On Saturday, a short qualifying session, red flagged after one lap, scrambled rather than sorted the 20-car field. Jason Ball claimed pole position with a 2:01.430, followed by Matt Gieseke, Rod Walker, Ann Morey and Bob Manker.

At the start, as the field charged down to Turn 1, Yan Dia went down the center briefly making it four-wide entering the turn. Everyone kept it clean and made it through as some of the faster cars moved up through the field. At the end of the first lap, Dia had moved up from P15 to P5 with the rest of the order: Ball P1, Gieseke, P2, Griffith Hawk P3 and Kyle Kimball P4.

Aiden Crouse and Brad Miller also were rapidly moving up from the back. By the end of lap two, Dia had moved up to P2, but went off in Turn 5 and fell back to P8 behind Pat Smith and Crouse. By lap six, Dia had regained P2 just before the track went double-yellow. On lap seven, Dia got inside Ball in Turn 13 and made the pass for the lead and pulled steadily away. The race ended with Yan Dia winning, Crouse in second, Miller third, Grant West fourth and Ball fifth.

On Sunday, Pat Smith dominated qualifying with a sub-track-record time of 1:51.214, more than a second faster than Crouse in P2, Dia P3, Kimball P4 and Williamson P5. On the start, Dia got around Smith and Crouse for the lead, bringing the order at the end of the first lap: Dia P1, Smith P2, Crouse P3, Williamson P4 and Kimball P5. Dia managed to hold off Smith and Crouse, who had stickered up for the Sunday race, until lap three when Smith got around Dia and began to gap the field.

Crouse kept hounding Dia looking for the pass until he eventually got it done on lap five. Dia and Williamson continued to fight for third as Crouse put his head down and began to chase down Smith, but he ran out of time and had to settle for second behind Smith who took the win. Dia finished third, with Williamson fourth and Kimball fifth.

Join the Discussion