Tonight the superstars of stock car racing battle for Superspeedway supremacy at one of the fastest racetracks in all of Extravaganza. There have been five different winners in five different races so far, mostly related to the new Goodyear racing tire. The parody may continue with two drivers outside the top-35 in points qualifying extremely well, Michael Henson on the pole and William "Tex" Perry in third.
Race Results
Points Standings
Schedule
Michael Henson succeeded in a miraculous pole birth as he led the field to the green in his Black + Decker #144. His bid for a good finish and a top-35 birth in the standings started off extremely well, leading the first two laps before Johnny Reed Foley took over at the helm. He and Bill Werkheiser would sail off into the sunset during the first green flag run as the rest of the field fought for the third position.
A lap-98 caution involving a turn-4 spin from Rob Scarberry brought out the first caution flag of the evening. John Battista flew by Foley on the ensuing restart and led the following six laps. From here, he would attempt to hold off the Race-2-Win brigade from behind just as he did the previous race at Atlanta.
Rick Jackson took the lead on lap 113 but couldn't hold his Bob Marley teammate off for long. Champion Ken Pettit would finally find his way to the front on speed in 2022, grabbing the lead on lap 118 with draft help from John Battista. The Wendy's machine would take it back just 20 laps later in a high-horsepower speed-run.
The #39 and #44 swapped the top position a couple more times before a Dave Miller battery issue forced out the second caution. Miller would finish two laps down in 32nd place and drop from third to fifth in the standings, disappointing the Marlboro fan club crowd. Up front, John Battista led the first 25 laps after the restart before getting run down by Rick Jackson and rookie Logan Sheets.
Battista led the halfway bacon bonus, though the rest of the crowd was ready to pounce on his parade. Jackson, Sheets, Craig Lee, Donald Stewart and Alan Nesfeder had all managed to creep up to the front at crunch time, looking to deviate from the Battista-Jackson domination of the event. Sheets led two laps before Craig Lee took the helm on lap 196. It had taken him only 28 laps to gain 18 positions and find his way to the front.
Riding in the 6th position, Bink Lucas tangled with the lapped car of William Perry sending both drivers hard into the turn-3 outside wall. Bink was able to limp to a 24th place finish, though Perry would wind up 39th. It would be his sixth-straight finish of 29th or worse to begin the season, winding up 37th in drivers points and having to qualify for the field at Richmond.
Logan Sheets had found his way past leader Craig Lee before the caution flag and stayed atop for the first five laps after the restart. The big-dogs ran the rookie down rapidly, flying past the Pizza Hut machine in shades of Crown Royal purple lurking in the shadows. Rick would eventually lead a race-high 96 laps on the evening.
What should be the final green flag pit stops of the night came towards lap 300 mark. Zach Michael and Johnny Reed Foley both came in before Rick Jackson, who had developed a full three-second lead over the #20 machine. Out of the pits, Alan Nesfeder recorded a miraculous stop and stormed out with a near 2-second advantage ahead of Michael, Logan Sheets and Ken Pettit.
Rick Jackson and Johnny Reed Foley stormed through the field with their slight tire advantage. It took no less than ten laps for Jackson to rummage from 6th to 2nd, with 25 laps left to spare to make his move on leader Nesfeder. On lap 315 he pulled off the feat, leaving 20 laps on the board to pull away from the rest of the pack. Somehow, Nesfeder was able to keep within one second of the #44 for most of the run. Jackson was about to close to his first victory of the season when disaster stuck! His car was out of fuel! Him, Johnny Reed Foley, Ken Pettit, Donald Stewart, Jonathan Skrabacz, Matt Raboin and Bill Werkheiser all missed the mark on gasoline and ran out. A devastating blow to the crew chiefs and fuel mileage wives of Extravaganza.
By the miracle of all that is good and holy, Alan Nesfeder sped past the decaying Crown Royal machine off of turn four and took the white flag lap on top of the board. An amazing event an sight to see the #78 independent Nesfeder team cross the line in first for the first time since Bristol in 2019, 89 races ago. Congrats to Alan Nesfeder, crew chief Barney Griswald and the entire Nesfeder Racing crew for an excellent victory!
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