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.

Race Results

Points Standings

Schedule

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 ... Read more »