After a showdown at Atlanta that saw another Tony Pizzaro victory, he went on to win the pole at the track "Too tough to tame". By the end of this race, we all figured out why it's called that... and then some.
Early on, Craig Lee and Tim McDonnell pulled to a 5+ second gap over the rest of the field. Zakk Miller ran behind in third after a genius short-pit strategy.
Contact between Glenn Kaufmann and Mark Guthrie sent the #32 spinning on the backstretch on lap 81. Jonathan Skrabacz clipped him and tangled with Ryan Heuser. Tex Perry slammed Skrabacz in the rear entering turn-3 and went for two barrel-rolls after getting hit by Alan Nesfeder and Tony Long. Rob Scarberry ended the action by knocking into Ryan's front end. Needless to say, this brought out the first yellow. The second crash occurred after the restart after contact between Brandon Raines and Cristian Torres send Randy Dobbins for an inside tail-spin. In the midst of all the chaos, Alex Crapser blew up and went on to finish last.
The big-one at Darlington occurred on lap 93, after contact between Brandon Raines and John Tharp sent the entire field in a frenzy. John Battista, Cristian Torres and Steven Spears were all in the air after slamming into the already wrecked cars. Dave Miller, Randy Dobbins, Mark Murphy, Aaron Cummings, Jonathan Skrabacz, Jimmie Stevens and Tex Perry also failed at avoiding the incident.
The next restart saw Steven Spears playing catch-fence after he, Cristian Torres and Bill Werkheiser dove into turn 1 three-wide. After five barrel-rolls, Spears would go on to finish 40th and finish outside of the top-35 in points.
There was a lot of good racing for the lead during the next 35 laps. Craig Lee and Tim McDonnell led the show after the restart, but Zakk Miller flew by both in a wince after seeing Scott Jackson fly through the field in his mirror. Scott would take the lead on lap 121.
Horror filled the skies on lap 135. Tony Pizzaro flipped 18 times after a magnificent impact into the turn 2 inside concrete barrier. After being found unconscious, the medical crews attended to Brodrick Wittmann who also suffered a head injury from the same impact, and another massive shunt from Mark Guthrie. Steven Spears continued on.
The leader jinx was at record pace tonight. Ben Geer led 30 laps and counting before entering the pits ahead of the pace car on a debris yellow. He continued on to finish 21st, 1-lap down after coming in for his penalty stop.
Scott Jackson led a race-leading 79 laps before blowing running out of gas on lap 254 while leading. Dan Johnston took the lead. After coming in during the next caution, the entire front assembly broke and the crew could not change tires. They would go on to finish 31st and 36th after an exemplary day.
Craig Lee was next. Crew chief Spook Millikan did not know the pits were open, and had Craig stay out an extra lap. In front of him, many other cars took fresh tires including Zach Michael, Dalton Lucas, Alan Nesfeder and Ryan Heuser. With 37 laps to go, Craig knew he had to speed through the field. In his haste, he spun out Ken Pettit, who would become the points leader after the event, and brought out the final caution.
Zakk Miller, Dave Butterworth and Tim McDonnell were poised to stay 1-2-3 for the entire run to the finish. That was until Zach Michael came out of nowhere with four fresh tires, flying by both Butterworth and McDonnell to take the lead with 7 laps to go. Dalton Lucas came with him
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On Lap 135 of the Darlington Rebel 400, three-wide contact off of the 2nd corner between Brodrick Wittmann and Steven Spears sent all three cars slamming into the inside concrete barrier. The #12 ford's impact was so hard that the car was sent flipping, rolling end-over-end 18 times in only 7 seconds before coming to a stop near the entrance of turn 3 on his roof. He was immediately extricated from the car and put on a gurney, and sent to the McLeod Medical Center by ambulance. We are informed that he is in stable condition and is communicating to the medical staff. We will forward more information when it becomes available.
