Thunderstorms roam the skies in severe devastation, cracking the surface of the racetrack with thumps of electric ferocity, devastating the asphalt and scaring away any lifeforms that roam around it's premisis. A horrifying spectacle for all who are involved as the track is prepared to be in repair status after the purple skies fall back into the moonlight. With that being said, qualifying had just finished before the vortex of doom began. John Battista won his first pole since the fall Talladega event of 2020, locking himself into the Big Bud Shootout after missing the race this season. Second in points Zach Michael is on the outside row, looking to reel in the 23-point distance behind Fenway Frank Pizzaro. He and Johnny Reed Foley come in as the favorites after amassing 33% of the victories so far this season. Look for the streak to end with Ryan Heuser still on the verge of victory after his Homestead hospital hop put him virtually out of the Championship. He was the last winner here two years ago as we head towards the center of Extravaganza country. Good luck at Kansas!
After a year filled with pure consistency but only 13 laps led on the season, Scott Jackson looks to earn a victory at a track he has dominated in the past. We will never forget the 2009 spring event, blowing up at the flag and wrecking across the finish line in first place. He comes in 6th in points, with points leaders Tony Pizzaro and Zach Michael starting 12th and 28th on the grid.
Pole-sitter Craig Lee takes off for the green with his teammate Ryan Heuser on the outside front-row. The Crapser brothers started directly behind, with Alex making the first lead change of the night. Tony Pizzaro, Johnny Reed Foley, Matt Raboin and John Tharp all took their turns at the front early.
Tim McDonnell took the lead on lap 17 and remained there for 45 laps. This was an enormous boon for his team, switching crew chiefs during the week and capitalizing by leading their first laps since Daytona. Ryan Heuser would find his way to the front on lap 63 after dropping back early.
Lap 67 saw the first caution flag of the event. Dakota Wilkins decimated his engine entering turn 1, leaving a pathway of oil all over the racetrack. David Baldinger and Mark Heron hit the trail and spun into the outside wall, finishing the event 34th and 33rd respectively with Wilkins the first to fall out.
The restart saw Tony Pizzaro, Johnny Reed Foley and Dave Miller all finding their way to the front. Rick Jackson took the top-spot on lap 84 and remained there for a whopping 48 laps. Unfortunately, Rick would blow a right-rear tire on lap 134, falling two laps and never regaining the track position.
Michael Henson acquired the lead after another Rick Jackson misfortune in 2022. John Tharp and Johnny Reed Foley were able to find their way to the front after meandering through the lapped traffic ahead. Foley would lead the Half-way Bacon Bonus, giving way to David Butterworth, Ken Pettit, Zach Michael, Matt Raboin, Matthew Dominique, Ryan Heuser and Tim McDonnell for the top-spot.
Within a 10-lap period nearing the half-way point, there were five drivers that suffered severe misfortune. Alan Nesfeder broke an axle. Dalton Lucas endured a fuel pick-up problem. Adam Crapser obliterated his engine. Logan Sheets busted a header. Leader Rick Jackson blew a tire. At the current rate of attrition and Aaron Cummings still inside the top-10, we may see an ultimate upset in the making.
Things dimmed to a normal pace once again as we meandered past the lap-200 mark. Bill Werkheiser took the lead away from McDonnell, looking to repeat his dominant performance last season and cap it off with a victory for the ageless wonder. Unfortunately it would not hold, losing the lead to David Butterworth with Matthew Dominique and Zakk Miller leading the field through lap 244.
Jimmie Stevens, Dave Miller and Ken Pettit pulled through the field late to take their turns up front, hoping to pull away from the rest of the pack nearing the 30-to-go mark. A couple of seconds back, Tim McDonnell and Matthew Dominique were mired behind lapped traffic entering the frontstretch. The two cars touched, sending McDonnell's Caterpillar machine hard into the inside wall. He would lurch back onto oncoming traffic, nailing Geno Sphere with the turbulence of a dreidel. Both cars were out, with McDonnell finishing 36th for the fourth time this season after leading the most laps. Geno Sphere would remain 36th in owners points finishing one spot behind.
Miraculously, Jimmie Stevens was still up front after leading only one lap all season. He and Markell Murphy pulled away from the field, leading the pack through 16-to-go before scraping the outside wall and handing it to Murphy. Alex Crapser took the top-spot five laps later. He would hope to hold on for the 10-lap shootout while meandering through the lapped traffic ahead. Johnny Reed Foley, Zakk Miller and Zach Michael were on the prowl from behind.
