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.
Race Results
Points Standings
Schedule
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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