Ken Pettit and Scott Jackson look to end their long winless streaks coming into Atlanta. Ken won this race last season, while Scott hasn't won since Indianapolis of 2018. Both drivers enter the event in the top-10 in points, while top-dog Johnny Reed Foley looks to rebound after some tough luck at Phoenix.
The horsepower of the #18 machine proved true once again with Foley's first pole position of the season. He, Tim McDonnell, Tony Pizzaro and Ryan Heuser led laps during the first 15 circuits.
Bill Werkheiser was pinched between Matthew Dominique and John Battista entering turn 1 on lap 16. His car flew up the banking and slammed into John Battista, clipping Zach Michael's rear. The UNOH machine flew to the inside, making contact with Guthrie and Matthew Dominique. John Tharp slammed into it as well, becoming the fourth top-10 standings driver involved in the massive crash.
Several of the 29 total lead changes occured after the next restart. Tim McDonnell and Rick Jackson swapped the lead with the QuickSilver Motorsports drivers, looking like the 2019 dominators we were expecting.
Before long the Tony Pizzaro machine flew to the top of the scoreboard, posting the fastest lap times by far and easily squeezing past Scott Jackson on the inside. He would tow the rest of the field until the second caution flag, brought out by a Mark Guthrie spin on lap 79.
After a Pizzaro-dominant green-flag run, pit stops would bunch the field back together for a Pizzaro vs. QuickSliver engine program showdown (with AMPIO). Dave Miller made a three-wide move to take the top-spot on lap 167. 27 laps later, he would do it again.
The #12 was pack on point on lap 196. It would take 56 more laps before Ryan Heuser took the lead and began to pull away. It looked to be a repeat of California.
After a 190-straight laps of green flag racing, the intensity and impatience started to show. It was apparent that something big was about to transpire, possibly ending some very good runs in the process.
Towards the end of green-flag pit stops, Zach Michael and Jimmie Stevens made contact entering turn 3. The #2 machine hit the outside wall hard and brought out the caution, trapping Pizzaro, Miller, Tim McDonnell and Craig Lee a lap down in the process while Michael found himself untrapped. After the restart, Jack Paynter and Mark Guthrie flew through the backstretch infield and into oncoming traffic, creating a five-wide log-jag of infinite disaster. Tim McDonnell, Alan Nesfeder, Brandon Raines, Randy Dobbins and Matt Raboin were all involved in the melee. Neither diver would finish in the top-15.
It was a 40-lap dash to the finish. Pizzaro and Lee raced their way back to the lead lap, while Ryan remained up front. With 17 laps to go, Pizzaro worked his way through the traffic to take the lead away, holding the NOS Energy car off before the final 6-lap stretch.
With 6 laps to go, Ryan made a final charge on the inside of Pizzaro for an entire lap. The speedy lapped car of Johnny Reed Foley gave him enough dead air to fail at completing the pass. Pizzaro would use Foley's draft to cross the finish line by a couple car-width's over Ryan, winning his second race in the last three events. Congrats to Tony, crew chief Neil Justice and the Race2Win team for an excellent victory!
It was one of the most spectacular finishes in the history of the Extravaganza Series. Two drivers came from outside the ranks to battle it out for the final 20 laps, while the rest of the field stood still to watch a first time winner.
Zach Michael won the pole and battled Tony Pizzaro hard for the first several laps. By the end, it would be a tale of two different races. Thus began the first of many Fenway vs. University moments for 2020.
After a Tim McDonnell spin early in the go, Michael Henson and Zakk Miller stayed out and battled for the lead during the second green flag run. In the meantime, Zach had fallen outside of the top-30 before contact with Dave Butterworth sent him for a flip. He would continue on and finish 35th.
It was the Pizzaro-Heuser show yet again, The two winningest drivers at this track in recent history led a combined 56 laps, all during the 2/5th's stage of the event. On lap 95, Ken Pettit took the point.
Te most dominant driver early on looked to be points leader Johnny Reed Foley, who took Pettit and Heuser three-wide into turn one to take the top spot. He would continue his lead, winding up with 92 total on the day.