Extravaganza Series racing at Darlington came back for the springtime in 2020. It became one of the most historic events in recent memory, with four different drivers axed by the Darlington ghouls while leading. There was also a horrific backstretch accident, a driver earning all four of his laps back, and a Sonoco controversy for the ages that put Craig Lee's NOS machine in victory lane. This year, expect nothing less than sheer gratification for the masses. Lee is back on the pole in an all-QSM front row, with the Crapser brothers directly behind. Zach Michael looks for redemption towards the rear of the field from the victory that eluded him two years prior, and for the pit road accident at Dover that sent him 81 points behind Tony Pizzaro in the standings. It's going to be a wild one from top to bottom. Can Dalton Lucas stay inside the top-10 in points? Can Tim McDonnell finally nab his first top-10 of the season? Can Adam Crapser finally add to the win column after leading five straight events? The answers will be provided under Friday night light's at Darlington!
From the depths of the southern countryside to the Delaware promise-land, many attempt to rebuild their season after ten races of strife. Tim McDonnell is one, searching for his first top-10 of the season and coming off of his sixth finish of 30th or worse last week at Talladega. He will start 10th today, with seasonal lap-led leader Rick Jackson on the pole looking to add to his total.
The green flag came out with a very conventional top-10 starting grid. Towards the back, Philip Parker lost a battery, getting slammed from behind by Aaron Cummings. Tony Long and Cristian Torres clipped each other trying to avoid the accident, sending the #26 for a half-spin before getting back up to speed.
It didn't take much time for a four-car breakaway to dominate the event up front. Rick Jackson, Dave Miller, Ryan Heuser and Johnny Reed Foley meandered by a couple of lapped cars quickly and took hold of the top-4 positions in grand style.
Rick Jackson led the first 71 laps of the event before Dave Miller made his charge for the first lead change of the race. He would remain there through thick and thin, seeing Geno Sphere, Logan Sheets and Champion Ken Pettit all fall out of the event early with engine trouble. This would push Geno outside of the top-35 in points, while our 2021 Champion slid to 26th in the standings.
Pettit's engine failure would bring out the first caution of the race on lap-180. Ryan Heuser nabbed the lead away from Miller during their pit stop, but lost it wholesale after getting loose entering turn-3, handing the spot back to the #90. Unfortunately, Miller suffered a loose lug-nut and came back in to pit, losing a lap and giving the lead Rick Jackson for the second time.
The Crown Royal machine kept his position for 10 laps before Zakk Miller took it over on lap 202. He came from 25th to 1st to lead the field on a racetrack that's proven very difficult to pass, earning his stripes as possibly the fastest car in the event. A Matt Raboin spin halted his progress as the field entered their second caution flag.
A few lapped cars were trapped behind the pace car on the ensuing restart, forcing the Bepis mobile to meander through traffic on the get-go. Craig Lee took advantage of the hindrance and made it past Miller just a couple of laps after green. He would lead through lap 235.
Adam Crapser once again found his way to the lead for the fifth-straight event. He would go on to lead the next 20 laps before deciding to short-pit and make it a full 1-stop race to the finish. Miller and Lee would continue their battle for supremacy while Crapser awaited his fate.
Craig Lee took the top-spot away from Miller after leading the field for 41-straight laps. This part of the event saw another four-car breakaway including Ben Geer and Matthew Dominique, with Geer searching for his first top-5 finish since Las Vegas of 2021. Donald Stewart was mowing the leaders down little-by-little in 5th position.
Mowing the leaders down turn into mowing the concrete wall, bringing the final caution out while Adam Crapser's strategy fell to the wayside. Stewart slammed into the outside barrier, spinning down the backstretch canyon and into the inside wall as well. Ironically, it was Adam's brother Alex that was also involved, leaving both to limp home to 24th and 25th. Fortunately, Stewart was able to stay on the lead lap and earn a respectable 13th.
It was a 100-lap stretch to the finish between the same four cars from the previous run dominating the event. With Geer, Miller and Dominique all swapping positions several times during the stretch, Lee was able to pull away from the field by four seconds. Unfortunately, he wore out his tires as the remaining three caught
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Deep in the Alabama grassland terrain lies the malevolent 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway. Many have captured the crown here in superlative style, though some have faltered to the infield demigods in recent past. Bink Lucas and Dan Johnston would be an ideal example of both circumstances, revitalizing their desire to finish victorious at this grand Superspeedway.
