Bright Wins The Battle But Buckwalter Wins The War
The Hyper Racing 600 Sprint Speedweek Presented By 600cc Performance title cam down to the last lap between Damon Paul & Tim Buckwalter. Regardless of that battle, Bright wasn’t about to let them have all the spotlight. Click here for the full story.
600 Speedweek Stats
5 nights of racing broken down into 7 numbers that define the quality of racing seen last week. Click here to see the key metrics from last week.
All Good Things Must Come To An End: Predictions For The Speedweek Finale At Spirit Auto Center Speedway
8/4/2019: As Chris Graham and I talked about on yesterday’s NRN podcast, Lanco was going to be a pivotal night in deciding on who will win the Speedweek championship. Tim Buckwalter was able to escape the carnage last night and heads into the final night with more than 20 point lead going into the final night. Even though that is a substancial lead, we learned last night that anything can happen and a lead can be erased in a matter of seconds. Additional to tonight being the final Speedweek show, tonight is a part of the popular Poker Series. This ensures us that we will have a strong contingency of local drivers competing with those that are chasing the Speedweek title. With that being said we are going to go into our picks for the night.
Our NewzVroom Notables of the night will be Kyle Spence, Matt Smith and Colin White. Spence is an obvious choice as he picked up the win last night and has many laps at Spirit including a win at the only Poker Series race this season. If last night was a sign of things to come, Spence will be a contender to be the first person to win multiple races this week. Smith has not had the Speedweek that he was expecting as he ventured to many of these tracks for the first time, but he will feel right at home at Spirit. He made last night’s race at Lanco to give him some momentum and has some big wins at the track including multiple Skyscraper wins against the best in 600s. Our last notable, Colin White has definitely been the surprise of Speedweek. White has been strong everythwere he has been this year but most people would not expect him to be the prime challenger for the Speedweek championship. The last two nights, White has made mistakes early in the race and had to fight back to the front. If White can put a whole race together he is going to put a lot of pressure on Buckwalter tonight.
After the week that Paul has had, he has really put his name into the spotlight. Even after some struggles at Lanco, his dominant performances at Path Valley and Linda’s are up at the top of the highlights of this week. Paul already has doubled up at Spirit this season and big fast, tight race tracks seem to fit his style of driving. Even though the mathematics of him winning the Speedweek championship is slim, coming home with a 2nd win this week will be equally as memorable.
Spence Abandons The Fence For $1K 600 Speedweek Win
8/4/2019: Up to last night one of the biggest surprises of Speedweeks was the struggle that last year’s champion, Kyle Spence was having on a nightly basis. To change his fortunes at Lanco last evening he abandoned his trademark Kyle “On The Fence” Spence for the bottom groove to work his way into victory lane for night 4 of the Hyper Racing 600 Sprint Speedweek Presented By 600cc Performance.
Spence wouldn’t have it easy as your polesitter and NewzVroom High Point winner, Eddie Strada Jr. would take the lead and put a sizable lead on the field early on. Tracks have done a great job every night making sure there have been multiple grooves and Lanco was not exception. The one key component to winning each of these nights is finding where the grove was going to be towards the end of the race and Spence was the first to jump to the bottom from his 8th starting position. Spence would make his way to 2nd and start tracking down Strada. It was not long before Spence would make his way around Strada and would take the win. Behind Spence, Strada fought off late challenges from Aaron Bollinger and Tim Buckwalter to take the runner up spot. Buckwalter would take 3rd, Bollinger 4th and Kenny Miller III would complete the top 5. It was a tough night heading for your top drivers in Speedweek points. Buckwalter was essentially the only driver that was a contender in the feature and would come out of Lanco would the points lead.
USAC Midgets: As mentioned in our preview, Logan Seavey didn’t win at Lanco last year but definitely came out of the race as the biggest start. Seavey would look like to turn that around in 2019 especially as the points race is starting to escape your 2018 champion. Your winner at Path Valley, Chad Boat would get out to an early lead but there was an intense battle for 2nd on back with the CMR cars of Tyler Courtney, Zeb Wise and Seavey. Cautions would regroup the field to erase Boat’s lead and Seavey would go right to work. After a few slider exchanges, Seavey and Courtney would get by boat as mechanical issues would erase Wise from this battle. For the remaining of the race it was a cat and mouse game between Seavey and Courtney with Seavey holding off all advances. At the end Jason McDougal would enter the battle for deep in the field but ran out of steam to challenge the top 2. When all was set and done, Seavey would get the win over Courtney who leaves Speedweek with consecutive runner up finishes and still no wins in a midget in PA, followed by McDougal, and Petry Racing teammates, Kevin Thomas Jr. and Jerry Coons Jr.
GVAT: Last weekend we had Johnny Smith sweep both the wingless and winged 600 races at the Orangeville oval. With Johnny winning the opening wingless race, fans thought we may had been in for another repeat. Unfortunately for Johnny, his brother Mikey, had other plans. Mikey would take advantage of a front row starting spot to rocket to an early lead in the winged 600 event. As Johnny would battle through the field from the latter half of the top 10, Mikey would put distance between him in the field. By the time Johnny made it to the runner up spot with 8 to go Mikey was checked out and would get the win over Johnny, Rich Keller III, Tom Fraschetta and Quinn Roberts.
In the wingless race Johnny would start on the front row and would have a great battle with Tom Fraschetta early on but would slowly put enough distance on Fraschetta to win comfortably in the 25 lap main event. Philip Mesinger would take 3rd followed by Josh Chess and Brett Altemose.
Hamlin: On the front row on Saturday night we would see a familiar face that we had not seen in a while, Joel Smith. Smith has had much success at the track in the past but has taken a few steps back with the 600s in 2019. He would start on the front row with Zack Weisenfluh and would around Weisenfluh early on. Smith would slowly build his lead as Weisenfluh would fend off challengers D’Agostino and Paul Richards Jr. That was all that Smith needed as he would win over Weisenfluh, D’Agostino, Richards and Joseph Smith.
Path Valley: After an exciting finish on Thursday night with the wingless 600s, we would see if the winged show at Path Valley would put on a similar show on Saturday night. Jim Young would start on the pole and would get the initial jump on the field. Randy Kunkle who has won at Path Valley earlier this year would move up to the runner up spot early on and would start tracking down Young. The battle started to heat up and then Kameron Morral raced his way into the picture from row 4 into the 3rd position. Young was continuously under fire from the two drivers but would hold on for the victory over Kunkle, Morral, Miller and Weber.
Airport: Last night was the track’s annual flip flop race as we would see the winged 600’s take the field. Jimmy Glenn who dominated the earlier part of the season at the speedway would start on the front row. Glenn used that prime starting position to go on to win the main event.
Legends Are Created At Lanco: Saturday’s Preview & Predictions
Each year during the Midget & 600 Speedweek, the show at Lanco always leaves the crowd buzzing about the amazing performance that the drivers put on at the banked 1/8 mile bullring. Last year that legacy was furthered by Logan Seavey’s wall climb that went viral on all social media and the talented young Zeb Wise would go on to get his first USAC Midget victory of his career. With a great forecast planned for tonight the fans should get a great show in the concluding event of the USAC Midget east coast swing. Just as a reminder our preview show will be on NRN’s Facebook & YouTube page to get the full preview of tonight’s events as well as our predictions.
USAC Midgets: Zeb Wise will return to the spot of his first career win as one of the hottest drivers on the USAC tour right now. His success on smaller tracks as been noted on our site since the start of the week and we are curious to see if that continues tonight. Tonight our NewzVroom Notables will be Logan Seavey & Tyler Courtney. Seavey was the show stopper last year and he hopes that his viral moments will be in victory lane. His stats on the short track have to regress positively soon and tonight may be the night. Tyler Courtney keeps getting close to that first win in PA and its got to come. He already has 2 quick times and multiple runner up finishes. As Courtney looks to continue to expand his points lead, a win would definitely help.
Pick Of The Night: Zeb Wise
With the run that Zeb is on and he is the returning winner at Lanco. We are going to go with him to win the concluding night of PA Speedweek to confirm his dominant 5 race run. Each night Wise has proved he can start anywhere and get the job done and we believe that he will do that once again this evening at Lanco.
600 Speedweek: As the midgets are wrapping up, the 600’s Speedweek point battle is heating up as they still have one night left after this evening. On the big fast tracks of Path Valley and Linda’s, Damon Paul has shown his dominance but Lanco is a tighter confine and we will see if he can make it two in a row tonight. Our NewzVroom Notables of the night will be Aaron Bollinger and Kyle Spence. Bollinger is the last driver to win a race at Lanco and was strong at the non wing spring fling to kick off the wingless season at the track earlier this year. Coming off a strong podium at Linda’s last night, Bollinger will be looking to advance two more spots this evening. Kyle Spence has not had the Speedweek that he had hoped for but that can all change tonight. He has numerous big wins at Lanco including last season’s Speedweek race at Lanco. We expect Spence to turn around his Speedweek around tonight.
Pick of the Night: Alex Bright
The Speedweek point’s championship tightened up a lot last night and Bright is not about to let that lead go. Bright already has a wingless win this season at Lanco and every wingless race at the track in the last 3 years he is always in position to take home the win. NewzVroom expects Alex Bright to take home his 2nd Speedweek win of the week tonight
Paul Gets Redemption While Wise Continues His Rise
8/3/2019: With the threat of rain looming at Linda’s Speedway on Friday night, there was a chance that this flawless week of racing may be cancelled for an evening. Luckily the track was able to push forward and just when we think we can’t get another night of great finishes, it happens again with Zeb Wise passing late for a win and Damon Paul fighting another late race caution for a win.
USAC Midgets: To kick the night off, Tyler Courtney was quick time for the 2nd night in a row to continue the confirmation that he has one of the strongest cars in the USAC field. When feature time came around, Tanner Thorson and Kevin Thomas Jr. would make up your front row. Thorson for the 2nd night in a row would get the jump and take the early lead. Andrew Layser wouldn’t waste anytime to go to 2nd right at the drop of the green. Thorson would pull away as Layser would have a lot of pressure from KTJ, Tyler Courtney and Zeb Wise. That battle between Layser and KTJ would end as Layser would spin out bringing out the caution, which would erase Thorson’s sizable lead. When the green flag dropped KTJ would not let Thorson get away this time and would battle him until Thorson had his own problems as a flat tire would derail his night. That would leave KTJ to fend over the two Clauson Marshall Racing cars to try to win his 2nd USAC Midget Race of the year. KTJ would hold off Courtney for a while as Courtney found a groove on the bottom but over time KTJ would fade. Wise would follow Courtney as the lead pack caught lapped traffic. Courtney choose to go back to the top to go around the lapped traffic, while Wise stayed on the bottom and that would be the winning move. Wise would get past Courtney going to the white flag to win his 2nd race of the week and 3rd career USAC Midget race. Courtney would go home 2nd followed by KTJ, Chris Windom and Jason McDougal.
600’s: Damon Paul would be the passing point champion of the night for the second evening in a row which would put him on the pole again. After losing the race on the last lap the night before, Paul was determined to not let that happen again. When the green flag dropped, Paul checked out on the field and left Aaron Bollinger, Jesse Maurer and Tommy Kunsman Jr battle for 2nd. As Paul continued to pull away there were intense battles throughout the field as the track opened itself to 2-3 wide racing. Kunsman would finally come through the battle to the runner up spot and created a feeling in the atmosphere that this could be another run that could add to his legendary ethos at Linda’s Speedway.
It looked like we would go green all the way to the finish until a caution with two laps to go. This was seeming all too much like the night before at Path Valley but Paul was calm and composed on the restart. Paul would rocket out into the lead as there was a mad scramble throughout the rest of the top 10 especially from your top 2 drivers in Speedweek points, Alex Bright and Colin White. Regardless, Paul would go on for the win over Kunsman, Bollinger, Maurer and White.
Friday Night Is The Tipping Point For 600 & Midget’s Speedweek
Fans have been in for a treat these first few nights of the USAC Midgets & 600 Speedweeks rolling through the hills of Pennsylvania. Last night we saw Chad Boat & Colin White get their first wins of the week and both drivers will not be satisfied with just one win in this very competitive week of racing. Tonight we will see both series run one of the Friday night staples, in PA, Linda’s Speedway. Before we get into today’s predictions, make sure to check out National Racing Network for the Daily Race Update with NewzVroom at 3pm each day here. NewzVroom and NRN’s Chris Graham recap the previous night of racing and preview the upcoming night’s actions. Coming up at 3pm today will be the review of Path Valley and our picks for Linda’s
USAC Midgets: Chad Boat finally broke through for his record breaking 4th USAC Midget win in PA. With that win that also broke Clauson-Marshall Racing’s 2 race win streak. Boat will make our NewzVroom Notable list with Tyler Courtney tonight. The last time Boat won at Path Valley in 2017, he would go onto win later that week at Linda’s. May history strike twice? Boat has been strong as the series moved to the “bullrings” of PA and we expect him to carry his experience at Linda’s into a top finish tonight. Tyler Courtney is in the complete opposite position as Boat, as he has come so close to a victory in PA in the midgets but just has not been able to seal the deal. He already has multiple podiums this week and is 2nd on our small track rankings.
We picked Logan once this week but we feel tonight is the night. He is the number one ranked driver on tracks 1/4 mile or less this season and Keith Kunz Motorsports is not leaving PA without a win. His qualifying efforts haven’t been the strongest so far this week but that may work in his favor tonight. Look for Logan Seavey in victory lane this evening.
600 Speedweek: Colin White not only made a big pass for the win last night but he made an even bigger jump in the Speedweek standings. Even after his strong performance, we don’t see a repeat for him tonight. Our NewzVroom Notables will be Damon Paul and Michael Fauci Driver Development’s team(MFDD). Paul lost a heart breaker last night but he has had success at Linda’s and look for him to avenge last night’s loss with a big run tonight. His lone race at the track this season resulted in a runner up finish but when he ran at the track more often last year he was a consistent front runner. Linda’s is a track where you definitely need speed and Paul has definitely shown it. Speaking of speed, MFDD’s drivers Christian Bruno & Buddy Schweibinz have shown plenty of it but just haven’t executed a top 5 finish in the first two nights. Both Buddy & Christian have had strong runs at Linda’s this season including a win for Buddy the last time the 600’s were at the track. Can either driver get car owners Michael and Brooke their first Speedweek win of the week?
Kunsman’s success at Linda’s Speedway over the last few season is well documented. He has two top 5’s to start Speedweeks at tracks that relatively unfamiliar to him. Now that Kunsman is back on home court, look for him to get the Speedweek victory tonight. Even though he didn’t make the NewzVroom Notable list for the midgets, look for Kunsman to have a strong run against the USAC contingency tonight.
Boat & White Use Separate Paths To Victory On Thursday Night
8/2/2019: USAC Midget Race: After leading early on Wednesday night at Action Track, Chad Boat’s 14th place finish did not accurately show for the team’s performance that night. On Thursday night, Boat would not be sitting on the front row but made his way to the front as soon as he could.
When the green flag dropped Tanner Thorson took the lead from the front row but Boat was working the bottom side of the track to perfection to test Thorson in every corner. After about 5 laps, Boat would finally prevail and put some distance between him and the field. Up until Thursday night, the Clauson-Marshall cars had been dominant and their strong contingency was not about to let another team in victory lane without a tough fight.
Thursday night’s CMR challenger ended up being Zeb Wise. Wise would get that top groove to work as much of the field had resigned to the bottom. A mid race yellow would regroup the field, allowing Boat’s lead to be erased and putting Wise on his back bumper. When the green went out Wise would jump to the top and go side by side with Boat. Both of them pulled away from the field as they would exchange the lead lap after lap. When the next caution came out, Wise would narrowly have the lead on the restart. Boat was persistent to make the bottom work and when the green flag dropped he went right back down there to challenge Wise and would grab the lead as the top of the track finally dried off to much for Wise to rocket around that part of the speedway. Boat would pull away as the CMR car would battle for 2nd-5th and he would win his record breaking 4th USAC Midget race in the PA. 2nd would be Chris Windom who worked his way back through the filed, Tyler Courtney, Tanner Thorson and Logan Seavey.