Zakk Miller went for a spin on lap 160 after contact with Randy Dobbins. After the hard contact off the turn-3 wall, the #28 machine would limp to a 34th place finish and continue his horrifying season.
On lap 202, Matthew Dominique would be the one to take the lead away from Foley. Him and rookie Mark Murphy swapped the lead several times between lap 245 and 280. They would come in to pit a couple laps later for the final 32 lap run.
Numerous drivers running up front suffered enormously bad luck. Two similar pit road crashes forced Michael Henson and Ryan Heuser to make additional pit stops during the day, finishing 28th and 26th respectively. On lap 262, it ws Rick's turn to fall after a flat tire. By miracle, he would still finish on the lead lap in 23rd to salvage some of his already devastating season.
Johnny reed Foley was poised to dominate the early season in what looked to be another top-5 finish. Contact with Tim McDonnell would call an end to the story, dropping Foley to a horrifying 40th. Matthew Dominique had a very slow pit stop after problems putting on the right-side tires. Surprisingly, Mark Murphy and the rookie pit crew were flawless, and came out in the lead.
Alex Crapser had the best pit stop of the day and wound up in the tire-tracks of the #47 machine. The two were side-by-side for nearly all of the final 22 laps, helping the Pizzaro machine reel up and possibly steal away the victory.
Murphy and Crapser were door-to-door for the final four laps as the #12 attempted to find a way past both. On the last lap, he pushed Mark on the backstretch and had a half-straightaway advantage, though Alex dove deep into turn three to make it even coming out of four. He lost the momentum, as the #47 Red Bull machine drove like the Busch Bonanza veteran he was to an amazing and unexpected first victory! The crowd rose to a standing ovation. Congrats to Mark and the entire NSRA Racing crew for an excellent victory!
With the talk of the town being Rick Jackson's lack of production and Alex Crapser's horrible luck, the true disaster of the first three races belong to two drivers who finished in the top-17 in points last season. Donald "Lugster" Stewart, who started the first 30 races of the 2019 season without a DNF, has already blown two engines with a season best finish of 35th at the Daytona 500. Teammate Glenn Kaufmann, who has competed in one less race, is currently one spot ahead of Lugster in the standings. He currently places 39th and a full 80 points out of the provisional cutoff. Likewise, the same #28 team that completed more laps than anybody last season has Zakk Miller in a bind. An engine failure at North Carolina and a blown tire at California last week puts him 36th in points. Ironically, teammate Johnny Reed Foley, who went from Johnny King in 2018 to King DNF last season, is leading the points with seemingly the best motors in Extravaganza. Miller can still rebound to a chase birth, while Lug needs to rally a top-20 finish at Phoenix on Sunday. It's the only hope for the usual top-finisher of the Gear-5 stable.
Reigning California champion Dave Miller looks to recapture his West-Coast dominance with his first victory of the season. He will have to get by rookie Mark Murphy, who captured his first career pole on Friday and looks to beat out the veterans on this wide-smooth racetrack.
The first 40+ laps saw Tony Pizzaro lead every lap. Every car that could handle early broke into the first pack, leaving the #12 in charge of pulling the train. The rest were mired behind in agony, including the rookie pole-sitter.
After green flag pit stops, several issues befell the drivers running mid-pack. Donald Stewart and David Butterwoth blew their engines between laps 45 and 60. The Steven Spears machine suffered a flat left-front tire and fell a lap down, finishing in 37th.
The first lead change occurred on lap 51, as Ryan Heuser flew by the #12 machine on the frontstretch. He and John Tharp were able to pull away from the entire field , swapping the lead a couple of times until the second round of pit stops on lap 83.
Lap 92 saw something brake on the front of Zakk Miller's car. With no apparent contact from Jimmie Stevens, the car, Zakk's brakes locked on the frontstretch and slid hundreds of yards until coming to a stop in turn 1. This brought out the first caution, where Dan Johnston went for a spin coming out of the pit lane.
