T'was the cathedral of madness at Kentucky Motor Speedway, where the wrecks were plenty, and none were hesitant to say was one of the most embarrasing and dramatic mid-races of any event we're run in a long time. With that being said, it was an incredible finish.

Race Results

Points Standings

Schedule

It didn't take too long for the action to start, with Dave Miller, Ryan Heuser, Matthew Dominique and Rick Jackson all leading several laps early in the go.

On lap 71, Ryan was in the lead, pulling away from the field before blowing his engine. Matthew slammed into the back of him, destroying his car and inevitably losing more points to Tim McDonnell in the standings. They would both finish outside the top-35. For Ryan, it was the third time this season he would blow up while leading. He dropped to 9th in points after the event.

Points leader Tim McDonnell qualified 6th, but was mired in three-wide mid-pack traffic after battling a loose condition early. Once the adjustment was made, his car became a rocket-ship, passing Rick Jackson for the lead on lap 119.

Trouble started on lap 127 when Donald Stewart spun on the frontstretch. We saw Tyler Scott and John Tharp take some wide rides. We saw Braindon Raines, Bill Werkhesier, Cristian Torres, Rick Jackson, Brodrick Wittmann, Tyler Scott, Tony Pizzaro, Steven Spears, Mark Guthrie, Randy Dobbins and Dave Miller all take trips to the infield care center, mostly due to the "Damned lapped cars" as Rob Scarberry pointed out after the race.

The most controvertial crash of the season by many moons occured on lap 154. John Tharp, Scott Drake and Mark Guthrie tangled coming out of turn four. Drake lost control of his vehicle and slammed into the pace car, but came out uninjured. John Tharp, who claims he "lost control and brakes" after his fight with Rick Jackson's crew, flew back onto the race track and slammed into three Race-2-Win Motorsports drivers immediately, all mired in the points race. Points leader Tim McDonnell was sent for a half-flip, riding the outside wall until his car came back o it's wheels. McDonnell went on to finish, but left the race saying "I finally know why his car says zig-zag. Too bad he zugged us into the fence." Rick went on to say "That is not the same John Tharp that I saw when he started up the ranks. He's always been aggressive, but his head shrunk a size or two after that move." Ken Pettit and Tony Pizzaro declined to make a comment, but only gesture at the disappointment of the situation.

After the drama fell through, Ben Geer became the fastest car on the race track and flew past leaders Matt Raboin and Craig Lee. He built up a sizable lead before pit stops, as Zach Michael and Rob Scarberry followed only a couple of seconds behind.

Pit stops began on lap 217, when Matt and Craig short-pitted. They would pull to a ten-second lead, but the tires of Ben, Rob and Zach were strong enough to possibly hunt them down for the next 38 laps.

Matt and Craig continued to race hard despite the dwindling distance between them and the third place car. Draft from Dan Johnston and Adam Crapser helped only so much, as the fresher tires were coming quickly.

What turned into the show Ben Geer was about to spoil was the show Zach Michael did, passing Ben and Rob and working his way through the lapped traffic. With six laps to go, Zach was there. As Craig and Matt made marvelous attempts to used lapped traffic as their defense, it was to no avail as the inevitable was about to commence. 

With three laps to go the #20 machine was able to pass both leaders, something that both Ben and Rob failed to do. His margin would significantly increase every lap after as Zach would hightail his car to his second victory in three weeks. Congrats to Zach Michael, crew chief Justin Knapp, and the entire NSRA Racing crew for an excellent victory!

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