Points leader Rick Jackson comes into Bristol with his league-leading 12th and 13th top-5's of the season at Darlington and Las Vegas. He has miraculously gone without a victory in 2022, but does possess the points lead by 43 over Quicksilver counterpart Dave Miller. They will both start outside of the top-10 coming into Bristol, under the lights!
A miraculous record-breaking qualifying lap gave John Battista the lead coming to the green flag. It was short-lived after a miraculous high-line pass by Aaron Cummings put the #51 to the lead for only the third time this season. He would lead 10 total laps in the early going while swapping the top-spot with Battista multiple times.
Matt Raboin took the advantage in the early go and easily pulled away from the field. He gained seconds on the continuing second place battle and started to lap some of the chase contenders before lap 100. The first one to go down was Donald Stewart, who entered the event third in the standings.
Johnny Reed Foley fell just before the first caution flag after a David Butterworth stalled engine. He would fortunately find his way to a top-20 finish despite the early setback, but was unable to re-gain his lap. Leader Matt Raboin was involved in a pit-road accident and lost a lap repairing the damage. He would earn his way to a 12th place finish after a hard-nosed struggled to regain his lap late in the going.
Ken Pettit and Craig lee battled for the lead up front before the first crash of the event. Ken Joynt and Alan Nesfeder made contact entering the corner, sliding across the racetrack into Markell Murphy. Dan Johnston, Michael Henson and chase contender Alex Crapser would slam into the accident, with only Henson finishing inside the top-30.
A multitude of the leaders pitted, sending Tim McDonnell up front to lead the pack to the green. Rick Jackson made his move 24 laps into the run and passed McDonnell for the top-spot, who led double-digit laps for the first time since Charlotte in May. Zach Michael, Dakota Wilkins and Jackson swapped the lead as we headed towards the 400-lap mark.
A career day for Dakota Wilkins made his run at Lime Rock Park look like mashed peanut brittle without steroids. He passed Jackson with 105 to go, leading 6 laps and promoting his name to the elite enterprises of Extravaganza. He would relinquish his advantage to Craig Lee, who looked to gain some momentum after a disappointing finish at Las Vegas.
A Dalton Lucas stall brought out the caution on lap 420. A Jimmie Stevens spin on the ensuing restart bunched the field back, awaiting a 70-lap shootout to the checkered flag. Zach Michael made his move to the front with 58 laps to go with the grand prize in mind. He and Lee are backed up in the standings after a devastating Las Vegas performance, looking to earn maximum points and make up the distance on Rick Jackson.
Lee took the lead back five laps later, finding himself mired in lapped traffic while Michael and John Battista race behind for second place. A crash between Randy Dobbins, Dan Johnston and Rod Weston brought out the final caution flag with 32 laps to go. Neither driver would finish inside the top-25.
Points leader Rick Jackson started in 6th while Aaron Cummings, Dakota Wilkins, Michael, Battista and Lee mbattled for Bristol supremacy. The Wendy's machine took over the spot with 19 laps remaining but failed to pull away. Lee made his final bid for the lead 8 laps later and took it outright as the top-5 spread out. Cummings would pull off his first top-5 finish since Darlington of last season, finishing a miraculous 5th on the day.
A remarkable display of driving puts Craig Lee on the list of two-time winners this s
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John Battista attempted a setup so daring he couldn't see out of the windshield, easily shattering the Bristol track record. "I had a graph on the steering wheel telling me when to steer. I turned left when the chicken stain on the wheel was at 30 degrees. It worked. We used this setup at our Lucas Racing test facility in December."
Points leader Rick Jackson led 31 laps and finished second at Bristol in the spring. He already has a 43-point advantage on the rest of the chase field after two-straight top-5's to begin the final ten-race stretch. John Battista absolutely shattered the rest of the field in qualifying with a new track record 131.173 miles-per-hour, continuing his current domination. He led the most laps at Vegas last week, and has led for five-straight events. Battista has 9 top-10 finishes in his last 12 races, and an average qualifying start of 4.8. He will share the first row with Aaron Cummings, who pulled off a miracle lap en route to his second top-10 start of 2022. He may be one of the independents who can compete for supremacy at Bristol. Can the rest of the chase field mow down Rick Jackson? We will find out under the lights!