Zach Michael was penalized for an unsafe pit entry during the first round of stops. On the lap 97 restart, he pulled in front of Ryan to get his lap back. He maintained the position for the entire run, pulling the field along as the other lapped cars scurried four-wide with the leaders.
Matthew Dominique began his run of 12 laps led with Dave Miller sneaking up behind. The two swapped the lead several times with Tony Pizzaro and Ryan Heuser lurking behind. Ben Geer, Ken Pettit and Scott Jackson were also in the mix.
William "Tex" Perry and Scott Jackson made contact in turn 3 on lap 136. Tex's car went flying into the outside wall rear-first and hit hard, nearly rupturing the fuel tank. He would somehow continue on to finish 40th.
The late stages saw Pizzaro at the helm again after an excellent pit stop. On lap 141, Dave Miller and pole-sitter Mark Murphy came in to fix loose lug-nuts, both going a lap down. This would leave Heuser and Pizzaro as the remaining two cars battling for victory.
With 23 laps to go, Heuser was able to beat Pizzaro out of the pits and pull himself a half-second out front. Three laps later, the handling already fell off, and Pizzaro was able to scoot by in turn 2 without an issue. Barring a caution, this was Pizzaro's race to lose.
Pulling a head by two extra seconds, the Boston Red Sox machine flew to another victory at the Auto Club Speedway, making it his third victory in the last four years. Congrats to Tony, crew chief Neil Justice and the Race2Win team for an excellent victory!
A fixture in the Extravaganza Series for seemingly ever and for years to come. The Rock continues to be the most mentally grueling racetracks on the circuit. Rookie Mike Carroll crashed in qualifying, claiming the new team was "unprepared for one lap, let alone 393". On the veteran end, Rick Jackson, Matthew Dominique and Craig Lee look to rebound with a victory after a horrid Daytona 500.
The first 30 laps saw several lead changes between Rick Jackson, Ryan Heuser, Tim McDonnell and Alex Crapser. Towards mid-pack, Zakk Miller blew up and got smashed by Donald Stewart exiting turn 2. Michael Henson, Brandon Raines, Kevin Corbat and Ben Geer spun trying to avoid the incident. All but Kevin received serious damage.
Ryan Heuser and Tim McDonnell tandemed away from the field while the rest fell into a cyclone of despair. After Tony Pizzaro lost a cylinder, some four-wide action on the frontstretch took some breath away in the grandstands. Fortunately, everyone came out okay.
Donald Stewart blew up on lap 97 due to damages from the previous incident. Contact from Philip Parker knocked the two into the wall, while everyone else barely escaped through on the inside.
The middle-portion of the race saw the back-action spread out while the front-runners battled maniacally for the lead. Matthew Dominique and Johnny Reed Foley stole the show until lap 145, when Matt Raboin took the top spot. He, Dominique and Dave Miller all led laps before Craig took it back on lap 169.
The top-4 were still nose-to-tail towards the halfway-point. Craig went on to lead 97 laps. Dave Miller hit the kill-switch, finishing four laps down in 26th. Matt Raboin would blow an engine 278 laps in, and Tim McDonnell got trapped a lap down during the next caution flag. He would never get it back.
A horrifying incident during the next round of pit stops sent two cars in the air. Randy Dobbins and Johnny Reed Foley made contact off of turn four, sending the #96 machine around. Jimmie Stevens clobbered the passenger side, sending both cars flipping across the front-stretch asphalt. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured, though a 34th and 38th place finish would destroy their spirits for the week.
The ensuing restart saw pole-sitter Tex Perry lock the transmission. After that, Rick Jackson hit the turn-3 apron underneath Cristian Torres, sliding up the racetrack into the path of Steven Spears. These incidents helped Michael Henson and Glenn Kaufmann get back on the lead lap, while drivers like Tim McDonnell fell trapped.
The late stages of the event were completely dominated by four cars. Johnny Reed Foley led most of his 74 laps during this stint. Matthew Dominique led 66 himself, finishing the event in fourth place. Scott Jackson loomed behind as well, finishing in 6th. After green flag pit stops, and a scare that Ken Pettit could make the distance, Foley and Craig were the only two remaining with five laps to go.
