A miracle front-3 will take the green in front of 200,000 faithful St. Louis fans. Bill Werkheiser and Ben Geer take the front row, with neither driver leading a lap all season. Kevin Corbat is a miraculous third, with the two points leaders Ryan Heuser and Tony Pizzaro directly behind. This will be an incredible ten-lap shootout after the green.
The grid started without Ben Geer in his outside-pole qualifying position. He would lose two laps after stalling on take off, with Ryan Heuser in fourth swiping the lead away from Bill Werkheiser on lap 1. Bill would remain a lapless leader on the season despite his pole position. Miraculously, Geer would regain both laps to finish 20th after a high attrition rate.
Several accidents followed the green flag through lap 100. Markell Murphy, Alex Crapser, Steven Spears and Adam Crapser all fell out after severe impacts to the outside wall. Dave Daniels and Zach Michael would retire from engine failures. Bink Lucas would pull off a miraculous 14th place effort without a hood after his turn-1 crash with the #47 car. Donald Stewart and Philip Parker would fight all day for their eventual top-30 finishes despite their damage.
Excellent pit strategy put John Tharp, Kevin Corbat, Ziggy Moonglow and Ken Pettit in front after the restart on lap 62. Prior to that, Tony Pizzaro had led most of the laps, but failed to find his way back by despite the slightly fresher tires. These two would remain dominant top-5 forces throughout the night.
A crash between Craig Lee and Cristian Torres forced both drivers to endure damaged racecars for the rest of the evening. They would finish 30th and 31st, ending the race 29th and 30th in the points standings. Up front, Pizzaro finally found his way by the Zig-Zag machine on lap 85.
Tim McDonnell remained in the tire tracks of the front two throughout the run. A turn-1 accident from Aaron Cummings brought out the caution flag once more, closing the field back to an equal distance. This gave McDonnell the opportunity to pounce, taking the lead from Pizzaro on lap 108 to lead the halfway bacon bonus.
Laps 131 through 152 saw miraculous racing up front between the #22 and the #8. Ken Pettit failed to lead a lap despite edging him out in other parts of the racetrack. In a horrendous turn of events, Pettit was involved in a debilitating pit road accident, breaking the radiator and ending his night after their best run of the season. After a Bill Werkhesier and Cristian Torres spin, McDonnell continued to lead with an outstanding run by Ziggy Moonglow inside the top-3.
A spin from Ryan Heuser brings out the caution flag again on lap 163. John Tharp would make his way past McDonnell for the lead after the restart, with John Battista jumping from 9th to 3rd in a matter of laps. The #39 would pass by McDonnell, flying past Tharp with 50 laps to go en route to his 5th victory of the season.
It was not to be. Battista led the remaining 9 laps before his engine exploded on the backstretch, ending his night in 34th place. This is the first race since Lucas Racing's four car inception that neither of the four would cross the finish line. A horrifying Randy Dobbins and William Perry crash maculated the #96 entry into smithereenes. Fortunately, both drivers would walk away with only bruises. There is 34 laps to go.
Timothy McDonnell struck gold once more by avoiding all ten accidents and being in eyesight of leader John Tharp by the end. He made his move with 17 laps remaining, racing side-by-side for two laps before taking the lead outright exiting turn-2. A Jonathan Skrabacz and Trey Larkin accident gave the field a four-lap shootout to surpass the #22. Only Alan Nesfeder could get close. McDonnell would narrowly take the checkered flag by a couple car lengths over the #78 at his hometown track!
Despite the tribulations of the previous year and the dismissal of Yogi Arnoux atop the pit box, this team has rebounded at a level we thought we'd never see again from this group. His third points win in four races, losing only to his second place at Charlotte, along with an All-Star Race victory. It doesn't get much better than this. Congrats to Timothy, crew chief Kenzou Yamada and the entire CFM Motorsports organization for another excellent victory!