600 Micros: Damon Paul was set to dominate Path Valley after he would fly through the field in his heat race and come from 6th to 1st in his Qualifier making him the NewzVroom Passing Point Champion of the night. That honor would put him on the pole for the feature and he would runaway from the field early. Alex Bright your winner on the previous night would try to stay close to Paul but was fending off challenges behind him from Colin White and Tommy Kunsman. All while Paul was putting distance on the field there was a freight train from the rear of the field lead by Tim Buckwalter that brought Brian Carber and Kyle Spence with him. By mid way these three drivers that started no better than 13th, were battling for the top 5. With about 10 laps in we would see our first caution to regroup the field.
Paul would take off like a rocket while Colin White would use the middle-high groove to challenge Bright on the bottom for that runner up spot. White would eventually take it from him and would start to track down Paul. Paul was having none of that and would lead by over a straightaway until a caution came out setting the race up for a green-white-checkered. Interestingly enough with that many laps left, the field would restart double file putting Colin White on the outside of Paul, which is right where he wanted to be. White would hold his ground in turn one and would use that momentum into turn 3 to get around Paul as he bobbled in turn 3, an area which seemed like Paul was struggling with towards the end of the race. Once White got around Paul, Paul was just holding on for 2nd as Colin White would grab his 2nd Career Speedweek victory in his first appearance at the Path Valley Speedway over Paul, Bright, Buckwalter and Kunsman. Outside of the top 5, we saw great runs by Brian Carber and Kyle Spence, who both came from the B-Main to finish 6th and 7th respectively.
Tonight we will move on to the Linda’s Speedway for the penultimate event of the USAC Midget eastern swing and night 3 of Hyper Racing 600 Sprint Speedweek Presented By 600 cc Performance. NewzVroom’s prediction article will be up around lunch and our podcast with NRN will be up around 3pm as you head into the track for tonight’s racing.
Finding The Path To Victory Lane: Tonight’s Preview of USAC Midgets & 600s
We are now two nights down on the USAC Midget eastern tour and through the first night of the Hyper Racing 600 Sprint Speedweek Presented By 600cc Performance. Each night so far has had races come down to the very last turn and justifies PA’s recent fascination with the quality of wingless racing. We saw Zeb Wise win the USAC Midget race and Alex Bright win the 600 race. Let’s take a look into tonight’s event at Path Valley Speedway.
USAC Midgets: Clauson-Marshall Racing has swept the first two nights and the way their cars are running it would not be a surprise if they make it a third tonight. Our NewzVroom Notables for tonight are Chris Windom and Tanner Thorson. Windom has been picking up accolades this week as he won the opening night of the tour and won hard charger last night. Windom is now our leader in passing points for tracks less than or at least 1/4 mile and has 11 top 10’s in 11 races on tracks that size. He has yet to win at a track this size but tonight can turn that around. Thorson had a win at a track similar to Path Valley, Lincoln Park Speedway, during Indiana Midget Week. He has put in a strong showing for KKM this week with two top 5’s this week. We expect Thorson to be a contender in the end.
It just wouldn’t seem right for Kyle Larson to run three races with the USAC Midgets and not come away with at least one victory. Larson has showed that he has the car to beat each night but has just missed out on a win each night including a photo finish to Zeb Wise last night. Before Larson goes to Watkins Glenn, we expect him to take home the win tonight.
600’s: Alex Bright put on a dominant performance last night at Action Track and we expect him to keep up that momentum tonight. Bright will make our NewzVroom Notable list today as well as Damon Paul. Paul had a solid start to Speedweek last night but we expect him to be pushing towards the top 5 tonight. He has shown speed at Linda’s and Spirit this year and tonight may push its way down to the bottom of the track which Paul masters. Look for Damon Paul to be a contender in the waning laps of tonight’s race. As a few dark horses for tonight, look for a Path Valley local, Mike Thompson and Speedweek organizer Austin Quick to make strong runs tonight after not making the mains last night. Both won in wingless competition last year at Path and will look to repeat this year.
Billy Pauch Jr. got off to a great start last night by being the top passing point driver out of the heat races last night. The rest of the night normalized itself but he showed he had good speed which is needed at the speed Path Valley. Also on Pauch’s side is that he has won some big wingless races at Path in the past and that definitely gives him an edge even though the win came a few years ago. NewzVroom expects Billy Pauch Jr. to be the driver in victory lane tonight.
Wise & Bright Master Action Track On Wednesday Night
8/1/2019: There were a lot of unknowns when the drivers pulled into Action Track USA on Wednesday night.
1. Was the weather going to hold off
2. How were the midget going to fair at Action Track
3. Just how many 600s were going to show up for the opening night of Speedweek.
All of those questions were answered by the end of the night and I believe the fans and drivers got the answers they expected. There were 78 600’s and 24 USAC Midgets signed in to take on the fiesty Action Track. Tyler Courtney would show early on that he was going to be a driver to contend with as he just beat Kyle Larson in time trials by .044 of a second. On the 600s side, the battle was intense all night as drivers fought for all the passing points that they could get as that would set the feature lineup for the main event. The battle for the pole position would come down to 1 point as Eddie Strada would beat out Tim Buckwalter for the top point driver of the night.
We would start the features with the USAC Midgets and Logan Seavey looked like he was going to continue his dominant performance on bullrings as he took the early lead. Seavey would put some distance on the field early on but Chad Boat would find some traction and would reel him in to take the lead momentarily. As that battle was going on Zeb Wise and Kyle Larson were making their way through the field. Zeb has been one of the strongest drivers on tracks of 1/4 mile or smaller this season but had yet to win a race this season. Wise would get to the lead first as he would slide by Boat and try to runaway. Larson would get to Wise’s rear bumper quickly and those two would put on a show. There would be a caution with 3 laps to go that would lead to one final showdown between Wise & Larson. Wise would get a jump but Larson would throw haymakers at Wise to try to get the lead. Larson would throw one last shot at Wise but Wise would squeeze through for his first USAC Midget win of the season over Larson, Windom, Thorson and Courtney as Clauson Marshall Racing makes it 2 for 2 on the eastern swing.
On the 600 side of things Eddie Strada & Tim Buckwalter would lead the field to green as Strada, Buckwalter and Alex Bright would lead a three car breakaway. Bright would sneak around Buckwalter and would set his sights on Strada. It was clear Bright had the better car and would keep trying to make his run at Strada and eventually pulled off the move. Bright would run away from the field and would take the win for the first night of 600 Speedweek. Strada would finish 2nd, then it would go Buckwalter, Tommy Kunsman Jr and Brian Carber would hold on for 5th.
Our coverage will continue with Path Valley tonight with the USAC Midgets and 600 Speedweek. Look for our previews and predictions around lunch.
Wingless Wednesday Rolls Into Action Track For Doubleheader
7/31/2019: When it was announced that the USAC Midgets were coming to Action Track USA for the first time, many fans and drivers penciled this date onto their calendar. The event was further enhanced when it was announced that this would also be the opener for the Hyper Racing 600 Sprints Speedweek Presented By 600cc Performance. With an improved forecast for tonight and an entertaining opening night by the USAC Midgets at Grandview tonight, local fans should be in for a great event at the 1/8 mile bullring at Action Track. Later today NewzVroom’s full preview of 600 Speedweek will be up on National Racing Network (NRN)’s Youtube & Facebook page if you want to hear our predictions for the entire week. Here are our predictions for tonight.
600 Sprints: For the last week we have previewed some of the drivers that will be doing battle over the next 5 nights for Speedweek. Now it is time to make our predictions for night 1 at Action Track. NewzVroom Notables: Eddie Strada, Billy Pauch Jr. and Tim Buckwalter. When you have 50+ drivers expected, it is hard to narrow the list down to a few drivers. We will start with Eddie Strada. Strada has been fast at Action Track all season but has not had the luck to make it into victory lane. With a passing point system in play, expect this to play into Strada’s strengths and expect him to be seeking a win tonight. Pauch Jr already has a win at Action Track this year and is in a tight battle with Kenny Miller III for the championship. With Pauch’s win coming during the biggest race of the season at Action Track in the King of the No Wing, we know he can step it up for these big races. Buckwalter finally broke into the win column last week and has been dominant the last two weeks at Action Track. It looks like Buckwalter is hitting his stride and that can be bad news for the rest of the field as his experience and past success proves that he can win the big races. Our Pick: Brian Carber
USAC Midgets: Tonight will be a different world for the USAC drivers as they raced last night on the biggest track of their tour and tonight will be one of the smallest they will see. Since the midgets have never run at Action Track, nobody has the upperhand of experience at this track but the series has raced on their fair share of bullrings this season. Our NewzVroom Notables for tonight are Zeb Wise and Kyle Larson. Wise had less than an ideal night last night was Zeb Wise. Wise was slated to start on the pole but had to go to a backup car putting him at the tail of the field. Like Seavey, Wise’s numbers get dramatically better at the smaller tracks and he proved that by winning the race at Lanco last year. Also look for Wise’s teammate and last night’s winner, Chris Windom to be a top contender. Our last notable is Kyle Larson. Larson appeared to have the fastest car all of last night but just struggled in the end to find a lane to stick to. Larson was strong during Indiana Midget Week and has been strong at the Chili Bowl the last few years, so Action Track should suit him well. Our pick: Logan Seavey
Windom Withstands Challengers For 2nd USAC Midget Win Of The Year
7/31/2019: In our preview of the USAC Midget race at Grandview Speedway, we mentioned how the track plays right into Clauson Marshall Racing’s strength of being dominant on big fast, slick tracks. CMR lived up to that billing by placing 3 of their cars in the top 6 for the feature. Unfortunately, Zeb Wise, who was slated to start on the pole had to go to a backup car, which vaulted Chris Windom to the pole position instead. Windom would leverage that prime starting spot to get the early jump on the field.
Windom had his ups and downs to start the season but has been coming on strong with a win at Lawerenceburg and top 5’s in 5 of his last 6 races. This would not be an easy one for Windom as Kevin Thomas Jr. and Tyler Courtney would not let him put any distance on the field. Thomas would get a few peaks at the lead but just couldn’t get anything to stick. Behind the top 3, the next 5-6 cars were under a blanket including Kyle Larson who won your fast time award. Larson was trying every lane on the track to try to get around Tanner Carrick for the 4th position to chase down the leaders. Eventually Larson would move to 4th and right as he went to challenge the two in front of him, Courtney would make his move to get by Thomas. With all that battling going on, Windom was able to build a bit of a comfort zone that would be erased by two cautions within the last 5 laps. The last caution would set up a green-white-checkered finish between teammates Courtney and Windom. The action went to green and as the leaders went into turn one after taking the white flag, Courtney made his move and temporarily made it stick but Windom was able to cross him back to hold off Courtney for his 2nd USAC National Midget win of the year. Carrick would finish 3rd, Tanner Thorson would win the hard charger award by going from 13th to 4th and Chad Boat would complete the top 5.
600 Sprintweek Six Pack Part 6: Invaders From All Directions
7/31/2019: With over $10K for drivers to possibly win during Speedweek, drivers from all over the US will be heading to the east coast to take on the best in the area. Tonight we will give the local crowd a quick preview of who some of these invaders are and where they are coming from.
West: Colton Hardy, Johnny Boland, Ryan Timms, and Emerson Axsom. Hardy will definitely win the longest haul as he will be coming in from Phoenix to race but is running for a local team. Scott Rupp who has had drivers such as Kyle Spence and Kyle Lick race for him in the past, will be adding another hot shoe to his stable. There is a lot of buzz in the area about Hardy’s talent and we will have to see how he fairs. Boland got a head start last week by getting a taste of the east coast by running at Action Track and Spirit.
The early trip seems to had worked out as they spent both of those nights shaking out some bugs in Mike Linderman’s car and Johnny B should be ready for a solid run this week. Timms appears to be bringing out his own car and will add to the youth movement during these Speedweeks as being one of the youngest drivers at the age of 13. The biggest name from the west that will be joining the Speedweek tour is Emerson Axsom. Axsom made his presence be known by winning the $8K to win at US-24 last month. He has dominated the Midwest this year but will that carry over to the east coast?
South: Ty Nevins, Rhea Lynne Moss, Paige Moss, Zak Gorski and John Crowder. The south invaders will all be coming in from Florida to take on the east coast’s best. Gorski is the most well known of the group in the micro circles and has won quite a few races in the southern states over the last few years. Rhea Lynne, Paige and John come from the same circles and we will quickly see how those drivers adapt to the PA/NJ race surfaces. Last but not least Ty Nevins will be rolling in straight from the Terry Sprague Memorial Race where he made it to the B-Main. Like Timms, Nevins is another young hard charger at the age of 15.
North: Tim Lotz & DJ Shuman: Both Shuman and Lotz will be coming to PA to race from NY. Lotz is a regular at Paradise where he has already claimed a victory this season and has another top 5 this year. Shuman also regulars Paradise but stays true to the NY6A tour. Shuman has won at Paradise and was your points leader for the tour heading into last weekend’s race. We will see if Shuman’s dominance in NY will carry into Speedweek.
USAC Midgets Bring Rolling Thunder To Grandview: Preview & Predictions
7/30/2019 – After a little bit over two weeks since USAC’s Midget Midwest tour through OK, NE, KS, and MO, the tour makes its annual trip to the east coast for 5 nights of racing. The start of the tour begins at Grandview Speedway, a track that has not been on midget tour in decades but has been on the sprint car tour for the last few years. Grandview will be unique to the other tracks that the drivers will come across this week as it is by far the biggest track they will see this week at 1/3 mile and one of the bigger tracks that the midget tour has run all season. Also to get the fireworks going to start the tour, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell will be running, which will elevate the level of competition being brought to the east coast.
NewzVroom Notables: Coming to the east coast does bring some local challengers into the fray such as Steven Drevicki and Steve Buckwalter on Tuesday night but with the lack of midget presence on the east coast, that will hinder how competitive they will be against the national competitors this year. Our notables will be the aforementioned Bell, Larson and Chris Windom. Bell and Larson will be surprises to this list as they are notables and neither are the favorite but our reasoning will stand out when you see who our pick is. Larson has only one start on a track larger than ¼ mile this year and he dominated that evening. The fact that is holding Larson and Bell back is that KKM has not performed that well on the larger tracks this season. For example, KKM’s top driver competing for the championship, Logan Seavey is tied for the lead in performance at tracks of at least 1/4 mile tracks but falls to 12th at tracks over ¼ mile at USAC races. That same regression is true for the rest of KKM team. As good as Bell and Larson are, some of those results will have to be passed down to them. Bell has not run a USAC race this season but his typical dominance on the POWRi tour has subsided a bit (even though he has won 50% of his races) and KKM’s performance on bigger tracks keeps him from being the favorite. Our last notable driver is Chris Windom. Windom won the last USAC race at a larger track which was at Lawrenceburg during Indiana Midget Week. After a bit of a rocky start this year, Windom has finished in the top 5 in 5 of his last 6 races including the win at Lawrenceburg. With CMR being known for its performance on dry slick tracks which fit the criteria for almost all of the PA tracks, this should make Windom a contender. Our Pick: Tyler Courtney. This pick seems like we just succumb to who has been the most successful driver in the USAC midgets this season. While it may appear that way, Courtney’s numbers are in his favor every way you dissect them. Grandview is a combination of Bubba Raceway Park and Kokomo, which are two tracks that Courtney won 3 out of 4 races at this year. At tracks larger than a 1/3 mile on the USAC tour, Courtney has 3 wins and 4 podiums in 5 races. Courtney does have experience running at Grandview from running with USAC Sprint series and has multiple top 5’s in previous visits to PA. With that being said, Courtney does not have a midget win in PA and we look for that to change on Tuesday night at Grandview Speedway
600 Speedweek Six Pack Part 5: Battling Both Sides Of The Success Spectrum
600 Speedweek is truly the equivalent to the every major sport’s All Star Weekend. You gather together the best drivers from all over the area (and in some the cases the country) and put them on a neutral field to compete to see who is truly the best. Going into All Star Weekend’s there are athletes that are riding into the game with momentum and others that are trying to regain their touch. Tonight we highlight 3 drivers that are riding a wave of success and 3 drivers that could use a string of good finishes to pick them up. With the first track being Action Track, we will start with the most recent winner at the track, Tim Buckwalter.