Lapped traffic became an enormous factor at the end. With 3 laps to go, Craig was trapped behind the #12 machine, leaving room for Foley to jump to the bottom and make the pass. Lee signaled in disgust afterwards, sending flashbacks from Charlotte last season back into his mind. Another one got away.
Foley was able to cruise to victory during the final 2 laps. earning his first non-superspeedway or road course victory since Pocono in 2018. Congrats to Johnny Reed Foley, crew chief Ronnie "Pure Love" Presley, and the entire Shake N' Bake Racing team for an excellent victory!<
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For the 60th time in Extravaganza Series history, the best of the best show up to take the crown of the most prestigious race in the nation. Rick Jackson comes in as the odds-on favorite to win an unprecedented fourth crown, with 41 other drivers ready to fullfill their own dreams in the Great American Race.
It didn't take long for the lead changes to start. Pole-sitter Ken Pettit fell back early, giving Craig Lee, Scott Jackson and John Battista turns at the lead. It would be a precursor for the rest of the event.
The entire field stayed together for the initial green flag run. Tim McDonnell, who led 40 laps total, took his first lead of the day just before the first round of green flag pit stops.
Lap 42 began the pit lane action. Rookie Mark Murphy spun on entry after contact with Alan Nesfeder. Otherwise, the spots ran smoothly with a 5-car breakaway up front consisting of Scott Jackson, Ryan Heuser, Steven Spears, Matt Raboin and David Butterworth. In 10 laps, the second pack caught up with Tim McDonnell at the helm.
After the second round of pit stops, Randy Dobbins blew a tire on lap 89 to bring out the first caution. The entire middle of the field crashed after a huge check-up while slowing for the pace car, destroying Matthew Dominique, Jim Fitzmaurice, Mike Carroll, Aaron Cummings, Jack Paynter, Scott Drake and Adam Crapser in the process. The #50 and #51 machines went for a wild ride, but continued on. As did the rest of the cars involved.
The next segment of the race saw complete domination by Tim McDonnell, John Battista and Ryan Heuser. Very few seemed to have an answer for the trio, though Rick Jackson, Tony Pizzaro and John Tharp stayed in the thick of things during the middle of the race,
The biggest green-flag crash of the day occurred on lap 143. Tony Pizzaro turned the the lapped car of Jim Fitzmaurice on the tri-oval, sending him into the path of Dave Miller. He, Ryan Heuser and Dalton Lucas recorded minor damage after a series of spins, and were able to continue on competitively.
During the caution flag, leader Rick Jackson blew up. He became the first and only casualty of the day, resulting in a last place finish after running 3/4 of the entire event. After a roller-coaster day, his teammate Ken Pettit got back to the lead after meandering towards the back for most of the day. The race had come full circle.
John Tharp, Alex Crapser, Jimmie Stevens and Tony Pizzaro short-pitted between lap 175 and 178. This led to a five-car draft with lapped rookie Mark Murphy. This pit stop would be the race winning move, as the line of five was able to out-pace the large pack in front.
The lead draft went from four lead-lap cars to twelve with 10 laps to go. Up front, The Pettit machine saved enough fuel until lap 191. This enabled him to take much less fuel, and was three-second ahead of the pack coming out of the pits. In just a couple laps, the field ran him down with Tony Pizzaro in the lead. He, Alex Crapser, Alan Nesfeder and Zakk Miller swapped the lead until lapped traffic became a factor. John Tharp sneaked on the inside of all of them with four laps to go, taking the lead and racing side-by-side with Tony Pizzaro.
On the final lap, Pizzaro was out in front. Tharp made a move to the inside in turn-1 with help from Alex Crapser. Once he was clear, he blocked Pizzaro's line on the outside and left Crapser with no drafting help, leaving the field scattering behind for every spot they could grab. Tharp came off of turn 4 practically uncontested and won his second consecutive Daytona 500 in amazing fashion! Congratulations to John, crew chief King Joe Dawkins and the entire PHR team for an excellent victory!
