Points leader Matthew Dominique comes in with 11-straight top-20 finishes, reminiscent of his start of the 2019 season. Prior to that, he was on an 11-race streak without a top-9 before his victory at Sonoma propelled him up the standings and into chase contention. Through the halfway point of the regular season, he was 15th in points. Suddenly he is up front holding off the two favorites to win it all in 2020. He is looking for his second Extravaganza Series championship, and his first since his early-career crown in 2010.
Tim McDonnell has led 488 laps in the last 5 races, earning an uncharted amount of bonus points to go along with his four top-10's in seven chase events. He is the highest point-running driver to not record a DNF all season and leads the series in top-10's with 21 total. He has also completed more laps than anybody this season, a feat that he is accustomed to. He needs to finish 8 high-spots ahead of Matthew Dominique to become the new Series points leader after Rockingham. He is looking for his third title crown, and second in-a-row. he would be the first to do so since Brandon Beyke in '07-'08.
Ryan Heuser came into the chase with the most victories and the most laps led in 2020. During the first three events of the chase, he led 188, 194, and 103 laps en-route to two victories and a second place finish. He was 138 points ahead of the field before a 43rd place finish at Talladega destroyed his momentum. He has not led a lap since, the longest streak in several years for the "Rocket Man". Fortunately, Rockingham is one of his favorite racetracks, winning four out of five events during the 2016-2018 seasons. He will need a victory again to catch up to the consistent Dominique-McDonnell duo to win his fourth Extravaganza Series Championship. He will tie Mert Socks and Roscoe Riker for 2nd in all time titles if he can accomplish the feat.
A horrible rain storm has halted the Fall Martinsville race with just 58 laps to go. The forecast is not looking good, as it looks to stay wet for the better part of tomorrow. As of now, Tim McDonnell and Yogi Arnoux are anxiously awaiting the call as gas man Kenzou Yamada rain dances on top of the hauler. John Battista dominated the event early, leading the entire first stint before a caution under green flag pit stops put Tim McDonnell at the helm. He has been in the lead ever since, already clinching the most laps led and conquering his way towards the points lead. As things stand now, he will be second in the standings after a few tough breaks for Ryan Heuser. Our points leader Matthew Dominique currently sits in 11th.
Coming into the final road course event of the season, Matthew Dominique has taken over the points lead after severe devastation at Talladega put chase dominator Ryan Heuser to a 43rd place finish and 44 points behind. Road ringers Tim McDonnell and John Battista look to overcome their early chase deficit and get back into the championship race at the inaugural Charlotte Road race.
The early stages saw Tim McDonnell, John Battista and Johnny Reed Foley 1-2-3 early. After an early pit stop, Foley fell back in the field and had Alan Nesfeder take over in the third position while the #22 and #39 swapped the lead for the first 20 laps.
Bill Werkheiser was the first car to go airborne after hard contact with Foley midway in the field. Bill and Zach Michael made contact coming off the wall heading towards the straightaway. The #6 spun out, and Foley slammed the passenger side hard. Bill would limp to 39th, while chase contender Foley repaired some of the damage to finish 22nd.
Battling for third, Alan Nesfeder hopped over the curb and spun out, collecting Tony Pizzaro in the process. Neither driver would fall out of the top-10 in the process. Further back in the field, Ryan Heuser and Mike Carroll made contact in the final chicane, spinning both out and leaving themselves towards the back of the field for most of the day.
A long green flag run saw John Battista lead the way, with Tim and Alan directly behind. An early green flag pit stop saw Alex Crapser get to the lead, passing the lead-two cars while their tires were still on the cool side. He would lead four laps before relinquishing the spot back to his teammate in the #39.
The next caution flag saw Alan Nesfeder, Matt Raboin, Jimmie Stevens and Rob Scarberry all stay out on old tires. Alan would pull away from the field, but lost the lead during after coming in with most of the rest of the field under yellow. Only Rick Jackson and Steven Spears would take the chance of track position.
Inside the top-20, David Butterworth spun out after contact with Adam Crapser entering the second corner. Dave Miller devoured the back end of his racecar, destroying both ends of their automobiles while Foley and Glenn Kaufmann barely sneaked through. Dave would still wind up 17th, while Butterworth limped to 26th on the day.
Three-wide action was in the midst as the faster Jimmie Stevens and Tony Pizzaro did everything they could to pass Rob Scarberry for the second position. They would do so successfully, but a few laps later he would make contact with Matt Raboin coming to the straightaway, slamming the #42 machine into the barrier and half-over on his side. After an unbelievable day, he would finish the race down on power in 33rd.
Points leader Matthew Dominique was struggling all race long. With 20 laps to go, he smacked the outside wall and got slammed by Johnny Reed Foley. Dominique would go from outside the top-30 to finish 20th in the event, maintaining his points advantage over Ryan.
