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.

Race Results

Points Standings

Schedule

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 ... Read more »