Michael Henson and Tim McDonnell establish the front row and take the green flag in sheer jubilation. The two have endured monstrously devastating seasons thus-far, each outside of the top-30 in points. The two couldn't hold the top spots for too long, leaving Craig Lee, Matthew Dominique, Geno Sphere, Tony Pizzaro, Donald Stewart and Adam Crapser with the shared advantage through lap-25.
The #4 Alvin machine proved a dominating force once again in 2022, leading the field through laps 11 and 25. Randy Dobbins had pushed his way through the turmoil to take the advantage on a three-wide move between Adam and John Tharp. He preserved the top-spot through lap 30 before the Quick-Silver powerplant ransacked their way to the top of the heap.
Ryan Heuser and Matt Raboin dominated the event through lap 30 and 50. The two swapped the lead three different times before handing the top-spot to Donald Stewart. Craig Lee surpassed the #55 machine after just one lap at the summit, leaving he and his teammate Heuser to battle it out for the ensuing 10 laps. Ben Geer would take the advantage on lap 61, with Johnny Reed Foley, Matt Raboin and John Battista earning their bonus points for the day through lap 75.
The turn-3 barrier was darkened by the shadows of yellow racecars just before the halfway point. Ryan Heuser and Alex Crapser made contact and hooked into Tim McDonnell, sending the #22 into a gargantuan blow to the outside wall. Heuser and Crapser also corralled the fence in unison while Rob Scarberry slammed into the passenger side of the McDonnell machine. McDonnell would end another race in sheer devastation, finishing 41st after a promising qualifying effort. He would drop from 507 to 642 points back from the standings leader by the completion of the event. Heuser was fortunately able to limp to 28th and avoid his 5th DNF in 2022, still leaving Talladega 796 points behind first place. Alex Crapser and Rob Scarberry would come home 33rd and 38th.
Tony Pizzaro, John Tharp and Logan Sheets took their turn at the top of the Talladega slipstream before a Team Danger Zone tag-team activated their playing cards. Steven Spears and Zach Michael led the field from lap 86 to 90, progressing their recent prosperity with the aspiration of winning their league leading third race of 2022. Johnny Reed Foley and Bink Lucas would also lead the ravaging field through the lap-100 mark.
Zach Michael took the lead away from the two competitive Quick-Silver machines on lap 121, leaving 3rd-in-points Dave Miller and the light-force of Craig Lee towards the back. Bink Lucas, Scott Jackson, John Tharp, Tony Pizzaro and Adam Crapser all swapped the lead before the 50-to-go mark. After the final green flag pit stops, it became a 6-car breakaway between Adam Crapser, Johnny Reed Foley, John Tharp, John Battista, Dave Miller and Logan Sheets to battle it out for the victory.
A disastrous blow to the front pack with 18 laps remaining saw Johnny Reed Foley collide with the lapped car of Rob Scarberry. The #42 STP machine flew up the racetrack and crowded John Tharp into the barrier, with Foley spinning downward into the wayward path of Donald Stewart and John Battista. Other than Battista who would limp to 18th, every driver involved would fall to the wayside and finish outside the top-34 after a dominating effort.
A restart at the 13-to-go mark saw Logan Sheets at the helm of the pack in search of his first Extravaganza Series victory. Unfortunately, a vibration forced the #58 into the pit road, leaving Craig Lee at the front before the final caution flag. Alex Crapser went for a spin on the frontstretch after contact with Ben Geer, bringing out the yellow and forging a 4-lap shootout to the checkered.
Craig Lee led the field to the green flag, jumping ahead by several car-lengths before a pass from Tony Pizzaro on the backstretch sent him waning towards the bac
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Michael Henson becomes the first driver to win two poles in 2022! A miraculous feat considering his lack of top-10 starting spots in previous seasons, along with his current 36th position in owners points. With Geno Sphere only 75 points ahead of the provisional cutoff, it could be the ultimate day for Henson to revitalize his Extravaganza career while cohort William "Tex" Perry falls into the doldrums. On the outside front-row is Tim McDonnell, an unbelievably welcome sight for all of Extravaganza. Mr. Consistency has been consistently finishing 36th all season, looking to continue his momentum of two top-20 finishes in-a-row and cap it off with a victory at Talladega. Up at the helm of the standings, Zach Michael took his first career Extravaganza Series points lead after a third place finish at Bristol. Besides his 39th position at The Rock, Zach has recorded a top-15 finish in every event this season. Could the #20 become the next Tim McDonnell? All will be told after 188 laps of action at the world's largest tri-oval!