The final 25 laps saw Jimmie Stevens lead a hungry Tony Pizzaro for the victory. After riding behind for most of the run, Pizzaro made a move on the final restart with 7 laps to go, hanging on to the bumper of the "Ampio" machine through the road course section. On the backstretch, he was close enough to draft up and pull to the outside of Speedy entering the first chicane, flying by and passing the #2 on the second-half of the straightaway.
The second annual Eddie Money Classic sees a 138-point gap between Ryan Heuser and the rest of the chase contenders for the Championship. Ryan has had a lot of success at the facility in his earlier years, racing with Brandon Beyke for the victory seemingly every season before his retirement in 2017. Matthew Dominique won it last year, and currently sits second in points as the leading man to catch Rocket-Man Ryan for the Championship title.
Pole-sitter Tim McDonnell stayed up front for the first 84 laps of the event. John Tharp and Cristian Torres both made unsuccessful moves for the lead with John Tharp, Michael Henson, Ben Geer and Alex Crapser lurking behind within the top-5. On lap 15, 3rd place Craig Lee fell blew a left-front tire and was forced to pit.
After the first round of pit stops, Tim McDonnell was still atop the leaderboard with Ben Geer, Cristian Torres and Dave Miller in a four-car breakaway. A debris caution bunched the field back together, with Dave Miller taking the lead after the restart. Alex Crapser would make a move on the inside three laps later to take the top-spot away.
After 23 laps in clean-air, Tim would re-take the lead from Alex on lap 110. Two laps later, Rick Jackson would crawl from his 35th starting spot to take his place up front. He would lead for 25 laps before re-handing the top-spot to Tim.
Rick and Tim continued to swap the 1st and 2nd spots while Dave Miller flew into the third position. Unfortunately, he would lose a cylinder on lap 163 and limp to a 41st place finish, falling to 9th in the points standings. Up front, Scott Jackson attempt his first lead of the day on lap 180, but re-hand it to Tim on the preferred high groove.
John Battista made an attempt for the lead on lap 191 but fell short to Tim again. en flag pit stops, Dave Miller and Matt Raboin made contact on the frontstretch, sending the #90 machine for a tailspin. He smacked the outside wall and spun violently into the racing groove, coming to a stop and bringing out the yellow flag.
Very close to the fuel window, several of the front runners decided to top-off on gas and take their final set of rubbers. Leader Scott Jackson, Tim McDonnell, Ryan Heuser, David Butterworth and Matt Raboin all came in, while John Battista, John Tharp, Rick Jackson, Tony Pizzaro, Ken Pettit and Johnny Reed Foley took a chance by staying out and occupying the first 6 positions for the restart with 51 laps to go.
Zach Michael and Matthew Dominique flew through traffic during the restart, with the #2 taking the lead with 47 laps to go. He would hold on for 17 laps before getting passed by Matthew Dominique on the frontstretch. While the #25 car pulled the non-pitters from the rest of the pack, the drivers who topped-off during the last stop were making no progress.
Race-dominator Tim McDonnell was getting trapped in the wrong lane of traffic at every turn, gaining two spots on his speed and losing five behind heavy traffic. He would fall back to 30th position after a run-in with Dave Miller and crawl to finish 28th after leading 136 laps. Up front, Zach Michael forfeited his 2nd position top top-off on gas, with John Battista and John Tharp following him in. They would wind up finishing 36th, 37th and 38th after a top-10 day, drawing Tharp and Michael practically out of championship contention. Battista would finish the day 6th in the standings, 264 points behind points leader Ryan Heuser.
Rick Jackson made an attempt to pass Matthew for the lead during the waning laps, losing the battle and losing his momentum. Johnny Reed Foley would fly by on the inside and take the second position, wastin
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Richmond is a difficult track for anybody not named Ryan Heuser. He comes into this event winning the last four events at this racetrack, winning the last race at Darlington, and tied for leading the Championship standings. It's safe to say that Rocket Man Ryan Heuser is back to form.
Ryan would win his fifth pole of the season and lead the field early. After the first caution involving Dan Johnston, Ryan came in for fresh rubber and handed the top-2 spots to Matt Raboin and John Battista. Both were among the favorites to win tonight's race.
Dan Johnston went for a backstretch spin on lap 3 to bring out the first caution. 23 laps later, Mark Guthrie and William Perry went for a spin. The first chase drivers to end up in trouble was John Tharp, who limped to 20th place by the end after hitting the blown-up car of Jonathan Skrabacz. Jonathan would finish last. Mark Murphy, who was also involved in the accident, carried himself to the 33rd position.
Dave Butterworth went for a spin in front of the leaders during the second caution flag. Leader Matt Raboin had to dive to pit road to avoid while John Battista nearly came to a complete stop. Ken Pettit flew by both of them to take the lead and the caution flag. Matt would have to drop to the tail end of the field and restart his progress. It would take John less than 10 laps after the restart to re-gain the lead. He would keep it for 63 aps before Ryan finally worked his was back to the front.
