P.J. Chesson won his third consecutive race Aug. 22 and - after spinning a few donuts on the frontstretch of Pikes Peak International Raceway - climbed from the No. 76 Mo Nunn Racing Dallara/Infiniti/Firestone and scaled the fence.

Starter Paul Blevin almost had company in the flag stand at the start-finish line.

Chesson beat Paul Dana to the finish line by 1.2093 seconds to win the Pikes Peak 100 at the one-mile oval. The New Jersey native, who made his debut along with the Mo Nunn Racing team on July 3 at Kansas Speedway, also won last week at Kentucky Speedway and at Michigan International Raceway on Aug. 1.

“I can’t say enough,” he said. “I didn’t think I was going to win one race this year. Being a rookie and new to pavement surface and a rear-engine car, (team owner) Kathryn (Nunn) told me there was no pressure on me. If I had won a race this year, it would have been unbelievable. Now we have three in a row. I can’t believe it. I’m really tired and I think the altitude is getting to me, but it’s just a great day. I’m absolutely over the moon about it.”

Chesson joined Mark Taylor (2003) and Menards Infiniti Pro Series points leader Thiago Medeiros (2004) as drivers to win three races in a row. Medeiros finished third and Jesse Mason fourth. Medeiros (385) leads Dana by 67 points with three races remaining.

“I’ve got the best crew and the best of everything,” said Chesson, who is fifth in the standings despite competing in only six events. “I’m just doing the job to the best of my ability and it’s paying off. It seems to be working, so we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing and keep plugging away.”

Chesson, who started fifth, was running sixth on Lap 17 when leader Jeff Simmons’ car spun exiting Turn 4 and rolled backward into the grass on the frontstretch. With a push from Delphi Safety Team members, Simmons – the pole sitter – returned to the competition.

On the Lap 21 restart, Dana assumed the lead with Medeiros second and Mason third. Chesson, meanwhile, said he was looking at the scenery. Of course, he was joking. Similar to his victory at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway tri-oval, Chesson bided his time in mid-pack.

“At the start of the race, my car wasn’t very good,” he said. “We knew the car would come to us the longer the race went on. I didn’t get excited or overanxious. It just started coming to us.”

On Lap 42, Chesson passed Matt Beardsley for fourth. He climbed to third on Lap 63 and passed Medeiros for second on Lap 68. Still, he was 6.0191 seconds behind Dana in the No. 91 Ethanol/Hemelgarn Johnson entry. Dana, who has been the runner-up to Chesson the past two races, led by 5.3154 seconds on Lap 80.

But he was losing ground with every lap. Chesson closed to 2.6431 seconds on Lap 85 as Dana was hung up by lapped traffic. Chesson turned his fastest lap (149 mph) on Lap 89 when he closed to 1.4935 seconds, and challenged for the lead on Lap 91.

On Lap 93, he completed the pass in Turn 1.

“I tried him on the outside, and it didn’t work on the outside,” Chesson said about his run on Dana. “I played that against (Dana) and made him go to the outside, and he didn’t like it out there either. He let me by. It was a good pass.”

He remained comfortably in front the final laps.

“The Hemelgarn Johnson crew gave me a real strong car,” said Dana, who – since a 10th-place finish at Indianapolis on May 22 – has finished second four times, fourth and recorded a victory at The Milwaukee Mile. “We were sort of cruising there, but we got an understeer and it just got worse and worse and worse all day. It was all I could do to keep the front end under me. We were junk at the end.

“He (Chesson) came on like gangbusters at the end and we were just surviving at that point. We’ve been consistent, but second place is getting frustrating, especially today when we led the whole thing, practically. We’ll lick our wounds and hopefully get better for the last three.”

The race for the championship resumes with the Chicagoland 100 on Sept. 11.

“It was a tough day for us today,”said Medeiros, driver of the No. 11 Sam Schmidt Motorsports entry. “We weren’t very good in the warmup. There was too much oversteer the beginning of the race. We made some changes on the car from the morning practice session, but we didn’t get it totally fixed. We needed to be smart today and race for the championship.”