The majority of those 54 laps were run under caution, with 2 laps the longest green flag stretch in the first 37 laps.
A total of 7 cautions left just 13 cars running at the finish. Maiden's win wasn't as linear as the NFRN Amateur Cup Series race. On what ended up to be the final pit stop, Maiden came down to take four tires while some teams took two or no tires. The combination of worn tires vs. new tires and how much damage each car had in the beatings of the race led to the #99 car being able to fly through the traffic before he eventually passed William Brock, already guaranteed into the playoffs but seeking his second win of the season. "We knew where we were in the standings, and the more and more cars that kept going out, we kept thinking this might be our time," crew chief Casey Ruggero said. "So making that pit call, I figured we had nothing to lose. It was gonna be a great points day regardless, having that chance to be in cut line talks. But everyone else was more beat up than us that it was a perfect storm." Maiden is among those who join Brock as playoff locks, including Season 1 champion Rampage, Phillip Fry, Jake Baskinger, Stuart Gratton, and Adam Mundinger. John Arndt will also join the 16-driver field through points. "Just glad we were able to lock ourselves into the postseason," Arndt said. "Maybe if we can get a win next around, I can put myself at the #1 seed, but at this point, I'm not sure. My day will come, hopefully." The dropouts of the race came through a variety of incidents, both big and small. There was no safe place on the race track as trouble came in all of the turns and straightaways throughout the day. One of the hardest-looking accidents of the day started with Noah Pontzer getting turned into the wall in turn 3, and an ensuing pileup turning two cars on their roofs, Eric Monaco by slight contact and Caleb Campbell from a heavy hit by Kenny Knox.
"[Hagen] needs to learn about personal space and also what a blue flag means," Carranza said after a 7th place finish. "Just plain crowded me out, I couldn't avoid contact. Definitely should have just moved over and given us lead-lap cars a lot more room."
For an added dose of drama, nascarfan19 had a run-in with Donnie Moore, a driver that he tangled with at Eight Bowl Superspeedway when he was still coming up to speed off pit lane and Moore hit him at a higher rate of speed. While Tyler Markel got the worst end of the wreck, the #64 suffered more damage than the #43. "Hope he's satisfied with his move cause I guess that makes us even," nascarfan19 said. Comments are closed.
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