Buckwalter got off to a slow start this season in the Barry Greth owned 600 but he has put a string of good runs together as of late. He went down to the wire for the win on 7/10 at Action Track and dominated last week to win his first 600 sprint race of the year. Buckwalter has a few top 10’s at Shellhammer’s as well to give him some variance this season. This recent emergence may be the boost Buckwalter needs to take a few wins this week. The winner on 7/10 at Action Track was Colin White and he has been dominant everywhere he has been as of late. Ever since a 25th place at Action Track on June 9th, White has not placed outside the top 10 since and has 2 wins as well as 4 podiums over that time span. Before that win at Action Track, White had an impressive run of 2nd place finishes but just could not get over the hump. Ever since that win he appears to be back to the success he saw last year which lead him to winning the Speedweek finale at Action Track. Our last driver that is riding a wave of momentum is Aaron Bollinger. Bollinger was the first winner of the local season and he got off to a quick start at Lanco with numerous top 5’s. Then late May and June snuck up on Bollinger with a string of mechanical issues. Those issues dampered his chance at serious points contention until a huge win this past weekend at Lanco by winning the prestigious Clyde Martin Memorial. Last year Bollinger opened eyes with his wingless runs at Action Track & Linda’s, so this win this past weekend may be a sign of things to come.
On the other end of the spectrum of success, we have a few drivers that could use a podium or win to jump start their 2019 seasons. Ryan Greth started the season with a runner up finish at Path Valley and made it seem that his full time return to 600’s would rival his previous run in the class. Ever since then Greth has had a few good runs but has been inconsistent all year. To win the Speedweek championship, consistency is key and Ryan will need to find that if he is going to be a contender. With that being said, do not count Greth out especially at Lanco as he has taken home some big wins there in the past. Another driver looking for consistency after a promising start is Bradley Brown. Brown scored an early season podium but had been downtrending until a top 10 run this weekend. It will be interesting to see how Brown does this week without a bunch of wingless experience but with all the laps he has at Lanco, he should be a contender at that event. Last on our list is Jim Radney. Radney has not made a bunch of starts this season but has had success in the past. In the few races that Radney has run, he has not appeared in peak form but getting to run 5 nights in a row could be the difference maker in his 2019 season.
That is all for tonight. Tomorrow will be our last six pack until we go green on Wednesday. Our final edition will be covering some of the invaders that are coming from the north, south and west to try to steal the Speedweek crown.
600 News & Numbers Recap From 7/24-7/27
As we head into the busiest week of 600 micro sprint racing, we also saw the busiest week by race count for the month of July this past week. Here is the breakdown by the numbers:
160 – Drivers In Action
10 – Tracks In Action This Week
10 – Different Winners
1 – Repeat Winner (Johnny Smith)
It appeared that many drivers that were getting their last tests in before Speedweek opted to run earlier in the week as Action Track, Spirit & Linda’s all had full fields, while car counts were a bit lighter on Saturday. Hopefully once Speedweek is over, we will see those Saturday car counts come back.
Our top two hard chargers for the week both came from Spirit Auto Center Speedway. With an extra bonus of $50 that night, all the drivers had a little extra to race for. As a reminder to those running Speedweek, NewzVroom will be sponsoring $50 to the highest passing point total for each night, to reward those drivers that are making every lap count in the most competitive week in 600 racing. Your top 5 hard chargers from this past week are below:
1. Ed Barber III – Spirit: +15
2. Mike Rutherford – Spirit: +14
3. Brandon Heist – Linda’s: +13
4 (Tied) Eddie Strada – Action Track: +12
4(Tied) Richie Hartman – Action Track: +12
4(Tied) Colin Bustard – Spirit: +12
Later today, NewzVroom will be renewing the 600 Six Pack series as we get down to our final two editions before the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek Presented By 600cc Performance kicks off on Wednesday at Action Track USA.
Johnny Smith & Scott Brothers Complete Sweep
Early in the season The Smith Brothers dominated the winged division at GVAT. Over the last month that dominance has gone away as new drivers started to rise to the top. If there were any doubts about SBR, those were wiped away with a dominant 1-2 finish in the winged race last night. Johnny & Mikey would share the front row and wasted not time setting sail on the field. Mikey would keep Johnny in reach for the first 5 laps but Johnny would slowly grow that lead until he hit lapped traffic. The gap would close as the two drivers had a huge lead on the entire field but once Johnny got through the first set of lapped cars he was gone. Johnny would take the win over Mikey, Justin Grosz, Jeff Weaver and Cody Hauck. That was actually the second win of the night for Johnny as he also took the wingless win earlier in the night in the Ray Merli owned micro. Johnny would also start on the pole for the wingless race and set sail early and won by over 3 seconds over Greg Stevens, Jacob Balliet, Tyler Henry and Colton Rex
Typically when we have talked about two brothers dominating, we have been talking about the Smith Brothers. This week the Scott Brothers both emerged victorious as they won at Spirit and Airport. We picked Wayne to double up and that choice looked good as he would share the front row with his brother, Lavar, who won the previous week. Lavar would get the jump, but Wayne was not going away without a charge. They would continue to battle with Nathan Smith and Jimmy Glenn waiting right behind them in case the two brothers made a mistake. Lavar would pick up the pace just enough at the end to win his second win in a row at Airport and completing the weekend sweep for the brothers. Wayne would get 2nd, follwed by Smith, Glenn and Sokol.
Lanco: The Clyde Martin Memorial is one of the biggest races of the year at the prestigious Lanco Speedway. This race is a members only race and is double points, so if you are going to make big moves in the standings, this is the week. Holden Eckman and Jesse Snyder would start on the front row and Eckman would get the initial jump. Eckman has had good starting position the last few weeks but just had not been able to close the deal. Last night looked like it was going to be his night as he put some solid distance between himself and the rest of the field. Jarid Kunkle would take over the second spot early but all eyes were on Aaron Bollinger as he made his run from 7th. Bollinger quickly made his way up to 4th and a few laps later was in the runner up spot tracking down Eckman. With 5 laps to go Bollinger would be on Eckman’s back bumper and the caution would come out. That would leave us with a shootout to see which one of these two drivers would get their first win at Lanco this season. Eckman would get the jump but Bollinger was just waiting patiently. Bollinger found his hole with two laps to go and made it stick to hold on to win his first victory of the year at Lanco and 2nd win of the year. This was a much needed win for Bollinger as he had a rough month of June and needed this run as heads into Speedweek. Eckman would hold on for 2nd followed by Jesse Snyder, Heath Hehnly (from 13th) and Brent Ely.
Path Valley: Every night has its surprise and last night it was Kyler Heiney’s victory at Path Valley. Heiney had never won a 600 micro sprint race and would be starting on the pole with Jim Young, who is one of the longest running 600 drivers in the area. Young would get the jump and set the pace early on with Heiney in tow. As those two drivers pulled away, Hayden Miller was battling through the field from 9th position. Out front Heiney would really start to chase down Young with 8 laps to go and 5 to go the youth out-muscled the experience and took the lead. That was all Heiney would need to go on to take his first 600 micro sprint win over Young, Miller, Zane Rudisill and Randy Kunkle.
Hamlin: We mentioned in our preview that Chad Sandt would be a driver to watch since he had won two races earlier this season but had not finished in the top 5 in almost two months. Sandt’s good fortunes started by getting the pole position and would start alongside Zack Weisenfluh. Sandt would get the lead heading into turn 1 and would comfortably hold that lead. Behind Sandt, Mick D’Agostino and Colin White would make charges to the front but just ran out of time to make serious runs at Sandt and Weisenfluh. At the end of the 20 laps, Sandt would take home his third victory of the year over Weisenfluh, D’Agostino, White and Joel Smith.
Out west at SIR for the Terry Sprague Memorial we saw 4 local drivers make the $7500 to win main event. 3 of those drivers would finish in the top 5 as Brian Carber would take the last podium spot in 3rd, Alex Bright in 4th and Kyle Spence in 5th. James Morris battled tough luck all weekend but was able to salvage a 18th place finish.
Tomorrow we will renew our 600 Speedweek Six Pack Series and offer our first content into Midget racing as we preview the USAC Midgets eastern tour.
The Final Countdown: Preview Of The Last Night Of Racing Before Speedweek
As teams are preparing for the biggest week of 600 racing on the east coast, Saturday night will be their final day to get everything tuned for the $3K Speedweek title. We will have 5 tracks running tonight and 2 of those are on the Speedweek schedule. In recent weeks we have had at least one driver that has won in multiple nights we will see if Jesse Snyder, Jeff Weaver or Wayne Scott will continue that trend. NewzVroom will be at GVAT tonight to cover the races and we will have merch/stickers for drivers and teams. Also if you have not signed up for DataVroom Daily (under DataVroom), make sure to put in your entry to turn your Action Night picks into $100!
GVAT: Last weekend we saw Alex Bright and Cody Hauck both get their first wins of the season. We will not see Bright in attendance but Hauck will be looking to make it two weeks in a row. Here are our picks of the night for GVAT. Wingless – We will see a decrease in car count as a lot of the regulars will be taking off for Speedweek but that opens the door for someone new to go to victory lane tonight. Even though we like Johnny Smith’s chances tonight, we are going to go with Joe Nemeth. In Winged action we should see a healthy field and after 3 straight top 5 finishes and 2 straight podiums, we expect to see Tom Fraschetta take home his first win of the season.
Lanco: Tonight is the special Clyde Martin Memorial Race at the speedway. The race is closed off to those that have run a certain amount of races. Heath Hehnly is on a 3 race win streak and that makes him an obvious favorite tonight especially since we saw Mike Rutherford take 4 straight earlier in the year.
After a runner up finish last week and a positive trajectory over the last 4 weeks, our pick of the night will be Ryan Groff. A former winner during 600 Speedweek, a win would be a huge confidence boost for him heading into Wednesday. We expect Mike Rutherford and last night’s winner at Trailways, Jesse Snyder to be also contend for the victory.
Path Valley: A track that may see an uptick in car count due to it being on the schedule for Speedweek, is Path. Last weekend we saw Alec Quiggle dominate both nights of racing, but getting front row starting spots again will be a tough feat. Gunnar Layton has been getting closer and closer to a victory and we believe
tonight will finally be his night. Look for Hayden Miller and Randy Kunkle to also be up front in the end.
Hamlin: Now we get into the wingless part of our article. After a few weeks off, the track in the Poconos is back on tonight. With a field full of drivers that will be contending for the Speedweek title, this will be their final tune up. The last few weeks we have went with Mick D’Agostino but we are picking Paul Richards to be our pick of the night. Richards has 3 straight podiums and that type of consistency eventually pays off into a victory. Chad Sandt has had a rough couple of weeks at the track but we plan on him bouncing back tonight to challenge Richards for the victory to get the momentum going for Speedweek.
Airport: The Scott’s are on a roll as of late. Last week at Airport Lavar won and last night his brother, Wayne took home a victory at Spirit. After Wanye’s dominance last night we expect him to make it two nights in a row. Jimmy Glenn got off to a hot start this season but has cooled down as of late. Look for Glenn to make it tough for the Scotts to make it to victory lane.
Scott & Schweibinz Pull Off Thrillers To Win On Friday Night
Last night all 4 tracks that were in action completed their features and we saw some thrilling finishes. NewzVroom was at Spirit Auto Center Speedway and we were treated with a blazing start from the beginning of the night. Each of the heat races were near track record speeds and there were intense battles as drivers fought for the coveted invert spot. Even though the start of the night was a sprint, getting through the feature event proved out to be a marathon.
Dave Nelson & Richie Keller would start on the front row but it would take a little bit for them to start their battle for the win. When the initial green went out we saw a traffic jam in turn 1 worst than one that is I-95 on your way to the track. 9 cars would pile up in turn 1 and we would see a re-shift of the field. The next time at green, we would see Travis Hill go in attack mode at the leaders. While he went for the lead, Richie Keller would hop a tire and barrel role in turn 3 without a lap in. We would sit through two more accidents, but after 4 reds to start the race, the action was finally on. Hill would jump out to a big early lead as Luke Thomas and Wayne Scott would work through the field. Scott would make it by Thomas and would start to reel in Hill. We would then see a caution at lap 7 that would bring Scott right to Hill’s back bumper.
Scott would make it by Thomas and would start to reel in Hill. We would then see a caution at lap 7 that would bring Scott right to Hill’s back bumper. Hill would put a little distance on Scott but then Scott’s car got dialed in through turns 3 and 4 to start really putting the pressure on Hill. It would only take Scott two attempts at a slider and would get the lead out of turn 2 and would sunset the field from there. Thomas would follow through to take second but the battle for the last podium spot would intensify. Ed Barber III & Mike Rutherford entered the battle from deep in the field to make a 6 car battle for spots 3-9. When the checkered flag flew, Scott would get his first win at Spirit over Thomas, Barber III, Hill and Rutherford. Barber III would also edge Rutherford for the NewzVroom Hard Charger by one spot by going from 18th to 3rd in the feature.
Linda’s (Courtesy of Linda’s Website): Buddy Schweibinz started second and got the lead away from Joey Amantea after the two traded the race lead a few times at the front of the field. Schweibinz had multiple challenged until a last lap restart. Mike Thompson had climbed to second and took his shot going into turn three on the final lap sliding across the nose of Schweibinz before the rookie driver turned back underneath Thompson to regain the lead off turn four for his first Linda’s Speedway win. Schweibinz, Thompson, Ryan Groff, Tommy Kunsman, and Amantea were the top five finishers.
Clinton County: Jeff Weaver got off to a hot start this season at Clinton County by grabbing two wins but getting the third has been a tough ride for him. Last night he would start in row 2 and would look to capitalize on that starting position. Bobby Sanso would beat him to the lead and Weaver was trailing him like a hawk throughout the beginning of the race. Around half way the battle ensued and Weaver would eventually take the lead. That would be all that was needed as Weaver would grab his third win of the season over Sanso, Hauck, Jeff Gyurina and Jomarie Gagne.
Trail-Way: Jesse Snyder may have the most runner up finishes in 600 micro sprints this season but still had not broken into victory lane. He would find himself on the front row and was hoping not to end another night in the 2nd position. Jayden Wolf would get the initial jump from the front row and early on it looked like Snyder may have to settle for another runner up position. Snyder’s car would come to life around half way and would challenge Wolf and eventually take the lead. Snyder would hold off challenges for a lap or two but would then take off and win by almost 3 seconds once he got clean air. Wolf would hold on for 2nd, Jim Young, Zane Rudisill and Brad Weber (who came back from a tough start of the night where he started 10th) would complete your top 5.
Terry Sprague Memorial Update: We have a few drivers that ventured out to Illinois for the $7500 to win wingless race. Four of the local drivers made the main even. Brian Carber would lead the way with finishing 5th from 9th, Alex Bright would get 8th from 10th, Kyle Spence finished 9th from 13th and Austin Quick would be your hard charger of the race going from 21st to 11th.
