Tony Long remains in good spirits resting in the mid-west while Jared Mogard makes his Extravaganza Series debut in his place. He will start 40th, defeating Extravaganza veterans Michael Henson and Steven Spears on the grid, a remarkable achievement. Cristiano De Sa endured a miraculous crash in qualifying, preparing a show-car backup outside Wild Willy's Burgers in Watertown just two days prior. He will probably start-and-park.

Race Results

Points Standings

Race Recap

The fans await in severe agony in the fields outside the facility. Campers from New England all across the grounds, awaiting in anticipation after the loss of Westboro Speedway left them in a daze many years ago. The newly-built racetrack has given New England racing fans hope, just in case the Boston Red Sox go in another 100+ year slump.

A remarkable outside front-row begins the show. Mark Heron nabs his career-best second-place qualifying run, with speedway specialist Donald Stewart on the pole. Needless to say, both of them drifted back to the wolves, with Ryan Heuser taking his usual first-place spot at one of his favorite racetracks.

Despite some hard charges by Matthew Dominique and Zakk Miller up front, Heuser was able to maintain his advantage through the entire green flag stint. It's been an uncharacteristically consistent year for the #138 so far, slightly lower in the victory and DNF columns for 2023. With points leader Timothy McDonnell struggling to stay inside the top-20, this is the perfect opportunity for Heuser to re-take the points lead.

After pit stops, Heuser relinquished the lead and dropped back with a bad set of tires. Zakk Miller took led his first laps of the day after a miraculous pit stop, finding himself up front despite pitting two laps after the rest of the leaders. Rick Jackson would steal the spot away just after the one-third mark of the race.

After what appeared to be another Championship run, Dave Miller blows up for the second-straight week. He started the season with four top-5's in the first six races, leading the standings by 55 points over Johnny Reed Foley. Both drivers have dropped dramatically, with Miller and Foley ending the race 18th and 19th in the standings with only seven races left in the regular season. Ken Pettit was in the opposite direction, progressing to 12th in points after four-straight top-20 finishes before a blown piston on lap 116.

2023 has been the epitome of a sophomore slump for Bink Lucas. Just like Brad Keselowski in NASCAR, Bink Lucas won at Talladega before his rookie eligibilty. He repeated his success with a victory in the Eddie Money Classic in 2022, earning 12 top-10's and nearly defeating Logan Sheets for the Rookie of the Year battle. This season, he has only two top-10's, but looks remarkably strong at New Hampshire today and possible back to form.

Rick Jackson is making it look easy up front, leading from lap 109 through lap 170 with hard charges from Miller and Lucas from behind. John Tharp was directly behind the three leaders, pitting in two laps earlier than Jackson and coming out 1.3 seconds ahead of the field. He would extend his advantage to over three-seconds before lapped traffic hit, crossing the two-third's mark in excellent shape for his second victory of 2023.

Tony Pizzaro meandered through the lapped traffic extremely well, leading at his home track after a pass over John Tharp before the final green flag stops. With 77 laps to go, Bink Lucas took the chance of a lifetime. Just within the fuel window, the #5 LIFESAVERS team decided to short-pit and use their tire advantage to steal a miracle victory. It's an enormous risk, due for a caution flag to trap him a lap down after a season-best effort.

The strategy worked, coming out with a 6.5-second lead over the field with 40 laps remaining. A caution now would still be devastating, having to pit for tires or hold off the field directly behind without rubber. Fortunately, the field stayed green throughout, easing his pace behind the lapped cars of Scott Jackson and former Bonzanza counterpart Jared Mogard as the field narrowly caught up. With 10 laps to go, Bink had been captured.

After an impressive display to hold off the field, Zakk Miller was able to take the lead away after leap-frogging Heuser and Pizzaro for second place. Lucas would drop to 4th, while Miller captured his first career victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in what has already been a career Season for the #30 bunch. Zakk would jump over his teammate Zach Michael to 5th in the standings, combining for 10 top-5's and 20-top 10's as the new 1-2 powerhouse in Extravagazna. Congrats to Zakk, crew chief Carl Kirpatrick and the entire Team Danger Zone organization for an excellent victory!

2023 Crayon 301 Video