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A showdown between the greats of extravaganza commence, as Tony Pizzaro and John Battista start up front looking to win another exhibition race. This time it will be for a front row spot for the Daytona 500. Jack Paynter, Steven Spears, Glenn Kaufmann, Brodrick Wittmann, Kevin Corbat, Nate Moorehead, Alec Stelloh, Stephen Lowe and Brian Lowe will be attempting to race their way in.
It didn't take too long for the carnage to ensue. Early on, Jonathan Skrabacz made contact with Steven Spears, sending the entire field behind into a frenzy. Fortunately, most cars were able to escape without serious damage and continued to fight their way for a spot in the Daytona 500.
Just past the mid-way point, cars took advantage and short-pitted, leaving many to wonder who would come out on top. So far, no specific car has outclassed the field.
A serious distance was left between the first and second packs after green flag pit stops. Meanwhile, Champion Tim McDonnell and Adam Crapser made contact on the backstretch, sending the #22 into the infield.
With tfive laps to go, the second pack caught up to the first and became a 15+ car showdown to the checkered. By the final lap, Jonathan Skrabacz pulled past Zakk Miller and Matthew Dominique to take the lead!
Brian Lowe was battling for the second position into turn 3 before getting hooked. Zakk Miller got squashed into the outside wall and flipped hard, ending his race immediately while the Lowe's victimized themselves out of the Daytona 500. Nate Moorehead, Jack Paynter and Steven Spears flew by with glee and tears in their eyes.
Amid the craziness, Skrabacz crossed the start finish line uncontested for his first ever N.O.R.L. Extravaganza Series win! Congrats to Jonathan Scrabacz and the #48 team for an excellent victory, and a first-row spot for the Daytona 500!
Lucas Racing will not sweep the Duels this year. All of them will race in Duel #2, as the Jacksons, John Tharp, Johnny Reed Foley and half of the top-dog's in extravaganza try to win the pole for the Daytona 500. Meanwhile, Mark Guthrie, Dale Rosendaul, Scott Drake, Philip Parker, Mike Carroll, David Baldinger, Jim Fitzmaurice, Scott Deutsch, David Courtney, Jaxon Vaccher are racing for four Daytona 500 spots!
There was plenty of action during the initial laps. Matt Raboin won the pole for the duels and was the fastest car in speedweeks, losing the lead early before Rick Jackson took over. Johnny Reed Foley also flew through the field and raced up front early.
A lot of the drivers racing their way in to the Daytona 500 led some laps during the middle-stages. Mark Guthrie was out front for seven circuits, with Jim Fitzmaurice, Philip Parker, David Baldinger and Scott Deutsch all taking turns for the lead. It eventually cycled back to Ben Geer, Dan Johnston and the top-team cars fighting for the win.
Scott Deutsch almost saw their Daytona 500 hopes go into a tailspin during a lap-17 get-together, but both drivers managed to save their cars and continue. Four laps later, Dale and David Courtney turned in front of the field, sending the #11 into Jim Fitzmaurice. Both cars were damaged as well as Aaron Cummings, with the #13 escaping practically unharmed. The final caution saw David make contact with Jaxon Vaccher, spinning the #83 around on the back-straightaway.
Matt Raboin led the 16-lap shootout to the finish. Dave Miller made a three-wide move in turn one a couple of laps later, assuming the lead for a lap before Ben Geer passed. He, Alan Nesfeder and Rick Jackson dominated the next 10 laps before Johnny Reed Foley and Ken Pettit flew by.
Ken Pettit took the lead from the #18 with 5 laps to go and the field followed until the end. John Tharp and Foley tandemed past the Matt Raboin machine to run 2nd and 3rd, without a good opportunity to pass the #8. Congrats to Ken, crew chief Slim Horton and the Race2Win team for an excellent win and the pole for the 2020 Daytona 500!