The Friday Four: Preview & Predictions For 7/26
Tonight kicks off a busy span of 9 days for the NewzVroom team as we will venture to 4 different tracks over that time. To get this tour kicked off, we will be at Spirit Auto Center Speedway tonight for the 600 wingless sprints as teams get their last shot at the track before they go back there for the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek By 600cc Performance next Sunday. NewzVroom will be sponsoring $50 for the hard charger tonight at Spirit, so make sure to grab a sticker from us at the track to be eligible. Outside of racing coverage, we launched our first fantasy sport game under the DataVroom banner. Pick 10 drivers for the opening night of 600 Speedweek at Action Track USA for a chance to win $100 that night. More details are under DataVroom ->DataVroom Daily.
As we do every week, lets get into the preview and predictions for each track that is racing tonight. After the heat wave last week, we have a full agenda tonight with 4 tracks, 2 winged and 2 wingless in action. We will start tonight’s preview with Spirit Auto Center Speedway. Last week Tyler Lindsay surprised the field with his first victory at the speedway after holding off furious charges from Matt Smith and Luke Thomas. Our two NewzVroom Notables for tonight are Jon Keller and Mike Rutherford. Both have many laps at the track and have been consistent but just not enough to get into victory lane at Spirit. Both of them got top 10’s last week and should be in contention for a win tonight. Our pick for tonight, will be Matt Smith. Picking Smith does seems like the easy way out but his numbers are superior to the rest of the field. He already has 3 wins and was close to making it 4 last week until his car faded late. Especially as Smith prepares for Speedweek, having the momentum of a win always helps.
Linda’s: Speaking of dominant drivers, the last time the 600’s were wingless at Linda’s, Tommy Kunsman Jr. added another win to his resume. We expect to see a few new drivers show up as they look to get laps there before Speedweek but we are going with another homer pick and going with Kunsman for the win tonight. Just like Smith, Kunsman has been out of this world and has dominated regardless of the starting position. Our NewzVroom Notables for tonight are two young guns that we pointed out in our 600 Speedweek 6 Pack, Christian Bruno and Aidan Borden. Bruno is coming off top 5’s at Action Track and Spirit, which shows that he can adapt on the fly week after week. Borden was a strong contender for the win the last time out at Linda’s in the wingless division. He faded a little late in the race but a podium finish is what he needed after an up and down season since his win at Shellhammer’s.
Trail-Ways: Weather has not been to kind to Trail-Ways and it has been a while since the 600’s have run there. A track that your success is heavily predicated on where you start will lead to some furious battles in qualifying to make sure drivers start up front for the feature. Our NewzVroom Notables for tonight will be Jesse Snyder and Jim Young. Both drivers have been strong this season but are on the opposite ends of the win column. Young already has 2 wins at the track this year, while Snyder has the most runner up finishes this year. Maybe tonight is the night where they switch spots. Our pick of the night is going to be Brad Weber. Weber has come out of nowhere these last few races and has had one of the strongest cars in the field, but has not had starting position on his side. We predict Weber will get that part figured out and take home a win tonight.
Clinton County: As we talked about Smith’s and Kunsman’s dominance at their perspective tracks, Garrett Bard stands his own ground with his recent success at Clinton County. Bard is now up to 3 straight wins at the track and we pick him tonight to make it 4 in a row. There are rumors about some new challengers coming in to give Bard a run for his money but our NewzVroom Notables are going to be Joshua Beamer and Jeff Weaver. For each of those 3 wins that Bard has, Beamer has finished runner up to him each time. The time has to finally come for him and tonight may be that night. Weaver on the other hand, had early success at the track but has struggled as of late. Hopefully with a few weeks off, Weaver is regrouped and ready to contend for wins again
600 Speedweek Six Pack Part 4: Wingless Way Of Life
Matt SmithGary BozowskiMike LindermanEddie StradaChad Sandt
A few weeks ago we had a column about how Action Track (then Kutztown Fairgrounds) decisions to go wingless only changed the landscape of 600 micro racing. Even 3 years ago if you wanted to run wingless 600s your choices were limited to one track per night or special events. Now there are multiple tracks that a driver can choose from on a Friday or Saturday night and always at least one track racing on a Wednesday night. With these options we are seeing drivers just race wingless and we will highlight a few of those drivers tonight. Outside of Action Track, Spirit Auto Center Speedway gets consistently the largest wingless car counts in the area. With the popularity of the Poker Series, we have seen many of the top drivers in the area go challenge some of the weekly warriors that show up to Spirit each week. If you are going to invade Spirit, the one guy that you are going to have to contend with is Matt Smith.
Smith has been a dominant force at Spirit for the last few years and has flexed his muscle by winning the prestigious Skyscraper event there. 2019 has been no different for Smith as he has already picked up 3 wins this season at the track. 600 Speedweek will now see Smith venture outside his comfort zone so you will definitely need to keep an eye out for how he is performing throughout the week. One of our biggest surprises in our NewzVroom rankings has been the consistency of Gary Bozowski. Bozowski is currently 4th in our standings and has been just itching to get his first win of the season. He has finishing in the top 5 in half of his races at Spirit this season and that will definitely make him one to watch in the finale of the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek Presented by 600cc Performance. Another regular from Spirit that is in our top 10 in NewzVroom rankings is Luke Thomas. Thomas has been as close as you can to winning without actually getting to finish the job. In 7 races, he has 4 podium finishes and will be looking to break into the win column with 5 tries this week. Our last regular from Spirit that we will cover is Mike Linderman. Linderman has ventured out a bit more than the 3 previous drivers but just like Thomas & Bozowski, Linderman is looking for his first win of the season. For the week, Linderman has also brought out Southwestern start, Johnny Boland and the power of those two drivers will make that team a contender throughout Speedweek.
Our last two drivers are old Hamlin rivals in the wingless 600s, Eddie Strada and Chad Sandt. Both drivers have embraced the switch to wingless with successful results. Strada has a couple of wins already this season at Shellhammer’s and has been a strong contender at Action Track all year. He has been the around 600s for a while and has plenty of laps at each of these tracks, which makes him a sneaky favorite to win the Speedweek championship. Sandt on the other hand has won a couple of races at Hamlin this year but has not had as much success outside of the Poconos this season. With spot starts at Action Track and GVAT, Sandt has built up the versatility it needs to be successful during the long week of racing.
This will be the last Six Pack until Sunday. The next two days we will have previews for the weekend of racing. Make sure to see us at Spirit Auto Center Speedway (rumor has it we are sponsoring some awards Friday night) and at GVAT on Saturday. Just 5 days until the opening of Speedweek!
From Zero To Hero: Buckwalter Redeems Himself With A Win At Action Track
It was well documented on social media and on this site that Tim Buckwalter’s last visit to Action Track did not end exactly as he would like. Instead of dwelling on that Buckwalter came firing from the heat races, which would put him on the front row with Jay Hartman for Wednesday’s feature. When the green flag dropped, Hartman would get the initial jump but Buckwalter was not going to let him get away.
After continuous pressure, Buckwalter would get the lead away from Hartman. That would not necessarily guarantee a victory for Buckwalter as there were top drivers charging to the front. Billy Koch, Billy Pauch Jr. and Damon Paul were each making their way into the top 5. The battle for 3rd – 9th would intensify until Pauch and Koch got into each other and Koch went spinning. That would set up a shootout for the win and Buckwalter once again ran away and was able to put distance on Hartman. Hartman on the other hand was holding on for dear life as Christian Bruno and Eddie Strada from the back of the field, were all gunning for that 2nd position. When the checkered flag dropped, Buckwalter would come away with a comfortable victory over Hartman, Pauch Jr., Paul and Bruno. Strada would be your hard charger for the night as he would finish 7th from 19th. If last two races at Action Track are any indication we will see a bumpy surface but ultimately great 3 to 4 wide racing to kick of the 2019 600cc Speedweek.
600 Speedweek Six Pack Part 3: Micro Mercenaries Out For
Brian CarberKyle SpenceTommy Kunsman Jr.James MorrisAustin QuickAlex Bright
There’s no secret that a large part of the prestige of 600 Speedweek is the big payday that comes with not only the nightly wins but the overall 600 Speedweek title. During this year’s Speedweek, we will see invaders from Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Indiana and Florida to compete for the $3,000 to win Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek Presented By 600cc Performance title. Two drivers that have had some big days over the last two years are Brian Carber & Kyle Spence. Both Carber and Spence have won $10K To Win races over the last two years and will be in contention all week for the title.
Brian Carber has downsized his PA schedule for the 600 micros but has been making up for it out in the midwest. After a podium at the Non Wing World Championships and a top 10 at Sweet Springs big race, Carber looks in peak form for this week.
In PA, we have seen him with a top 5 in the King of the Non Wing at Action Track and a runner up finish at Lanco’s ice breaker race. Ther driver that Carber was chasing for the 10K this year at the Non Wing World Championships, was Kyle Spence. Spence started the season by winning at the Tulsa Shootout but his luck has been much better outside of the east coast. Things started out tough for Spence in PA have just recently turned it around with a win and a podium at Spirit Auto Center Speedway. Spence is last year’s Speedweek champion and will be looking to keep that claim and another large payday. Two drivers that have done some traveling to the midwest this season and have had a fair share of success on the east coast to start 2019 are Tommy Kunsman Jr and James Morris.
Kunsman has absolutely been dominating Linda’s Speedway and clearly has that marked as his race to win during this years Speedweek. That dominance has been winged and wingless at the track where he has 5 wins this season. Not only has he picked up wins at Linda’s but he also won at GVAT and picked up a podium in his lone race at Spirit. These strong runs have Kunsman ranked #1 in the NewzVroom points and in the top 10 in PPR. If we are going to talk about Kunsman’s dominance at Linda’s, we must talk about James Morris’ dominance at Shellhammer’s. He has won 3 times there this year and has been in contention to win there almost every week when he has not won. Morris has also had strong runs at GVAT and Action Track and has been very consistent as he has finished in the top 10 in 11 of his 14 races. Two drivers that have been doing some traveling but have cut down their schedules this year are Austin Quick and Alex Bright.
Quick has been taking advantage of the seat time at the races in the midwest and the experience is showing. He was in contention for top 10’s at the Non Wing World Championships and the big race at US-24. Outside of those big races, Quick has put in strong performances in PA, including a win at Shellhammer’s. Even with his busy schedule as being one of the promoters of Speedweek, he will be make a run to win at multiple races. Our last driver of the night is Alex Bright. Bright started the season with an ice breaker wingless win at Lanco and a runner up finish in the King of the Non Wing, but since then he has had troubles adapting to a new team, until last week. Coming off a win Saturday at GVAT, Bright looks poised to get back to his front running ways and will be a contender for the overall championship as he has many laps at the tracks on the schedule in midgets, 600s and SpeedSTRs.
That is all for tonight. We will have another 6 pack tomorrow and then we will take a break until Sunday on this series. Until then we will be preparing previews for a jam packed weekend of racing. NewzVroom will be at Spirit Auto Center Speedway and GVAT this weekend with merch, so make sure to stop by!
Prelude To 600 Speedweek: Preview Of Tonight’s Racing At Action Track USA
It has seemed a lot longer than the actual two weeks it has been since the last time we saw racing at Action Track USA. On July 10th, we saw one of the top finishes to date in 2019 as we saw a mad scramble for the win as Colin White would take the victory and Tim Buckwalter and Eddie Strada collided while trying to chase him down. We cannot promise those types of fireworks tonight but we should see tough competition as this is the last time cars will be on the track before the grand 600 Speedweek kickoff next week. Here are our NewzVroom Notables for tonight and our pick to win (last time we got the whole podium so lets see if we can do the Trifecta again).
Notable 1: Alex Bright – After an opening night runner up finish, it has been an uphill battle for this former USAC/ARDC Midget champion. Since then he has struggled to break the top 10 at Action Track USA. Things may be turning around for Bright as he won the wingless 600 race at GVAT this past weekend and may be gearing up for a dominant Speedweek run. Look for more about Bright in our Six Pack Series tonight at 6pm.
Notable 2: Billy Pauch Jr. – Pauch won opening night in the 600s at Action Track USA but has battled some deeeeep starting positions since then. After another climb to the front last race, Pauch came up just one spot short and took home a 2nd place finish on 7/10. With all of his experience at the Kutztown oval, Pauch will be a driver to watch to head into Speedweek with a win.
Our Pick For Tonight: Eddie Strada
Eddie Strada was the main casualty to the last lap fireworks on 7/10 but the luck has to turn around at some point for him. You can see that he has had plenty of speed all year and already has picked up wins this season in 600 and URC action. Strada has yet to put his tally into the win column at Action Track this season, but NewzVroom believes tonight is his night.
Check back at 6 tonight for our 6 pack of drivers. We have some heavy hitters in our mentions tonight, so don’t miss out while your waiting for the races at Action Track to start.
600 Speedweek Six Pack Part 2: Young Guns Looking For Their Time To Shine
Christian BrunoBuddy SchweibinzMike ThompsonAidan BordenLogan RumseyAdrianna Delliponti
If you look at the roster of any USAC or World Of Outlaws event, many of those drivers have their roots embedded in the 600 micro division. Current stars that got their launch into the “next step” include Brent Marks, David Gravel, and Christopher Bell. During 2019’s 600 Speedweek, we have six drivers that are looking for runs that could vault them into those professional driving roles in the future. Our first driver that we will cover could be considered the breakout star in the 600’s this season, Christian Bruno.
Towards the end of 2018 Bruno made the switch from 600cc Performance’s house car to Michael Fauci Driver Development (MFDD) and things appeared to click pretty quickly. That late success carried into 2019 where Bruno has been a consistent front runner and he even picked up his first win in the 600s.
With Speedweek races at Linda’s and Action Track, which are tracks that Bruno has run well at in the past, look for him to be a contender all weekend. Bruno’s teammate, Buddy Schweibinz is another young gun that is looking for a big run during Speedweek. After a run in 270s, this is Buddy’s first full year in the 600s and you can see his progress race after race. Over the the last 5 races has been pushing towards the front and even came away with a top 5 at Spirit Auto Center Speedway on Friday night. That run should give Schweibinz confidence heading into Speedweek as Spirit Auto Center Speedway is the concluding event of the week.
Two of the busiest drivers in all of 600s this season have been Mike Thompson and Aidan Borden. Thompson may rank up there with the most races this season as he has run over 30 races this season. Running that many races definitely has its ups and downs but it is definitely the experience that is needed for a driver looking to make it to the next level. Thompson is one of the few drivers in all of the country that can say that they have won at 2 races at 2 different tracks in the same day, a feat that kickstarted Thompson’s season. Since then Thompson has had some bumps in the road but has been turning in consistent top 5’s and 10’s at a multitude of tracks. Aidan Borden may not have as many races as Thompson this season but definitely rivals him in miles traveled. Hailing from Jackson, NJ, Borden has a haul no matter where he runs and is one of the reasons why you won’t see him at any one track. Earlier in the season, Borden caught the local scene by surprise by winning at Shellhammer’s after an intense battle with James Morris. Like Schweibinz, Borden is hitting his stride at the right time and will definitely have some bright moments in 2019’s Speedweek.
Our last two drivers tonight may have the least amount of laps in a 600 out of any drivers participating in this year’s Speedweek. Logan Rumsey and Adrianna Delliponti are new drivers to the 600 scene this season. Rumsey has been dominating the new Restricted 600 series with spot starts in the regular 600 division. To get ready for Speedweek, Rumsey ran some races in the midwest with some top 10 finishes. Even though the competition level is a bit different, the seat time should have him ready for the tough 40-50 drivers that will be going wheel to wheel with him each night. Delliponti on the other hand has been running wingless 600s all season. She has made gains at GVAT and Shellhammer’s this season but none of those tracks are on the Speedweek schedule, so each night will be a brand new experience for her. With impressive finishes against a tough field at Shellhammer’s, Delliponti will hold her own during the five nights of racing.
