the low side while Weltmeyer stayed higher in the groove.

"Mike really ran good there on the bottom," Weltmeyer said. "He's a good racer, and he's been working on his car. We hooked up a half-lane up and got some forward bite. After that I couldn't mess around. I had to go, man."

Weltmeyer was able to finally shake White in traffic. Over the final seven laps he had the No. 16 ahead by a comfortable margin.

"We had an awful fast car and I was able to race with him and get underneath," White said. "But I saw lapped cars coming up and figured it would be futile to burn the thing up underneath him. I didn't think I could clear him by the time we got by the lapped cars.

"I figured we'd finish the lapped cars and go race for it. Unfortunately, one of the lapped cars let the leader (Weltmeyer) by and then let his car walk right up in front of me and I got right in the back of him.

"That was the race right there. I had a good plan, but a lapped car got in the way. But hey, that's racing. Everybody's on the track to race."

Third place went to George, by a short margin over A.J. D'Ambrose. It was the culmination of an impressive night for George, who won the fast heat.

"It was OK," George said. "We messed up on the shocks and tried to adjust for that in the feature. It helped in the beginning, but the old problem came back and it started getting tight at the end. I'm certainly satisfied."

D'Ambrose's fourth-place finish was the best of his career at Illiana.