Alan Nesfeder is back in action after a six-race hiatus recovering from injuries sustained at Indianapolis. He was top of the Happy Hour charts, eclipsing the 130 mile-per-hour mark. He was the winner of this event in 2019, looking to add to his 2022 win total to three after a very up and down season. Fellow independent John Tharp won this event in the Spring. Look for another independent team to dominate the masses at Bristol under the lights!
Current Points Positions (Race 28 of 36) 1. Rick Jackson: - (+1) 2. Dave Miller: -43 (+1) 3. Donald Stewart: -78 (+4) 4. Johnny Reed Foley: -97(-3) 5. John Battista: -98 (+3) 6. Tony Pizzaro: -117(+3) 7. Matthew Dominique: -141(-3) 8. Craig Lee: -149(-2) 9. Alex Crapser: -152 (+1) 10. Zach Michael: -160 (-5)
The fourth annual Eddie Money Classic begins with Johnny Reed Foley as your points leader after a 3rd place finish at Darlington. He will roll off the grid fourth today, his exact finishing spot in this event last season. Donald Stewart and Ryan Heuser occupy the front row with qualifying speeds over 192 miles per hour to start the 267-lap event.
The green flag waved with Donald Stewart getting a minor jump on the field. Before long, Rick Jackson and the rest of the front pack charged past Stewart, with Jackson taking the lead on lap 3. The #55 would drop back to 8th while the #44 led through lap 6.
The best handling car in the early-go seemed to be John Battista, who took the lead on lap 7. He and Ryan Heuser maintained a two-second advantage on the rest of the field, drafting away from the pack through green flag pit stops. Heuser caught and passed Battista on lap 84, leading through the next set of stops.
There were no cautions and no drivers out of the race as we headed towards the halfway mark. John Battista flew by Heuser on the outside lane as he came out of the pits, becoming the first two-time leader of the event. Rick Jackson had caught both of them by this point, flying by Heuser and on the charge for the Wendy's Chevrolet.
The first and only crash of the night occured just before the halfway point. Dan Johnston came out of the pits and misjudged his exit, crashing into Craig Lee while points leader Johnny Reed Foley slams into the the #101 from behind. Johnston and Lee collect the outside wall, dropping back down the racetrack into the path of Zakk Miller. Miller slammed hard into the front of Johnston's machine as the rest of the field barely squeezed below the All-State machine. Johnston and Miller would fail to continue, while Lee and Foley limped to 28th and 35th. Foley dropped from 1st to 4th in the standings, with Lee from 6th to 8th.
A familiar foe flew back to the front on lap 136 when Rick Jackson passed by John Battista for the top-spot. Battista earned the halfway bacon bonus and slipped back, giving up the second position to Tony Pizzaro for a Race-2-Win 1-2 show. Pizzaro passed Jackson for the lead on lap 145 and kept it for 39 laps.
Multiple pit accidents destroyed the hopes of several top-names in Extravaganza. A missed pit entry forced Tim McDonnell to drive through the grass, causing mass confusion on the pit road and clipping Scott Jackson as he entered the asphalt. Both cars sustained relative damage and would continue on at a lesser pace. The next pit crash involved Matthew Dominique and Zach Michael. The #25 missed his entry and backed up into his stall, forgetting that Michael's pit was directly in front. In severe misfortune, the #20 was in service and got body-slammed in the front, going a lap down to repair the hood damage after his crew frenzied out of the way. Dominique dropped to 7th in points, with Michael dead last in 10th.
A hard-fought battle between Donald Stewart and Tony Pizzaro saw the first place spot up for grabs with 84 laps to go. Stewart made it by, pulling away from the Race-2-Win bunch in a Cindarella bid for the Championship. He would drop back after the final green flag stops, handing the top-spot back to Pizzaro while he and Jackson fell nearly outside of the top-5.
