Brent Sass poised to take win

With just a few miles until White Mountain and a final mandatory 8 hour rest, Brent Sass looks poised to take his first Iditarod Championship. The three-time Yukon Quest champion is about to become a member of a very elite club of mushers who can say they've won both long distance races. 

Now, before you think I'm getting cocky and calling a race before it finishes - we do have to remember Brent's had some not so great moments in White Mountain in the past. In 2016, Brent found himself sitting in White Mountain for far more than 8 hours as his dogs decided to play Forrest Gump and just stop running. The incredibly humbling experience as many analysts talked about the reasons behind it saw Brent take time off from long distance racing to focus on a breeding program as well as change his training and racing habits.

In Sass's return first to the Quest and then to Iditarod he's found himself to be more consistently in the top five, and has won several Quest races. It looks like, to most, that whatever he needed to learn - he did. He is having that once in a lifetime, magical run and he deserves to enjoy it. If all things go according to plan and he is first on front street.

Still, Sass has lead for over half the race, and riding that fine line can be arduous. If there's 2014 like storms who knows what could happen, or if Sass has tricked us all and his dogs stall in White Mountain like 2016... both years Dallas Seavey won. Dallas is currently over two hours behind Brent. Many are expecting Dallas to pull some magic trick out of his sleeve and challenge Brent, but even the five-time Iditarod Champion has noted multiple times that unless Brent makes a major mistake he won't catch him.

The Chase Pack had to wait out the storm in Shaktoolik and so there's an even bigger gap between second and third now as they are just now crossing the Norton Sound. Currently in third place is Chad Stoddard (wait, how?!) who is running Dallas's B-team. I don't have the history of puppy teams in front of me, but I'm pretty sure this would be the first time the A and B team of the same kennel come in 2nd and 3rd if Chad manages to hold his position. 

That probably won't be the case as this chase pack just keeps leap frogging over one another.

With the championship nearly set in stone it's truly time to focus on the chase pack and the human interest stories. They're far more exciting in most years, and this year is proving no different.