That is all for night 2. Tomorrow we will have a jam packed day with Part 3 and the preview for Action Track’s Wednesday night show. We will be highlighting some of the more well traveled and victories veterans that are signed up for Speedweek, Brian Carber, James Morris, Alex Bright, Austin Quick, Kyle Spence and Tommy Kunsman Jr.
600 Speedweek Six Pack Part 1: Action Track Regulars Coming For The Crown
Kenny Miller IIIBilly Pauch Jr.Damon PaulNash ElyBilly KochJoey Amantea
We are officially 9 days away from the biggest week of racing in northeast 600 racing as the Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek Presented By 600 Performance kicks off on 7/31 at Action Track USA. That Wednesday night race will kick off 5 straight nights of racing where the 600’s will share the spotlight with the USAC Midgets the following three nights at Path Valley, Linda’s and Lanco before the grand finale at Spirit Auto Center Speedway. To get you prepared for this exciting event, we will be previewing six drivers a nights that have committed to running the 5 nights. Today we will kick off with six regulars from the opening track, Action Track USA. Each day we will also be updating profiles and statistics about each driver here.
The first half of the six pack will be your top 3 in points at Action Track USA (as of 7/23).
Kenny Miller III has overcome a bunch of obstacles this season at Action Track and has been rewarded with the points lead as we approach the closing months of the season at the track. Those obstacles can be highlighted on the second night of action as the 600’s ran double features. The first feature would see Miller win the event but the nightcap would see him have to take a provisional to even make the race. Regardless of the poor starting position, Miller would end up 7th that night. That type of perseverance is what wins championships and is exactly what Miller is looking to do. Miller will be a driver to watch especially as he leads 600 drivers in passing points this season with a plus minus differential of 64 cars and ranks 3rd overall in PPR (points per race). Right behind Miller in points is your defending champion Billy Pauch Jr.
Even though Pauch does not have a win this season, he has slowly been creeping back into the points situation. Just like Miller, Pauch has had to overcome less than ideal starting positions to have a chance to be in contention for the point’s championship. Pauch will be a top driver to watch the entire week as he has many laps at each of these tracks in not only 600’s but in other wingless cars such as SpeedSTR and Midget action. Finishing out the top 3 in points is Damon Paul. Paul has been one of the top performers in 600’s over the last month. He has recently won at Spirit and GVAT but also has a win at Action Track to come to a tally of 7 wins. Similar to Miller, Paul has been on the charge all season as he ranks second in PPR. With the qualifying format based on how many cars you can get by in qualifying, this should help Paul be near the front each night.
The last half of our six pack will cover regulars from Action Track that have been breakout stars in 2019. We will start with Nash Ely. Ely was consistently near the front last season but just could not put it all together in one race in 2018. Ely has turned those learnings into 3 wins this season including wins at Action Track and The Firecracker at GVAT. Even though he does not have a win at Lanco this season, he has multiple runner up finishes there this season and may be one of Ely’s best chances for a win during Speedweek. A driver that has been in contention everywhere he has gone but has had a fair share of bad luck in 2019 has been Billy Koch. Koch grabbed a win early in the year at GVAT but has been very up and down since then. With 5 nights of opportunities, this string of races is what Koch may need to turn his inconsistency around into a strong finish to the end of 2019. Our last driver for tonight is Joey Amantea. If Amantea keeps up his performance from the first half of 2019, he will definitely be in contention for most improved driver this season. Amantea grabbed a win earlier this season at Hamlin Speedway but has strong runs at Linda’s and GVAT. The one track that has been his nemesis this season has been Action Track USA, so hopefully opening night will not derail his Speedweek run.
That is all for tonight, tomorrow we will be covering another 6 drivers as we get closer to Speedweek kickoff. Tomorrow we will take a look at the youth movement that will be looking to gain some valuable experience during these 5 nights of racing. Look for us to cover, Aidan Borden, Mike Thompson, Logan Rumsey, Christian Bruno, Buddy Schweibinz and Adrianna Delliponti.
Hehnly & Quiggle Continue Hot Streaks On Saturday
One of the trends that we have seen this year is that when a driver gets hot they can reel in a few wins in a row. Mike Rutherford did that with 5 straight at Lanco earlier this year and Jimmy Glenn doing the same to start the season at Airport. Saturday night we saw Heath Hehnly make it three in a row at Lanco and Alec Quiggle going for the full sweep at Path Valley this weekend. To review last night’s action we will actually start with two new winners in 2019 at GVAT, Alex Bright & Cody Hauck.
A competitive 19 cars showed up for the wingless main event at GVAT on Saturday. Bright and his new team have struggled to get their car dialed in this year but starting on the pole would definitely help. Even with the great starting position, Bright would have to fend off top drivers such as Kenny Miller, Damon Paul, Johnny Smith and Nash Ely. Bright would waste no time making sure that he could score his first victory of 2019 and would lead green to checkered for the win. Miller, Paul, Smith and Ely would complete your top 5.
In the winged event, we would see Hauck start on the pole and attempt to pull the same dominance that Bright did in the wingless event. Hauck would quickly separate himself from the field but kept pushing to separate himself from Logan Spahr. This year had been filled with bad luck for Hauck but in the end he would pull off the victory over Spahr, Fraschetta, Ely and Paul.
At Path Valley, Alec Quiggle made it 2 for 2 for Path Valley’s special summer race weekend. Quiggle would start on the pole and would exert his dominance early on in the race. Hayden Miller would give it all he could over the first few laps but Quiggle would eventually pull away by over 2 seconds and win over Miller, Mike Thompson, Randy Kunkle and Zack Rhodes.
Lanco’s main event was the only feature that was not won from the pole on Saturday night. After starting on the pole last week, Heath Hehnly would have to battle from the 2nd row to try to make it 3 in a row on Saturday. Hehnly would methodically work his way through the field and took the lead for good around half way. Ryan Groff and Mike Rutherford would stay within distance of Hehnly but would have to settle for 2nd and 3rd. Completing your top 5 would be Chris Panczner and Jered Hook.
Scorching Saturday Night Slate: Preview Of 7/20 Races
After two upsets on Friday night, we have races at five tracks planned for Saturday. With the heat kicking in and slick tracks coming to a track near you, we should get great racing and the best drivers should emerge on these tricky situations.
To start we will look at the weekly double 600 features at GVAT. Johnny Smith broke Damon Paul’s wingless win streak by leading green to checkered for his 3rd wingless win of the year. We expect to see those two battle for the win tonight but our pick of the night will be Billy Koch. Koch started off the season hot with multiple podiums and a win at GVAT, but he has not seen victory
lane at the track since April. After a recent strong run at Action Track that was derailed by faulty clutch, we expect to see Koch bounce back with a win. On the winged side, Damon Paul broke through with a win last week. Recently we have seen Tom Fraschetta put together a string of top 5 finishes and has won at the track in recent year. Fraschetta is our main notable for tonight but our pick of the night is Mikey Smith. Smith has been consistent as of late but has not seen victory lane since he doubled up in one week at Bridgeport and GVAT. Look for Smith to be in victory lane.
Lanco: Heath Hehnly walked away with the win last week after starting from the pole last week. That has been two in a row but we do not expect the streak to continue this week. Our notables of the night are Chris Panczner and Mike Rutherford. Both of these drivers thrive when the tracks slick up and we saw that last weekend. Panczner had an incredible run from 18th to 4th riding the bottom of the track and Rutherford made last laps efforts at Hehnly for the win that were thwarted. Those two drivers should have strong runs but our pick of the night is Aaron Bollinger. Bollinger has mechanical issues for about a month that derailed a strong start to his season. We expect Bollinger to get his first win of the season at Lanco (at the track not overall) tonight.
Hamlin: Last week Colin White continued his hot streak by taking the win at Hamlin. With his recent success, we don’t expect him to slow down anytime soon but we expect Mick D’Agostino and Tyler Lindsay to give him a good run. D’Agostino has made some strong runs but just has not locked down a victory and we expect tonight to be the night. Lindsay will also make a good run after being strong at Hamlin this season (a win earlier this year) and won last night at Spirit.
Path Valley: Tonight is night 2 of Path Valley’s two day summer special. Last night we saw Alec Quiggle walk away with the victory from the pole position. Quiggle will make strong attempts to repeat but we expect Kameron Morral to end his winless spell and win tonight. Morral’s path won’t be easy as Quiggle and Hayden Miller will be battling him for the victory.
Airport: Lavar Scott broke into the victory column by taking the win last week. Scott had been trending upward in the previous weeks and turned that into a visit to victory lane. As Scott will look to make it two in a row, we expect to see Nathan Smith and Drew Richmond make a run at the win tonight. Both have had positive trajectories as of late. Smith has been trending upward with consistent top 10 runs and is looking to step up his game tonight. After a tough start to the season, Richmond lost a photo finish and backed that up with a 6th place finish last week. Tonight we are picking Drew Richmond to win the main event at Airport.
Upset Alert: Lindsay & Shaw Shock The Field On Friday Night
Last weekend at Linda’s, I was talking to Tyler Lindsay about his racing plans for the rest of year. During our conversation we talked about why he wasn’t at Spirit that night and his was reply was a defeated “that place doesn’t like me very much”. It appears that Lindsay turned that voodoo around with a win last night at Spirit Auto Center Speedway.
Lindsay started on the pole but would have a tough crowd behind him. He would set the early pace but consistent contenders Matt Smith and Luke Thomas were making their charges to the front.
Smith would not let Lindsay get out of his reach and consistently challenged him for the lead with failed attempts. As Smith’s failed attempts mounted up, Thomas, Christian Bruno and Buddy Schweibinz made charges from mid pack to put their names into the mix. The laps wound down and Lindsay would hold off the challenges for his 2nd victory of the season and first career at Spirit Auto.
Linda’s: The biggest of upsets came at Linda’s Speedway with Clayton Shaw taking home the win over a group of heavy hitters. Shaw started on the pole with our pick of the night Jesse Maurer starting on the outside pole. Maurer has been a top runner at Linda’s and already had two wins at the track this season so Shaw’s hands were fulled from the drop of the green flag. Shaw would get the early jump but Maurer would not go away early on. As the race set on Shaw would keep extending the lead and would take home the victory over Maurer, Dan Souder, Tommy Kunsman and Logan Spahr.
Path Valley: Alec Quiggle had a new look on Friday night and rode that to another victory at Path Valley. Quiggle had an honorary wing to keep Shelby Rowles’ spirits at the track and was looking to make sure he took home a win by drawing the pole position. Quiggle would start on the front row with Gunner Layton and Quiggle would get the early jump. That is all Quiggle would need as he would win by over 2 seconds over Layton, Randy Kunkle, Zach Rhodes and Kameron Morral.
Fry-Day Feature Outlook For 7/19
Last weekend we saw the temperatures start to hit summer form, but this weekend we should see both race nights hit over 95 degrees. We hope fans and drivers take the necessary precautions before these events but we are excited for another weekend of racing. The hottest place to be this weekend will be Spirit Auto Center Speedway as 6 of the top 10 drivers in NewzVroom’s rankings will be in competition tonight.
Damon Paul who ranks 8th in our standings, won both of the Twin 15 races last weekend and is looking to add another win to his total as he has Speedweek in site. We expect him to be a contender but he is not our pick of the night. One of our NewzVroom Notables will be Colin Bustard. Bustard got a late start to the season but has come on strong lately. He has been very consistent with a worst finish of 11th and had a 6th place finish in the Twin 15’s. Hopefully Bustard’s consistency will put him in position to win. Our pick of the night is Gary Bozowski. After consistent runs and being in our top 10 overall points, look for Bozowski to get his first victory of the year.
Linda’s: The wings are back on this weekend at the Jonestown oval. Last week Tommy Kunsman went wire to wire for his 5th victory at Linda’s this season. Even with the 5 wins at the track, only 1 of them have come with the wings on. Outside of Kunsman the drivers that we are watching at Linda’s are Mike Thompson and Jesse Maurer. Thompson has not had great luck with the redraw lately but has made the most of his situations these last few weeks, even getting hard charger in the last winged race at Linda’s. Maurer has been the model of consistency at Linda’s. His worst finish in the winged 600’s is 4th and already has a win there this season. We expect to see Maurer get win #2 of the year on Friday.
Path Valley: Typically reserved for Saturday nights, Path Valley is going old school and running a Friday night show as part of a 2 day shootout for the speedway. Path used to battle with Linda’s for being the place to be on a Friday night but has since moved to a permanent Saturday night position. Even though the day has changed, we still expect the tough battle between the top drivers at Path. With early commitments from Alec Quiggle and Hayden Miller, expect those two to be your favorites for the weekend of racing. With Trail-Way cancelling we expect to see contenders such as Brad Weber, Randy Kunkle Jr. and Jim Young to be battling for the win tonight. If you are in attendance this weekend, make sure to get a sticker to support Shelby Rowles after an unfortunate incident at the speedway last weekend.
The More The Merrier For Paul, Bard and White: Saturday Night Recap
Last night NewzVroom was able to make it out to Lanco to complete our weekend roadtrip. The promotional team at Lanco did a great time executing Kids Night and we enjoyed being able to sponsor one of the events of the night. Our next trip will see us at Spirit Auto Center Speedway & Path Valley on 7/26 and 7/27. Here is our recap of the events on Saturday Night.
GVAT: On Friday night, Damon Paul won both the twin 15’s at Spirit Auto Center Speedway and was entering Saturday with 2 more wins in mind at GVAT. Paul would put himself in good position to add 2 more wins as he would start on the pole in the winged race and 4th in the wingless race.
In the winged race, Paul would set off in the lead but a tough pack of Tom Fraschetta, Nash Ely, the Smith Brother’s and Kenny Miller III were right behind him. Cautions would continue to regroup the field but Paul kept running away each time as it became apparent the rest of the field was battling for 2nd. Paul would win for the 3rd time this weekend while the battle for 2nd – 5th went right to the checkered. Ely made a late move to get 2nd, Fraschetta would go his best to hold on to 3rd, Mike Smith 4th, and Kenny Miller 5th. Could Paul get #4 in the wingless race? Paul would line up for 4th but multi time winner this year in the wingless division, Johnny Smith would start on the pole. Smith would get the early jump with Miller, Paul and Ely close behind. The action was tight between those top 4 but with all the attempts, the top 4 stayed pretty much unchanged to the finish with Johnny Smith getting the win over Miller, Paul, Ely and Rich Keller III.
Path Valley: Another driver looking for multiple wins this weekend was Garrett Bard. Bard who is starting to transition into 305 Sprint racing is making sure to get all the wins he can get before he moves into that series full time. Matthew Donely & Gunner Layton would lead the field to the green, but behind Donely in the two rows behind him were Bard and our pick for the night Alec Quiggle. Layton would get the early jump and would put a little distance from the field early on but Bard & Quiggle were coming.
With about 5 laps to go the competition started to heat up and Bard would take his first looks at the lead. Bard would then grab the lead from Layton, but Layton was not ready to give up. Quiggle still wanted his shot and would start battling Layton. That battle would allow Bard to build enough of a gap to capture his 2nd win of the weekend. Quiggle would win the battle for 2nd, Layton did a great job hanging on to 3rd, Brad Weber would take 4th and Clayton Shaw would finish 5th.
