What looked like an easy call to the office of Champions turned into a definitive blow for the two consistency dominators of the season. The tides will turn in the 3rd annual Eddie Money classic, seeing the horsepower dominators kill two birds while dominating the standings.
Race Results
Points Standings
Schedule
Pole sitter Scott Jackson lost the lead early to Dave Miller and John Battista, the latter looking to extend his 45-point lead in the points. There were no surprised up front, seeing the usual half-mile suspects like Rick Jackson, Tony Pizzaro and Ryan Heuser up front.
Johnny Reed Foley had lost his sponsor, though saw the front of the pack without needing binoculars all day. Tim McDonnell and Zach Michael look to rebound after poor performances last week, as Rick find the lead early en route to leading a race-dominating 48 laps.
Ben Geer looked unstoppable, pulling off his usual 3 out of 36 race dominance at the speedways. Pocono was the first, though there was something seemingly "experimental" about this car. Ben was easily the class of the field during the early to middle-stages.
Three crashes including three different chase contenders took out the competitive forces of Alex Crapser, John Tharp and Tim McDonnell. Two of the accidents were identical, with the final involving Tharp for a second time. Crapser would miraculously rebound to 6th, with Tharp 23rd.
A horrifying crash off of turn 2 set up the destruction of two powerhouse-players for the championship all season. Kevin Corbat and Tony Pizzaro went for a wild ride off of the fourth corner, seeing the #46 slide roof-first for thousands of yards while the #12 went through a miraculous infield flip in shades of Darlington last season. During the crash, Champion Tim McDonnell blew up on an upshift after narrowly avoiding the accident. It would be his first DNF of the season, as well as Pizzaro's. Points leader Battista was also involved, hindering his progress all day and resulting in an 18th place finish. He would drop to second in the standings.
Long green flag runs were abundant after the accidents, seeing a miraculous comeback from Alex Crapser and an emotionally wounded Johnny Reed Foley lead the field away from the frenzy behind. Ryan Heuser, Randy Dobbins, and the Jackson cousins also looked to join in on the action.
Ryan Heuser went from the lead to nearly outside of the top-10 after short-pitting during the final stretch. Crapser and Jackson flew by, with Craig Lee on everyone's tail with the freshest tires in the field.
Craig found his way past the Scott Jackson machine and pulled away from the field. A near race-leading 42 laps led from 31st starting position looked to be the stat-line towards victory lane, before a Steven Spears spin with less than 30-to-go forces a late-race restart.
On cold tires, Ryan pulled towards the front on the restart and miraculously made it by Craig. Scott Jackson took pursuit as well, with Ben Geer closing the gap in third. It was a three-car battle for victory towards the end.
Ben Geer made it past the #38 with 2 laps to go and gained all of the distance to catch the #138. It was to no avail, as Ryan defended to his 6th victory of the season and into the points lead for the first time all season. Congrats to Ryan, crew chief Mustard Mahoney and the entire Quick-Silver Racing crew for an excellent victory.
...
Read more »
