Two races remain in the regular season coming into the Southern 500. Everyone from fifth through 15th is within 228 points, leaving it an 11-driver desperation race at the narrowest track in all of Extravaganza.
Race Results
Points Standings
Schedule
Terror arose on lap 8 for points leader Tim McDonnell, spinning hard into the inside frontstretch wall with Randy Dobbins and Dalton Lucas. He has already clinched, though Ryan Heuser and Tony Pizzaro battled desperately for the lead up front with their championship hopes in jeopardy. Unfortunately for Ryan, he and the #12 would be involved in a pit road incident later on, sending him two laps down en route to a 28th place finish.
Complete disaster struck for #12 and #20 teams on lap 73. Trying to get past the Tony Long machine, the two tangle and fly towards the inside wall. Zach Michael was able to correct his car forwards suffering only minor damage. Pizzaro slammed head-on, destroying his racecar and eventually winding up 31st. Zach Michael could only rebound to 17th, leaving him needing a good finish at Indy. Pizzaro would need to win that race and then some.
Teammates Craig Lee and Dave Miller raced hard during the earlier stages of the race, with Alex Crapser lurking inside the top-5 as he always does. Craig would go on to lead 81 laps during the next green flag run, and 112 overall.
Scott Jackson, John Battista and Ken Pettit spent some significant time leading during the middle stages. Both went on to lead 20+ laps and finish in the top-12, significantly increasing their championship chances coming into Indy.
Johnny Reed Foley is officially done for the second week in-a-row, and again it wasn't his fault. A Donald Stewart and Bill Werkheiser tangle off of turn four sent chaos through the field, with Ben eventually flipping the #18 machine over. He went on to finish 33rd. Matthew Dominique hit the turn 1 wall hard in the crash, damaging his roof and finishing 38th while dropping back to 11th in points.
Jimmie Stevens had the best race of his season, racking up 44 laps led and trying to match his top-5 performance at Bristol. He wound up 11th, but many say that a top-15 finish in points is in reach. Meanwhile, the QSM drivers battle hard behind.
Green flag pit stops occurred on lap 304, making it possible to stretch their fuel to the finish. Coming out, it was a three-car train between Craig Lee, Alex Crapser and Jimmie Stevens. The three stayed together and drafted away from the second pack, which was led by Dave Miller.
With 30 laps to go, the second pack caught up with the help of lapped traffic. Fourteen cars were now in contention for the victory, including a hungry Cristian Torres. Rick Jackson rode behind and points raced, while a nearly destroyed Tim McDonnell miraculously worked his way into the top-5.
Dave Miller passed Craig for the lead with 25 laps to go, with a helpful nudge from lapped teammate Ryan Heuser. John Tharp took the point one lap later and dropped Dave back to third. Ken Pettit couldn't hold off the strong #90 and relinquished second place, giving Dave a chance to re-pass the John Tharp machine before the lapped traffic hit. He did.
The final stages saw Dave five lapped cars ahead of second place Zakk Miller. With ten laps to go, he was able to pass two with drafting help from John Battista. Again, he was able to pass two more, and then pass Donald Stewart to end up one car-length behind Dave with four laps to go. It was the Miller and Miller show, but the #28 didn't have the muscle to pass the Marlboro Virginia Blend machine, giving Dave a much n
...
Read more »