Hamlin: Colin White finally broke through on Wednesday night with a win at Action Track and was also looking for his 2nd win of the week at Hamlin Speedway. White would start 3rd but would have a tough front row to battle with Mick D’Agostino and Brett Altemose leading the field to green. White didn’t waste anytime going for the lead by putting constant pressure on D’Agostino for the first 6 laps before finally taking the lead on lap 7. From there D’Agostino would lose White and would have to do all he could to hold onto 2nd as Paul Richards and Dylan Martin would make charges for the runner up spot. When it was all set and done, White would grab the win by over 2 seconds with D’Agostino, Richards, Martin and Tyler Lindsay finishing behind him.
Lanco: The last time Lanco ran a feature, we saw Heath Hehnly in victory lane and Hehnly was ready for a return visit on Saturday night. With the inversion pull falling into his favor, Hehnly would start on the pole for the feature on Saturday night alongside Holden Eckman. Hehnly would get out to the early lead but Aaron Bollinger would rocket early on from the 8th position to the 3rd position behind Hehnly and Mike Rutherford. After a few mid race cautions that would regroup the field, Rutherford would throw a few shots at Hehnly but ultimately Hehnly was too strong and would win his 2nd straight race over Rutherford, Bollinger, a hard charging bottom feeding run by Chris Panczner who started 18th to finish 4th and Jesse Maurer would finish 5th.
Airport: We did not get coverage of Airport Speedway last night but did see that Lavar Scott broke through with his first win of the season after a string of top 5’s the last few tries at Airport. Congrats!
Summer Slam Saturday: Preview For Jam Packed Night Of Racing On 7/13
With last Saturday being a complete was in the area, the weather is looking great for a full night of racing at 5 tracks this evening. NewzVroom will continue our July tour by stopping at Lanco tonight and we are looking forward to participating in some of the giveaways at the track’s Kid’s Night tonight. We will also have NewzVroom stickers for the teams and it should be a wonderful night to get to a new track this evening. As we get started with our preview for tonight, we will start with the action at Lanco.
Lanco: It has now been 3 weeks since we saw a feature at Lanco after rain has ended their last two nights. Last time there was a race, we saw Heath Hehnly in victory lane over Ryan Greth and Jesse Snyder. Our NewzVroom Notables to watch are Mike Rutherford and Jered Hook. Rutherford had that hot streak in May when he won 4 straight races but since that win streak ended, Rutherford has not returned to victory lane at any of the tracks that he runs at. Hook on the other hand has not won a race at Lanco this season but has 3 consecutive top 5’s at the track. Look for these two drivers to be up towards the front tonight. Our pick of the night will be who we picked last time Lanco tried to race, Jarid Kunkle. Kunkle won his heat at that event and has been one of the strongest cars there this year, lets see if he can get his second victory of the year at the track. Wherever you are on Saturday night, make sure to catch the National Racing Network’s video coverage of the action at Lanco all evening here.
GVAT: After a strategically planned week off, wingless and winged 600’s are back. Nash Ely & Kenny Miller took the victories at the midseason Firecracker event. Our NewzVroom Picks for tonight are Damon Paul, Johnny Smith with Cody Hauck and Nash Ely being our NewzVroom Notables. Ely is our notable for the wingless division as he has been very consistent since his win in early May and is coming off a win in the winged division. Hauck has been a multi timed mention in the notable column as he is still hunting for his first victory of the year. Smith & Paul are our favorites tonight, as they have been the two most dominant drivers in their respective division. Before taking a few weeks off, Paul had won in consecutive weeks and is coming off two wins last night at Spirit. Smith on the other hand has won multiple times but keeps swinging between winning and consistency, tonight we predict to see him in victory circle in the winged division.
Hamlin: Last time Hamlin raced, we saw a new winner in victory lane, Joseph Smith. We’ve seen a lot of variety in winners at the track in the Pocono’s. NewzVroom believes that trend will continue this evening as our pick of the night will be Mick D’Agostino. D’Agostino has been close so many times this year, we believe it is time that he is in victory lane. Our NewzVroom notables for tonight are Joey Amantea and Dylan Martin. Amantea has been a winner at the track already this year and has strong runs at GVAT and Linda’s lately. Martin has been trying out Hamlin as of late and has had some consistent runs since he has been at the track.
Path Valley: The story has focused around four drivers this year at Path Valley, which has made it interesting to follow from week to week. We are sticking with our last pick of the night, Alec Quiggle to go to victory lane, since the last time we picked him it rained out. Watch out for Hayden Miller and Kameron Morral who have wins at the track already and finished 1-2 at Linda’s last week.
Airport: With Jimmy Glenn’s dominance at the track it has been really hard to pick against him this year and we are not about to make that mistake tonight. He is our pick of the night but we do expect him to be challenged by the Scott brothers (who won last time) and Chris Fenimore who was the first to dethrone Glenn but has not had a lot of luck since then.
Damon Dominates Doubles: Friday Night Review
Kunsman & Bard Continue Winning Ways As Well
After two weeks off for high school graduation, Damon Paul returned to action on Wednesday night at Action Track to grab a top 5 victory. Before his graduation he was one of the hottest drivers in the area with wins at GVAT and Action Track, but had yet to snag a victory at Spirit Action. That changed on Friday night as he won both of the twin 15 features at the NJ dirt oval.
In Twin 1: You don’t get a main event better than having Kyle Spence and Damon Paul on the front and that is what those in attendance got to see on Friday. With Spence coming off a big Poker Series win at the track, he was the favorite going in.
When the green flag dropped, the intense battle was on between Spence and Paul. Spence would be able to hold off the charges for the first 10 laps, until Paul finally got a run to take the lead on lap 11 of the 15 lap feature. Spence wouldn’t take any of that and charged right back at Paul. Spence would take the lead with 3 to go and that is when Paul had enough and made his winning pass. Paul grabs the lead with 2 to go and grabs the win for the first race of the night. Followed by Paul and Spence was Matt Smith, Whitey Kidd and Mike Rutherford. With being the winner of feature #1, Paul had to draw the invert pill for feature #2 in which he drew 7, which put Gary Bozowski & Ed Barber on the front row. Paul & Spence wasted no time getting back to the front when the green flag of feature #2 waved. By lap 6, Paul was already up to 2nd and Spence was up to 3rd. Bozowski who has been strong so far this year was doing his best to fend off the hard charge behind him. Also two time winner, PJ Williams was making a charge through the field from 10th. Paul would be the first challenger to Bozowski and would make his winning move again with two laps to go, completing his sweep of the Friday night features at Spirit Action. 2nd was Bozowski, 3rd was Spence, 4th was Williams and 5th was again Rutherford.
Linda’s: NewzVroom was on the scene on Friday night at Linda’s Speedway. A great field of 24 cars made the trek for the track’s autograph night for the fans. Tommy Kunsman has been the car to beat all year at Linda’s and made the night more difficult for the rest of the field when he drew the #1 pill to start on the pole for the feature. Kunsman and Ben Earnst would be your front row, but Kunsman would get a big jump at the start. Behind him the action was intense as the battle from 2nd to 6th heated up. Everyone was battling for the runner up spot, as Earnst was fending off sliders from Ryan Greth and Jacob Severn. Severn was able to pull off the move and set his sights on Kunsman. Kunsman was well gone and Severn had his hands full with a hard charging Aidan Borden from 7th. A restart with 10 to go would regroup the field but Kunsman would pull away for his 4th wingless win of the year at the track. Severn, Borden, Ryan Groff and Mike Thompson would complete the top 5. Even though it wasn’t a top 5 or a night that he wants to remember after a tip over in the heat race, but impressive run by Aaron Bollinger who drove from 20th to 9th on a tricky track last night.
Trail-Ways: Time Trials would be the tricky element to the Friday night competition at Trail-Ways Speedway. As predicted in our preview, Jim Young was going to be the man to beat and he showed that by grabbing quick time in qualifying. By ways of transferring from his heat, that would put him on the pole for the feature. That was all Young would need as he would grab the lead from the green and would lead all 20 laps for the win. Behind Young, we saw some great battles between Bradley Weber, Jesse Snyder and Travis Keiser. Snyder & Weber had to work to get around Keiser early on and that was the gap Young needed for the comfortable win. That is two races in a row that Weber has had hard charges end in podium finishes. After Young and Weber, your top 5 would be Snyder, Kesier and Tyler Leese.
Clinton County: We saw one of Clinton County’s largest crowds of the year at the track on Friday night as 18 600s rolled in. Garrett Bard was looking to extend his 2 race win streak at the track but would have some work to do coming from the 8th starting position. Your front row would be Corey Brungard and Jeff Gyurina with Brungard getting the initial lead. That lead wouldn’t last long as Bobby Sanso wanted his first win and would grab the lead. Again the lead would not last long for the lead as Bard came charging fast from 8th. By lap 3, Bard would put a move on Sanso and would grab the lead. Bard was on his way to a comfortable victory until a caution with about 4 to go. That would give our pick of the night Josh Beamer and GVAT regular, Cody Hauck, one final shot at Bard. Bard would get the green and would comfortably rebuild his lead to take his 3 straight victory at Clinton County. Beamer, Hauck, Sanso and Jeffrey Weaver would complete your top 5.
Friday Rush Hour: Preview Of A Busy Friday Night Of Action
This week has already gotten off to a fiery start at Action Track on Wednesday night and we head into a weekend full of sunshine. After only having one race on Friday last week, we will see 4 tracks and 5 features in action tonight. This will also be a busy weekend for NewzVroom as we start our busy July schedule as we hit our first of 5 tracks this month at Linda’s Speedway tonight. We will be around hanging in the pits and we will have stickers for all of the 600 drivers (one of the few free things in racing). Let’s take a look into tonight’s slate.
Linda’s: The dominant force at Linda’s this season has clearly been Tommy Kunsman. Kunsman has won 3 wingless races this season and had his win streak at the speedway ended the last time he was at the track by Jesse Mauer. After a week off from Linda’s and some good experience out in the Midwest, we plan to see Kunsman make another charge for a win tonight.
Two drivers that are getting into mid season form at Linda’s are Ryan Groff and Brandon Heist. Groff has 3 consecutive top 5 finishes in the wingless division and is still seeking his first win of the season. On the other hand Heist, who won at Linda’s last season had cracked the top 10 but hasn’t had a top 5 finish this year. Tonight may be the night that changes for him. Our pick of the night is Ryan Greth. He has been up and down all year but the 600cc Performance house car has been getting stronger and its due for a victory.
Spirit Auto Center Speedway: We will be seeing multiple features at the NJ wingless track tonight as there will be Twin 15’s tonight.
Matt Smith saw early success at the track by winning 3 of the first 4 races but some mechanical issues derailed him last time out. Smith is one of our notables tonight. A driver that is picking up steam is Steve Bracall. In his first two races of the year at the track, Bracall has a 3rd and 6th. Can he keep up the success tonight?
Our pick of the night is Damon Paul. Paul took two weeks off but got back into the swing of things with a top 5 at Action Track. Paul ended hot last year at this track so we expect a victory to come to him tonight.
Trail-Ways: Tonight is a special time trial show for the 600’s at the Hanover oval. After getting washed out last week, the weather looks great for this special event tonight.
The most consistent driver has been Jesse Snyder. Snyder has 3 straight runner up finishes at the track and looks to break his string of 2nd place finishes just like Colin White did earlier this week. Hayden Miller has struggled this year in the Kunkle 91 at Trail-Ways but got a win in that car at Linda’s last week. Look for him to break a podium finish tonight.
Our pick is Jim Young. Young always comes up big in special shows and we don’t expect tonight to be any different. Young already has a win this year at the track and tonight we look for him to double up.
Clinton County: After a few weeks off, we will see action at the track this evening. Garrett Bard has been dominant as of late by taking the last 2 victories at the track but we do not expect to see him running tonight. This leaves the door open for Jeffrey Weaver who had some victories earlier in the year at the track, but has hit a string of bad luck.
With that being said, we actually expect to see a new winner to the 2019 column this evening with Josh Beamer. Beamer has 3 consecutive podiums and has lead laps in the last 2 features. We expect Beamer to seal the deal tonight and get the win.
White Pulls Off A Last Lap Miracle; Digging Deep: A Dialogue Of Those Last 2 Laps
Last night’s race at Action Track USA may had been 25 laps but the race could had easily been split into a 23 lap heat and a 2 lap sprint. For the first 23 laps, Tim Buckwalter dominated the race and was on his way to victory until mayhem broke out with a caution flag. After about 3 tries of a green, white, checkered, the final push was on.
That mayhem will be on our BreakVroom piece, Digging Deep, but when all of the dust settled Colin White took the win over Billy Pauch Jr. , Kenny Miller III (another hustle from the back), Damon Paul, and John Barnett. If you weren’t there for Wednesday’s race, click here for the review.
Back In Action: Action Track Preview For July 10th
After almost a month off, the 600 micros are back at Action Track USA tonight. Over that time we have seen some new names emerge as top contenders and some big names finally break through after some slow starts. Here are our NewzVroom Notables & Pick Of The Night for tonight.
NewzVroom Notable #1: Kenny Miller – We cannot have a notable list without Miller. He has one win on the season and when he has not been in victory lane, he has had some impressive hard charges through the field. Look for Miller to continue those ways tonight.
NewzVroom Notable #2: Billy Pauch Jr. – The last time out did not treat Pauch Jr. very well when he came away with a 13th place finish. With his recent dominance in the 600 division at Action Track, it is strange to see a 0 in the win column for him and we are almost in mid-July. Pauch’s LHS house car should be regrouped to make a run at victory lane tonight.
Pick Of The Night: Colin White – White has had more 2nd place finishes than anyone in the 600’s this season. He was an early favorite to win the championship after a strong 2018 at Action Track but mechanical issues derailed his opening night. White bounced back with a top 10 in his last race at Action Track and has had two runner up finishes in big races since then. NewzVroom expects White to be in victory lane tonight.
Other contenders: Logan Rumsey (some strong wingless runs out west), Damon Paul, Kyle Spence (won the last Poker Series Race) and Eddie Strada (a top contender all year that just needs a little luck at the end).
Hayden Hustles To Linda’s Victory; Updates From Sweet Springs
Rain threatened any racing activity on Friday night in PA & MO. With that heavy threat, only Trail-Way fell was a casualty to the weather. After how Friday night ended, drivers at Linda’s wish Trail-Way would had gotten in otherwise they wouldn’t have had to deal with Hayden Miller last night.
Driving the 91 car that Miller drives on Fridays for the Kunkles, Hayden shared the front row with Jesse Snyder. Miller would get out to a healthy 1.5 second lead before the caution would come out on lap 5.
Kameron Morral, one of our drivers to watch, was flying all night as he won his heat race in convincing fashion and was making his way from the 4th row to 4th. When the green flag dropped, Miller was gone. At one point Miller had about a 6 second lead, but the battle behind him intensified from 2nd-8th. Morral would slowly work his way up the runner up position and Mike Thompson would be flying through from row 6. Miller would take the win followed by Morral, Snyder, Jesse Mauer and Mike Thompson.
Sweet Springs Update: Rain hit MO hard on Thursday night and threatened racing out in Midwest on Friday as well. Once the show got going on Friday night, our local micro mercenaries from the east coast put on a strong showing. Going into the features, Brian Carber & Kyle Spence were among top in points and would start near the front in their A-Mains. All in all, 7 local drivers made A-Mains on Friday night and Carber finished in the runner up spot in his to lock himself into the big $20K race on Saturday. Other notable finishes are in A-Main 1: Alex Bright who went from 12th to 8th, Austin Quick 21st and A-Main 2: Carber 2nd, Tommy Kunsman 9th, James Morris 10th, Kyle Spence 11th and Heath Hehnly 12th
Winged Warriors Set Sail: Friday Night Preview
After some breaks in the schedule, we will see winged 600’s at Linda’s & Trail-Ways tonight. As Linda’s has gone more wingless heavy over the last two years, this will be only the third winged race of the year. With both tracks being within the same region and having an overlap in car count it will be interesting to see how both tracks racing tonight will cannibalize their car counts. With that being said, we will not do notables to watch at each track but a few drivers to keep your eyes on.