A debris caution on lap 220 initiated a 44-lap shootout to the checkered flag. It took three laps for Bill Werkheiser to work his way by for the lead, looking to use the momentum of his second place finish at Darlington to earn his first victory in years. Bink Lucas made an incredible three-wide move on the inside lane to pass by John Battista for the third position.
Werkheiser had pulled away by a half-second before Bink made his charge for the victory. He passed Pizzaro with 23-to-go and made several attempts to get by Werkheiser on the inside lane. Finally with seven circuits remaining, Lucas pulverized through turn 1 and flew by the #6 with relative ease.... Read more »
Points leader Johnny Reed Foley lets his miracle season ride with CFM Motorsports. Ryan Heuser comes in as the far odds-on favorite. Good luck at Vegas!
Current Points Positions (Race 27 of 36) 1. Johnny Reed Foley: - (+2) 2. Rick Jackson: -10(+2) 3. Dave Miller: -30(+5) 4. Matthew Dominique: -37 (-3) 5. Zach Michael: -65(+1) 6. Craig Lee: -73(+1) 7. Donald Stewart: -74 (+2) 8. John Battista: -108(-7) 9. Tony Pizzaro: -132(-4) 10. Alex Crapser: -136
Surgery was a success for Geno Sphere, who has been modified from "critical" to "critical but stable" condition after a horrifying practice crash caused him to nearly drown in his own blood. The son of Extravaganza Champion G.G. Sphere remains in a coma at the McLeod Hospital in nearby Florence, South Carolina. The lack of on-track success this season was an enormous disappointment to Sphere and Twisted Metal Racing, who had attempted to re-energize their second team after the Brodrick Wittmann suspension left them in limbo two years ago. "It was a huge disadvantage for me not having a teammate to share information with" said Cristian Torres, who has the entire enterprise on his shoulders. "Geno's wisdom gave us an enormous advantage at Bristol and Dover this season. It was devastating to see what happened yesterday."
Matthew Dominique may have pulled off the most commendable points lead steal of all time, finishing 24th or better in the last 17 races. Despite only leading 45 laps during that span (2.6 laps per race), his average finish of 13.5 propelled him to the top while Rick Jackson and Tony Pizzaro fell into trouble down the stretch. He may become the second Extravaganza Series Champion in-a-row to win without a victory on the season. Rick Jackson and Alex Crapser are also on that path, leading 1,371 laps and recording 20 top-5's combined without a win. The two odds-on Championship favorites (Ryan Heuser and Tim McDonnell) to begin the season are both out, earning Pigeon Forge, Tennessee's Eddie Albers nearly $1,000,000 in winnings after an improbable bet. "This makes up for picking Aaron to win the Championship last season. He was the track champ at Flat Gap Fairgrounds across the street. I walked into the graveyard they built over the old track and a voice told me "McDonnell will crumble, and Heuser will tumble". I knew what I had to do from there." Eddie plans on buying a wind turbine with his earnings. "I don't have to hunt anymore. The birds fly right into them! I'll never go hungry again."
Current Points Positions (Race 26 of 36) 1. Matthew Dominique: - 2. John Battista: -5 3. Johnny Reed Foley: -10 4. Rick Jackson: -15 5. Tony Pizzaro: -20 6. Zach Michael: -25 7. Craig Lee: -30 8. Dave Miller: -35 9. Donald Stewart: -40 10. Alex Crapser: -45
Geno Sphere was rushed to the McLeod Medical Hospital after a devastating crash during the first practice session for the 2022 Southern 500. Geno flipped 21 times within 8 seconds after a direct impact to the passenger side. "A hit to the drivers-side door could have killed him instantly" said Extravaganza Series medical chief Dr. Terrence "Novacane" Suggs. He is currently in critical condition, with no specific injuries currently released. We will continue to update his condition throughout the week.