Zach Michael came in for green flag pit stops over four seconds behind Ryan in second place. Coming in three laps earlier and with a miraculous 13.6 second pit stop, Zach caught up to the #138 and took the lead on lap 214. He would keep it for 29 laps before Ryan re-took the spot just seconds before the next caution flag.
Tony Pizzaro was inside the top-5 before an enormous engine failure took him out of the event. Not too long afterwards, Jimmie Stevens went for a turn-1 excursion into the outside wall. Zakk Miller was sandwiched between Tim McDonnell and Matthew Dominique, sending him for a spin on the backstretch just a few laps later. On the next restart, Dave Butterworth, Mark Gutherie, Rob Scarberry and chase contencer Johnny Reed Foley raced four-wide off of turn-2 and ended up in a disaster.
The worst crash during this period of the race was on lap 310. Matthew Dominique, Mike Carroll and Dave Miller flew into the outside wall, sending Matthew and Alan Nesfeder for a flip down backstretch. Matthew's car was able to come to rest on it's wheels and drive away to 16th place finish, while Alan needed a wrecker to flip him back over. Dave Miller would limp to 30th place and 8th in points after his car got demolished.
Ryan lost the lead on the restart after nearly wrecking his car entering turn-3. Rick and Scott Jackson flew underneath to battle for the lead, with Scott winning the battle on lap 320. John Battista flew by Ryan as well to battle for the victory.
40 laps into the green-flag run, Dave Miller endured a flat tire and couldn't get to pit road. He made contact with the leader and slowed down Rick and John battling for second. Ryan was able to fly by on the outside to steal second place while the #44 and #39 lost their momentum. Exiting turn-2, Battista smacked the outside wall after losing his rhythm. He bounced off the wall into Rick, who also smacked the wall and kept on trucking. It became a two-car race from here on out.
With 11 laps to go, Scott had trouble passing by the lapped traffic and let Ryan drive underneath, taking the lead for the fourth time. Three laps later, Ryan slipped up the racetrack as Scott flew back by on the inside. Ryan used the momentum of his terrible corner entry to come off strong, racing side-by-side on the frontstretch and re-taking the to
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A multitude of problems would occur during the late stages of the event for a few of the chase drivers. Beyond that, the story-lines lead to Dan Johnston and his miraculous recovery from his Talladega crash. The entire QSM race team will look to win it for Dan.
Adam Crapser comes in winning his first career pole with championship leader Tony Pizzaro on the outside. 6-time winner Ryan Heuser took no time getting to the front, sharing the lead with teammate and chase contender Dave Miller, and Rick Jackson during the first 30 laps.
Last week's winner and chase contender Johnny Reed Foley made a miraculous save after getting loose on the frontstretch on lap 3. Lap 9 saw Brandon Raines and Scott Drake go for a spin, with Raines going head-on into the inside wall. Both drivers would finish outside of the top-35.
Chase contender Tim McDonnell took the lead on lap 33, keeping the spot for 13 laps before Matt Raboin made the pass in turn 1. He kept the lead until green flag pit stops, where he ran out of fuel on the backstretch, handing the lead to Ryan Heuser after the pit cycle.
Alex Crapser took the lead on lap 94, hoping to end a terrible stretch of finishes. He remained there for 45 laps before Ryan re-took the top position. For the next 150 laps, Heuser and teammate Craig Lee would dominate the show, leading all of the laps during the mid-race span.
Bertween lap 227 and 252, Heuser and Lee swapped the lead five different times and were seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Tim McDonnell, Alex Crapser and chase contender John Battista were the only three drivers remotely in sight of the QSM duo.
On lap 241, Glenn Kaufmann and Steven Spears made contact entering turn 3. Glen spun into the outside wall and slid directly into traffic. Chase contender Scott Jackson battered the drivers side of the Clorox machine, destroying both cars in the process. Jackson would finish 31st as a consequence, with Kaufmann limping home in 35th.
Johnny Reed Foley wall-rode the turn 2 wall and got clipped by Matthew Dominique. Chase contender Zach Michael was hit in the right side quarter-panel by both cars and smacked the outside wall. Foley continued spinning and got slammed by Cristian Torres, Mark Murphy and pole-sitter Adam Crapser. Miraculously, Foley would have his car repaired to a 17th place finish.
Three competitve racecars all had engine failures during the final 100-lap stretch. Chase contender John Tharp, Alex Crapser and Craig Lee all fell out of the event to round out the eventual running order. Lee was in second during his misfortune, dropping to 14th in the standings. Crapser would likewise drop to 15th, while Tharp uses his one chase mulligan.
Ryan Heuser was under pressure from Tony Pizzaro for the entire 60-lap stretch to the finish. He and Pizzaro tag-teamed for 50+ circuits before a miraculous turn-1 pass with 6 laps to go essentially sealed the deal for the #12 Fenway machine. Unfortunately, he would run out of gas with three laps to go in shades of the spring race. It was now Ryan's race to win.
With a three-second cushion on Jimmie Stevens, Dave Miller and Tim McDonnell, Ryan would easily retreat to his 7th victory of the season and tie himself as the po
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