Jesse Mauer: Last week’s wingless winner at Linda’s and in the two winged starts, he has an average finish of 1.5. We can count on Mauer to be at Linda’s if he is racing tonight but we will have to see if his dominance persists.
Randy Kunkle Jr: Kunkle has had strong runs at both tracks this season including a win in his last visit to Trail-Ways. Kunkle should be strong regardless of where he ends up tonight.
Jesse Snyder: Snyder has been so close to that elusive first win of the season. He has finished runner up the last 3 visits to Trail-Ways and tonight may be the night he finally breaks through.
Kameron Morral: Morral has a victory at Path Valley this year but has not broken through on a Friday night yet. He has had victories in each of the last 2 years at Linda’s and will be looking to make in 3 straight tonight.
Bruno Hammers Down For 1st Victory of 2019
Happy 4th of July! Even though there are no races tonight, Christian Bruno set off some early morning fireworks by winning at Shellhammers early this morning. Shellhammers was struck by a late rain shower for the second consecutive week but was still able to salvage a great night of racing. The night got kicked off with Colin White setting fast time in time trials and would eventually transition that into a pole position for the $1K to win race.
This was only White’s second appearance at the track this year and he would have to fend off the track’s top 3 three drivers for the win as Christian Bruno, James Morris and Eddie Strada would start right behind him.
Time To Drop The Hammer: Preview Of Shellhammer’s $1K To Win Race
One of the biggest surprises of the 2019 season has been the success of Shellhammers adding wingless 600s to their Wednesday program. News of the great racing has spread throughout the local racing community and is evident in the growing car count. We should see a new record high in car count as the track is paying $1K to win on Wednesday night, which should produce some early fireworks to a busy week.
James Morris has been the dominant force at Shellhammers this season. Last week Morris won his third race at the track this season, making him a clear favorite to win the inaugural “Golden Hammer” that will go to the winner of this race. As Morris added to his winning ways, Christian Bruno continued to make a hard charge to get his first win of the season.
NewzVroom Notes: Weekend In Review
After a weekend down in PA for the Firecracker at GVAT (by the way congrats to Joey Amantea and Zach Curtis for winning our hard charger award), we wanted to reflect on what we observed and some notes we took from talking to teams. Here are our five takeaways from the weekend.
1. Rain, Rain: Rain was the only repeat winner of the weekend. Luckily rain only stole two shows this weekend but multiple races were impacted by the rain. The impact of rain definitely changed the race surfaces of multiple tracks from dry and dusty conditions to tacky surfaces. This change had an impact as we saw some of the big names struggle and new names emerge.
2. Youth Movement: With this season being the first full season of the Restricted 600 class, there was much skepticism if our area really needed another micro sprint class. The intention of the class is to get younger drivers into the series and lessen the steep learning curve from a slingshot or quarter midget. We are quickly seeing the class pay dividends as two young drivers from the series took their restrictors off and ran with the main classes. Both Logan Rumsey & Tyler Henry lead laps in big races and settled into top 5 finishes. This season has seen some young drivers have success, but it is great to see this new series developing new talent.
3. Kyle Spence: It was only a matter of time before Spence broke through on the east coast. A dominant win at the first Poker Series race at Spirit Auto Center Speedway will probably trigger a hot streak for Spence as he continues to shine when the money is on the line.
4. Kunsman’s Streak Is Over, But The Future Looks Bright: Tommy Kunsman tried to go for 4 straight at Linda’s Speedway but ran out of laps on Friday night. Impressively enough he still captured a runner up finish and showed his versatility by finishing on the podium at the Poker Series Race.
5. Will Money Matter?: Unfortunately for GVAT, the weather kept away a lot of drivers away from contending for the $1K to win prizes in both 600 classes. Car count was up on Sunday for the Poker Series race but the weather was ideal and there were no competing races on that day. As we see some big races on Friday & Saturday nights over the next month, will we see drivers support the big shows or stay at their home tracks.
Tracks Battle Storms But Miller & Ely Shine The Brightest On Firecracker Weekend
With a wave of storms coming through the Northeast on Saturday, tracks and teams were left with some big decisions last night. There were two waves of the storm and tracks were trying to ensure their racing surface would be able to sustain the rain. Unfortunately, Lanco & Airport fell to the storms but we still saw action at Path Valley, Hamlin and the Firecracker at GVAT. Here is the recap of racing from last night.
GVAT
Wingless – NewzVroom Notable pick, Colin White would lead the field to green flag for the 30 lap feature. White who had 3 runner up finishes at the speedway this year, was looking to take the big payday for his first victory at GVAT. He was able to get a jump but our pick to win Kenny Miller was creeping from the 3rd position to the runner up slot. On a restart, Miller was able to get a good jump on White and pull an unexpected slider going into turn 3. Miller was able to make it stick and put distance on White and the rest of the field. Meanwhile, the battle for 3rd to 10th place was heating up. Lap after lap you would see 3 to 4 wide action as cars jockeyed for the last podium finish. Miller would cruise to victory with White in tow but there would be numerous photo finishes for the 3rd to 10th spots as Mike Thompson would hold on for the last podium spot. Behind Thompson would be Joey Amantea, who took home the NewzVroom sponsored hard charger award from a 10th place starting position and 5th would be Johnny Smith.
Winged – The nightcap would see a surprise front row of Jessica Miller and rookie Tyler Henry leading the field to green for the $1K payday. Henry would get the jump on the start but would have to wait to extend his lead as there were a few cautions just as the first lap was complete. When the green flag dropped, Henry would extend his lead as Nash Ely would start his pursuit as he moved into the runner up position. Ely would keep taking shots at Henry until finally completing the pass on lap 15. Behind this battle there were some hard charges coming from Joey Amantea who started 18th and Zach Curtis who started 21st. A late caution with 8 laps to go would regroup the field but when the green flag dropped, Ely ran away with his first winged 600 victory at GVAT over Henry, Rob Pajauis, Amantea, and James Morris. Zach Curtis would end up winning the NewzVroom Hard Charger award by going from 21st to 6th.
Path Valley
Path was the first track to complete their night as the rain got through there first. We would see some of Path Valley’s favorites scattered through the field as Hayden Miller started 4th, Kameron Morral starting 7th and last week’s winner, Garrett Bard, starting 8th. With Miller having the prime starting spot of the three, he wasted no time getting to the front by snagging the lead on the opening lap. As Miller opened his lead up on the field, Morral would work his way through the field and eventually made his way to the second position with about three laps to go after an intense battle with Trent Yoder. When the checkered flag dropped, Miller would take the win over Morral, Yoder, Kyler Heiney and Clayton Shaw.
Hamlin
Everything looked smooth at Hamlin on Saturday night until just before feature time when rain struck the speedway. Luckily the track team was able to salvage the track and features were still able to go on. Joseph Smith and Mack Brink would start on the front row with Smith getting the jump. Smith was unable to put distance on Brink as they battled throughout the race. Close behind them were last week’s winner Tyler Lindsay and last year’s track champion, Mick D’Agostino who were having their own battle for the 3rd position. When all was set and done, Smith took home the victory over Brink after a 20 lap duel and Lindsay would finish 3rd, followed by D’Agostino and Dylan Martin
Firecracker Weekend Is Ready To Ignite: Saturday Preview
As mentioned earlier in the weekend, we are about to hit a string of big payouts for the 600’s over the next 10 days. Tonight at GVAT, the winged and wingless 600’s will be racing for $1K to win. Other tracks are also in action but the highlight for tonight will be the Firecracker race at GVAT. NewzVroom will be kicking off our own tour of going from track to track over the next month by going to GVAT tonight. Make sure to stop by and grab a NewzVroom sticker.
GVAT:
Wingless – Last week we saw Will Butler get his first victory of the season at GVAT, which also locked him into the main event for this evening. We will see the return of Damon Paul tonight, who had dominated the last 2 wingless races at the track before taking off a week for graduation. Paul is one of our NewzVroom Notables for tonight but our favorite for tonight is Kenny Miller. Miller had a dominant run from the rear last weekend and already has victories at GVAT and Action Track. Look for him to be in contention for the victory tonight. Our other notable driver will be Colin White. White has multiple runner up finishes at GVAT and is looking for a main event win at GVAT to add to his resume.
Winged – Last week we saw both of the Smith Brothers lock themselves in to tonight’s feature. This means we will see them start in the top 12 of tonight’s feature. Their recent success just makes them notables, as our pick of the night goes to Damon Paul. Paul has been in contention to win in his two winged races this season. Paul has yet to win a winged raced at GVAT and a $1K payday may be the motivation needed to grab the victory. Our other NewzVroom Notable will be Rob Pajauis. Pajauis won the track championship last year and has limited races this year at the track. We consider Pajauis a favorite as he was in contention for the extended races last year and ran 4th in the Starr Memorial earlier this season.
Lanco:
Heath Hehnly broke his recent string of bad finishes by breaking into victory lane last week. Also Hehnly’s victory broke Mike Rutherford’s impressive 5 race win streak. Behind of these successes, Jarid Kunkle has had strong finishes including a 4th place hard charger award last week. Kunkle is our favorite for tonight but a notable for tonight will be Aaron Bollinger, who we highlighted earlier in the week as a driver that is looking to turn around a string of bad finishes.
Path Valley:
Garrett Bard completed his weekend sweep last weekend by grabbing the win at Path. This season has been a continuous musical chairs game between Bard, Hayden Miller and Alec Quiggle. Miller has been the runner up too much lately and is our pick for tonight. Our notable driver of the night will be Matthew Donley, who has had consecutive 6th place finishes and may break into the top group tonight.
Hamlin:
With the wingless race at GVAT, we will most likely see some of our top contenders not at the speedway in the Poconos tonight. That still leaves some contenders such as Mick D’Agostino, your defending track champion. D’Agostino has 3 runner up finishes and is due for a victory. A notable driver to watch tonight will be Zach Weisenfluh who had a strong start to the finish but a string of less than ideal finishes.
Airport:
Last week we saw a photo finish between Wayne Scott and Drew Richmond, with Scott getting the victory. Tonight we expect to see a Scott in victory lane but Lavar Scott is our pick. Lavar picked up a podium finish last week and has been trending upward. Another driver that has been improving and is a notable driver to watch, would be Nathan Smith. Smith had a runner up finish earlier and was another driver that hit a bad stretch, but maybe tonight is where he turns it around. Also if Jimmy Glenn is in attendance, he is going to be a favorite after winning 6 races this season.
Mauer & Williams Seeing Double As They Secure Their 2nd Wins Of The Season
Going into Linda’s Friday night, the buzz was around whether or not anyone was going to finally be able to stop Tommy Kunsman from a fourth straight win. After the heat races, it looked like Kunsman was again going to be the driver to beat as he dominated his heat race. Kunsman’s only obstacle of the night appeared to be the redraw which caused him to start in the 9th position for the main event.
Tyler Lindsay & Tyler Brehm would lead your field to the green flag, with Brehm eventually grabbing hold of the lead. Brehm had been strong in early appearances at Linda’s this season and looked like the early favorite. Around half way, Brehm’s first challenger would emerge with Jesse Mauer working his way from 7th. Mauer had a win earlier this season and has been a strong contender at the track over the years. Around lap 17, Mauer would put the pressue on Brehm and finally work abound him with about 6 laps to go when a caution grouped the field together. When the field grouped back together we would see Mauer leading but Kunsman within striking distance in 2nd. Mauer would get a good jump on the field and put distance on the field as Kunsman was able to work his way into 2nd. Mauer’s lead was too much to overcome as he took his second checkered flag of the year over Kunsman, a hard charging Ryan Groff, Tyler Brehm and Tyler Lindsey.
With the Poker Series race looming on Sunday, Friday night was a good test and tune to see who the favorites may be to take the $1K on Sunday. We would see PJ Williams & Luke Thomas on the front row for the feature. The story line going into the feature would be whether or not Matt Smith could extend his win streak to 3 consecutive wins at Spirit Center Auto Speedway. That story would quickly go away as Smith was a DNS for the main event.
At the green, Williams would get the jump on Thomas and that would be all he would need as Williams would lead from start to finish with Thomas chasing him the entire main event. The remaining of your top 5 would be Steven Bracall, Whitey Kidd and Mike Rutherford from 9th.
Kunsman Looks To Go For 4: Friday Night Preview
Tommy Kunsman has picked up where he left off at Linda’s Speedway in 2019. In Kunsman’s 5 appearances at the track this year he has 4 wins and 3 in row making. Kunsman is dangerous no matter where he starts for the feature which he proved again to be true as he started back in row 5 last week before he took the win. With that versatility, Kunsman is among our top drivers to look out for tonight.
The driver that NewzVroom is picking tonight, is actually the driver that Kunsman stole the win away from last week, Mike Thompson. Thompson has been strong at Linda’s since last summer and showed that speed last week. After a rough start to the season at Linda’s, a third place run was needed to get his confidence back and back in the right direction.
NewzVroom Notables: Ryan Groff & Tyler Brehm. Groff started the season with a runner up finish and returned to the top 5 last week. Groff has not had luck with starting position as of late, so if he can start up front, we may see him in victory lane tonight.
Brehm was strong the last time he ran the D1 East Coast House car but ran into mechanical issues towards the end of the race. He has had a lot of success at the track in the past and look for him to battle Kunsman for the victory tonight.
Taking Five: NewzVroom’s Drivers To Watch For The Weekend of 6/28
This weekend will mark the end of a busy June and lead us to the months of the big money races for the year. We are looking forward to being live at GVAT on Saturday for the Firecracker $1K to win race. Within the next 10 days there is a race that pays $2K and 4 that pay $1K. This just shows how healthy the division is and that we are going to see the best of the best running over the next few weeks. This week’s preview will highlight 5 drivers: 3 (well 4) that had amazing June’s, 1 driver that is on the rise and 1 that is on the decline but we expect them to turn it around soon.
1. Garrett Bard: When looking at the top drivers this month, there were some incredible feats but Bard’s performance topped them all. After getting off to a rocky start this year, Bard turned in the 2nd best monthly performance this season (minimum of 5 races). Bard has run 8 races in the month of June with 4 victories and an average finish of 2.1. We will only see Bard in action at Path Valley this weekend but we will see if he can get win #5 this weekend.
2. The Smith’s: This is where I cheated in getting a true top 5 but their combined performance and metrics are remarkable. In the month of June, the brothers have run a combined 14 races, won 5 times and have a combined average finish of 3.2 (Mikey having the slight edge over Johnny). Between the two of them they will have 3 shots at the 2 $1K to win races at GVAT this weekend.
3. Damon Paul: The recent high school graduate has come out strong in June to prove that he is the best wingless driver in the northeast. Paul is one of the few drivers that shows his versatility by traveling to different tracks and that risk has paid off as he had podium finishes at 3 different tracks in June (at least finish 2nd at each). Going into the final weekend of the month, Paul has run 8 races this month with 3 wins and an average finish of 3.2. We expect to see Paul in competition at GVAT & Spirit Action this weekend for both of their $1K to win races.
Driver On The Rise: Randy Kunkle Jr. – Kunkle has had an extraordinary past two weekends to end the month strong. Over the last two weekends, Kunkle has 2 victories and multiple top 5’s. Kunkle has steadily improved his monthly average each month to an average finish of 5.9 for the month of June (up from 8.2 in April).
Driver That We Expect To Turn It Around: Aaron Bollinger: Bollinger was the first winner in northeast competition this year and started the season with strong finishes at Lanco. Over the last month, he has been plagued with mechanical issues and has seen his average finish plunge from 5.1 to 7.4 in June alone. Bollinger has performed strong in big races in the past and we will see if this weekend will be the spark that he needs to turn his season around.
