The NFRN Amateur Cup Series' first playoff elimination race featured limited passing deeper in the field, a surprise for the high-speed, high-banked track, but with only one stop necessary in the 40-lap event and no cautions to split things up, Moore and the #50 team was able to gain 13 spots while still taking on four tires.
Kenny Knox entered the race 17 points ahead of the cut line and maintained a gap despite a 34th-place qualifying effort, but Moore's sudden jump through the grid put the EAGLE Motorsport team in a situation it couldn't overcome. Moore grabbed the last transfer spot into the Round of 8 by two points. "Just frustrated I was in that situation," Knox said. "Didn't finish well at Nashville [Superspeedway], got 9th at NASCOR but maybe could've found those points if we didn't get spun. I don't blame the crew at all, they didn't make dumb mistakes." Meanwhile, the battle for the lead kept the race somewhat intriguing. Playoff competitor Austin Rogers was in the hunt for most of the race after qualifying 7th and led some laps, and outside polesitter Kyle Basaglia did the same, marking his first laps led in the NACS. However, it was Jacob Rose who was able to take the lead on lap 29 and didn't look back despite several looks from the #44 car. It was Rose's first career victory and added to the total for RPG-7 Motorsports that has two victories in the NFRN Elite Cup Series with Stuart Gratton and Jek Porkins. Rogers entered the race two points below the cut line. While it wasn't necessarily a must-win for the Rayne Racing driver, he kept being aggressive despite his safe point gap by the end of the race and wound up in the runner-up spot. He was the only driver to advance to the Round of 8 who started below the cut line. Chris Harley, Eric Van Arsdale, and Sparky the Sun Devil all failed to finish inside the top-20 and were eliminated in addition to Knox. Ford was dominant on the 1.25-mile oval, with all of the top-five sporting the blue oval, including Basaglia, Ray Chapman, and Jesse Makana, and seven of the top-10 representing the manufacturer. Shane Borlan kept a hot streak going after finishing in the 9th position, marking four races in a row where he finished no worse than 13th. Jon Gilbert also capped off a good round after finishing 6th. Both were 44 points or more ahead of the cut line at the round's end. In the non-playoff crowd, Wisconsin native Craig Martin picked up his fourth straight top-10, the longest active streak in the NACS, and solidified his 13th-place standing. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
February 2023
Categories |