Morris Ensures He Has A Win Per Month By Taking The Checkered At Shellhammers
On a night hampered by early rain showers, Shellhammers was able to push on and ensure we got a feature in last night. A healthy car count of 25 was on hand in preparation of the big $1K to win race next week at the track. We would see some new names towards the front of the start of the race such as Matt Warner and Fred Heinly but once the green flag dropped, the heavy hitters such as Morris, Christian Bruno and Tim Buckwalter made their way to the front.
Morris was able to lead the charge and get their first for his third win at the track this year. That now marks a win per month for Morris at Shellhammers after his wins in April, May and sneaked one in before the end of June. The rest of the top 5 was our pick, Bruno, Buckwalter, Richie Hartman and Fred Heinly.
Shellhammers Slides Back Into The Schedule: Wednesday Review
After a month hiatus, we will see Shellhammers become our Wednesday focus for the next few weeks. Tonight is the first of three big paying wingless races this week ($500 to win tonight, $1000 at GVAT and $1000 to win at Spirit Auto Center Speedway). Earlier in the season we saw 5 different winners in 6 races. Even though we only saw one repeat winner, the 6 races were dominated by two drivers, Eddie Strada & James Morris.
Morris & Strada combined for 7 podium finishes and were busy with strong performances at Action Track (podium finishes there as well), while Shellhammers was on break. With both of them in attendance on Wednesday, we can expect both of them to be in contention for the win tonight. Since Action Track is off, we should see some of the top talent show up at Leesport bullring and we expect to see a new winner in victory late tonight.
With that taken into consideration, our NewzVroom pick of the night is going to be Christian Bruno. Bruno has run two races at Shellhammers this season where he lead in one until a late incident and finished 3rd in the other feature. With those strong finishes combined with impressive results in the midwest, Bruno is picking up the momentum needed to pick up his first victory this season.
Early Season Favorites Return To Victory Lane: Saturday Night Review
Heath Hehnly & Johnny Smith started the 2019 season with the same success that they ended 2018 with. Last week we saw Smith get into an early race incident and finished outside the top 10 for the first time this season in the winged division (not caused by a DNF) and Hehnly had not finished in the top 10 in almost a month. On Saturday night, we saw both of these drivers take advantage of good track position to return to victory lane. Outside of Hehnly & Smith, we saw repeat winners in Matt Smith, who took his second consecutive win at Spirit Action and Garrett Bard who took his second win in as many nights. Below is our recap by track.
GVAT: The second row was the place to be as we saw the winners of the wingless and winged feature start from that row. In wingless action, Will Butler, was able to capture his first win of the season from the 3rd starting position. Johnny Smith & Chad Sandt started on the front row, but on lap 7, Butler was able to work his way around both and set sail on the field. Nash Ely was able to make a pass around half way to make it up to 2nd but could never put together a serious run to put Butler’s lead in danger. The NewzVroom Notable of the race was Kenny Miller, who already has one win on the season at GVAT and worked his from the 15th starting spot to a 3rd place finish.
In winged action, as mentioned earlier, we saw Johnny Smith return to victory lane. Tom Fraschetta got the early jump with Cody Hauck following his every move. Right around half way, Hauck took the lead and looked like he was going to runaway win the victory until a late caution regrouped the field. The Smith brothers who were running 2nd and 3rd at the time took advantage of Hauck’s struggle to get going on the shorter run. Johnny was able to get by first, followed by Mikey and Johnny would go on to get the victory over Mikey, and Hauck. NewzVroom notable of the race was Quinn Roberts who had a rough start to the evening that caused him to start 18th and finished 9th.
Lanco: When Heath Hehnly starts on the pole he is going to be tough to beat and Saturday exemplified that point. Hehnly and Ryan Greth started on the front row but Hehnly got the jump and your top three of Hehnly, Greth and Jesse Snyder was unchanged for the entire race for your podium. Outside of the top three there were some NewzVroom Notables to be found in Jarid Kunkle who was your hard charger who went from 16th to 4th and Jesse Mauer who went from 14th to 8th.
Spirit Auto: Even though Matt Smith ended up finishing in the spot he has become accustomed to recently, Smith had to work harder than usual to get the big win in front of a huge crowd at Spirit Auto Center Speedway last night. Jon Keller would start on the pole and lead the first portion of the race but it was clear that Smith had a rocket ship as he quickly made his way from his 6th starting spot to Keller’s back bumper by lap 7. Then two laps later, Smith was able to make a big run on Keller and took the lead and ran away from the field to win by over two seconds over Gary Bozowski. We did not see a bunch of big movers but NewzVroom Notables were PJ Williams who made a run from 9th to 4th and Lee Nardelli who came from 13th and made a last lap pass to get 7th.
Airport: With the recent dominance that Jimmy Glenn has had at Airport, seeing him on the front row on Saturday night made him seem like a lock for victory lane. Even with that front row starting spot, Glenn never got the lead and your early leader of the race was Drew Richmond with Glenn right in tow. Richmond would lead the first half of the race, but around half way Wayne Scott made his intentions known that he was going to join the battle for the win. With about 5 laps to go, an intense battle between Scott and Richmond emerged that would go right down to the finish. Each of the last two laps, Scott and Richmond would exchange their turn for the lead but at the checkered, Scott would edge out Richmond for his first win of the season.
Path Valley: After taking home the victory on Friday night at Clinton County, Garrett Bard decided to make it 2 for 2 for the weekend by taking home the win at Path Valley. Bard was fortunate enough to draw the pole position and that was all he needed to get him in the right place to get the victory on Saturday night. Past winners Jim Young and Hayden Miller started right by Bard, but by lap 7 Bard was checked out from the field. Miller and Young would spend the rest of the race battling for the runner up spot with Miller winning that battle over Young.
Fast Five: Saturday Night Preview
After a night of repeat winners, NewzVroom sees that trend continuing on Saturday night. As we move into the warmer part of the year, tracks start to get a little bit slicker and the driver differentiation starts to set in. On Saturday night we will see 5 tracks in action with a new addition to the Saturday night schedule, Spirit Auto Center Speedway, with their grand “Pack The House Night”. Here are our picks and drivers to watch at each track:
GVAT: Tonight is quietly a big race at GVAT as it is the qualifier for the $1000 to win Firecracker race next week. This means the top 2 in each division get to bypass qualifying next week and lock themselves into the redraw for the main event.
No driver has been on more of a roll at GVAT as of late than Damon Paul, but we have heard that he will not be running this evening, so we will see someone else in victory lane in the wingless race. Outside of Paul, Johnny Smith has been the strongest driver in the wingless field as of late with consecutive podium finishes. Smith will be our pick for the wingless division but Brett Altemose will be our driver to watch as he has picked up speed as of late and looked like he would of had a podium finish last week if not for a bobble late in the race.
For the winged race, it is hard not to pick a Smith, but Dan Souder has quietly been stacking up podium finishes these last two weeks and already has a win this season. Just to make sure we do not take our eye completely off the Smiths, we have Mikey Smith as our driver to watch tonight. As we said earlier, the trend is that the drivers on win streaks keep extending them and Smith is currently on a two race win streak.
Lanco: Speaking of win streaks, Mike Rutherford is on one of the most impressive win streaks that we have seen in a while as he has won 5 in a row at Lanco! He may not be our pick of the night but he is a driver that you will need to keep your eye on no matter where he starts. We are going to go with Jered Hook as our pick of the night at Lanco. Even though Nash Ely has a better 2 race average than Hook, we feel that if we are going to see a new winner in victory lane, that Lanco may be the place. Ely will be another driver to keep your eye on as he has been stringing top 5 after top 5 as of late.
Spirit Auto: The weather has not been to kind to the track this year with only three nights of racing this year at the NJ speedway. Matt Smith has won on two of those nights, but we think another first time winner of the year will make it to victory lane tonight. We have Bobby Butler as our pick of the night. Butler has had some strong runs this year without much luck and last time at Spirit Auto he got a top 5 finish. Our drivers to watch include Matt Smith but also Jim Tippin who is one of the few drivers with multiple top 10 finishes at the track this year.
Path Valley: This has been one of our toughest tracks to forecast this season. With multiple strong contenders, it really comes down to track position at Path. We will see two of the streakiest drivers in PA at Path Valley tonight, Garrett Bard & Randy Kunkle, but we are going with Hayden Miller for tonight. Miller has not won in over a month at Path and that should change tonight.
Airport: Outside of one race this season, this has been Jimmy Glenn’s track. He already has 5 wins this season at the track and I am not going to pick against him this week, so Glenn will be our pick of the week at Airport. If anyone is going to give him a challenge, we expect it to be from Lavar Scott, who has multiple top 5’s this year and is a former winner in the 600 series.
Make sure to get out to a track near you and we will keep our Facebook page updated through the night as results come in. Thanks Chris Bush for the photo!
Friday Night Recap: Momentum Matters
On Friday night we saw some of the hottest drivers in PA 600 micro sprints continue their win streaks.
Linda’s: Typically when you are looking at who may win the race, row 5 is a bit far back to make your pick but not on Friday. Tommy Kunsman and Damon Paul charged to the front early on with Kunsman making his way up to 5th from the 9th spot by lap 2. While those two were charging to the front, Mike Thompson was leading the field from his pole position. Thompson, who has been strong in the wingless division at Linda’s appeared to have the track position he would need but around lap 18, the freight train of Kunsman & Paul came coming. Kunsman was able to snag the lead on lap 20 and Paul was able to make the pass the following lap. Paul tried to make some runs at Kunsman and just ran out of time. Kunsman wins his 2nd consecutive race at Linda’s and 4th race of the year. Our NewzVroom Notables of the race were Ryan Groff who finished 5th from 14th and Tyler Lindsay who finished 9th from 18th.
Trail-Ways: Trail-Ways is not normally known for a lot of passing but we saw some hard charges that Randy Kunkle had to hold off to get his 2nd consecutive win of the year. Kunkle started 2nd and took the initial lead. Jesse Snyder, who had the fastest car all night, worked his way from 3rd to 2nd and started to chase down Kunkle. Behind this battle for the lead, there was a hard charging Bradley Weber from the 10th starting position working his way through the field. Snyder would end up challenging Kunkle the entire race but could not find a way around him and Weber ran out of time to chase down Kunkle and Snyder. That is how they would finish on the night with Kunkle winning, Snyder 2nd and Weber 3rd.
Clinton County: Garrett Bard’s success continued Friday night. Bard would have to come from the 6th starting spot but by the end of the first lap, he was already up to 2nd. Josh Beamer who was looking for his first win of the year would hold off Bard for the first 10 laps, but yet again, Bard was too much to hold off as he won his 6th race of the year and 2nd consecutive at Clinton County. NewzVroom Notable of the race goes to Dariek Humenay who worked his way from 10th to just outside a podium finish by finishing 4th.
Action Track USA Rains Out For 6/19.
Action Track USA Preview For 6/19. Wings On Brings In New Challengers.
- Edit
Under the current ownership team at Action Track, there has not been a winged 600 race on the schedule. On Wednesday night, that will hopefully change. With this type of prestige on the line, there will be some new challengers tonight. For our drivers to watch section, we will target two invaders & two locals to the Action Track and set up this impeding Showdown in Kutztown, PA.
Invader 1: James Morris – Morris is quick wherever he goes and recently ended a hiatus at Action Track with a podium finish. After a strong performance out in the Midwest and he already has some Wednesday night wins this year at Shellhammers’, Morris will be looking at another win tonight.
Local 1: Billy Koch – Koch has been strong this year at Action Track (coming off a top 5) and has had success with the wing on at another smaller track, GVAT, last season. Look for Koch to turn that speed into success on Wednesday.
Invader 2: Hayden Miller – Miller had 2 podium finishes last week and has a history of coming up big in big races (2018 Linda’s National Champ). Most of his races are on the spacey Path Valley & Trailway tracks, so we will see how he adapts to the tight confines of the Action Track.
Local 2: Kenny Miller – Miller already has a win this season at Action Track (also your current point leader). He is equally as strong with the wings on or off which was displayed last season with a podium finish at the Blaise Alexander Memorial Race at GVAT. Even though points are not on the line tomorrow, look for Miller to be gunning for win #2 on the year at Action Track.
Weekend Review of 6/16: Smith, Ely & Lindsay Turn Impressive Runs Into Driver Of The Week Consideration.
Happy Father’s Day to all the crews and drivers. A big part of the reason why this site is developing is so that family, especially Dads & Grandads can keep up to date whether or not they are at the track.
With 10 tracks in action with 10 different (1 repeat) 600 micro sprint winners this week, it is tough to narrow it down to our top three each week. Unlike most sites we try not to only acknowledge those who won but discover impressive feats this week. Here are your top 3:
1. Mikey Steezy Smith: This was the easiest of picks, as Smith went 2 for 2 this week with wins at Spirit Auto Center Speedway and Greenwood Valley Action Tracks. Smith now has won 4 races on the year and after a rough night for his brother, Mikey closed in on the points championship at GVAT.
2. Nash Ely: Ely was about 3.5 laps shy of also going 2 for 2 this weekend. Nash had an impressive drive on Wednesday night to snag the win at Action Track USA and had the win in tact at Lanco, Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway until a late caution that gathered the field and Mike Rutherford got around him. Ely now has two consecutive 2nd place finishes at Lanco and will probably break that streak soon.
3. Tyler Lindsay: This was the tough pick but Lindsay deserved this after bouncing back last night to win at Hamlin Speedway after seeing his early lead on Wednesday at Action Track turn into a 5th place finish. Lindsay finished last season strong with 2 big wins but this year has not started as planned. Are these the finishes that Lindsay needed to get back on the right track?
Honorable Mentions: Jimmy Glenn (Continues his domination at Airport Speedway), Rutherford (5th Straight win at Lanco and a hard charging performance Wednesday at Bridgeport), Randy Kunkle Jr. (Hard Charger On Friday & Winner On Saturday), Damon Paul (2nd straight wingless win at GVAT and a runner up in winged) and Jesse Maurer who was a runner up Friday at Linda’s and made a strong run to 6th after starting mid pack at Lanco.
Thanks to Chris Bush for the great photos. If you are running at GVAT, make sure to check his page out!
Saturday Night Preview For 6/15/2019
Picks Of The Night: Jesse Maurer, Mikey Steezy Smith, Jacob Balliet, Tyler Lindsay, Alec Quiggle & Jimmy Glenn
Lanco: This has turned into Mike Rutherford‘s house as of late with 4 straight victories. Impressive streak but with a track as competitive as Lanco, that can’t last. We like Mauer for tonight who is coming off a 2nd at Linda’s last night and has a runner up finish at the track this year but hasn’t had the luck.
Driver To Watch: Nash Ely – Coming off a win at Action Track on Wednesday and a runner up finish at Lanco, Ely is getting hot at the right time.
GVAT: The winged division has been a battle of the Smith Brothers & Quinn Roberts this season, but we see a Smith, Mikey Smith, taking tonight’s victory. With a big $1500 win on Wednesday, can he make it two wins this week. Driver To Watch: Cody West – A rookie in the 600 division this year has been gaining with every lap on the track this season. He has had good track position but can he convert that to a victory.
Wingless: We are going with Jacob Balliet tonight. Since converting to a Hyper, Balliet has put some strong runs together at Action Track & GVAT.
Hamlin: We are going with Tyler Lindsay tonight. Strong run on Wednesday that was cut short at Action Track, Lindsay’s performances at Action Track have been steadily improving.
Path Valley: This season has been a battle between Quiggle, Hayden Miller and Garrett Bard. Tonight looks like it may be Quiggle’s turn. Also look for Zane Rudisill to possibly get his first win at the track this season.
Airport: Glenn’s streak was broken last week but we expect him to get back into victory lane tonight. We are keeping an eye on Tyler Tank to get a win after consistent progress this season.