Martinsville All-American 300 Race Coverage- 200 lap Modified Race

               
Grand Marshall Johnny Bryant has just given the command to start engines, and the cars are circling the track doing the pace laps. Start will be in a few moments.

Green is out, and Loftin has the lead, but yellow is out on lap 1, for a spin in turn  3 by Gary McDonald. Glenn Tyler is unable to start due to mechanical problems, and is in the garage. Jamie Tomaino Jr is also in the garage. Green will fly again on lap 5.

Pennink is in the lead after the restart, with Stefanik in 2nd, B. Myers 3rd, Lia 4th, Silk 5th and yellow out for debris on lap 10. Heagy is reported leaking, and ordered to pit road for a check. Green back out on lap 14, Pennink still in lead, but Bush spins, turn 3, yellow back out. Preece got by Silk for 5th during the one lap run. Green is back out on lap 21, with Pennink still the leader. Lia comes to 2nd one lap later, Preece to 3rd, and B.Myers to 4th by lap 25.

Field is now running single file up front, with Lia right on Pennink's bumper, but a 9 car wreck in the backstretch brings out another caution on lap 28. Red Flag is now out for clean up. Involved in the wreck are Bertuccio,  Butcher, Brewer, Neal, and others who were able to drive away. Members of Bertuccio's team have been ordered to report to Nascar trailer immediately after the race. Track clean up continues under red flag condition. Red flag was out for 14 minutes, the field is moving again under yellow. All drivers were checked at the medical facility and released. Lap 30 was just completed under yellow, green will be out on lap 32

With green out, Pennink leads, but Lia challenges on the outside, leading lap 33, as Pennink takes it back on lap 34, but yellow out again for a spin/wreck in turn 3 involving Rudolph. Erick Rudolph and crew have also been ordered to the Nascar trailer after the race, don't know why. Heagy returns to the race, but over 20 laps down. Green comes back out on lap 42, with Pennink in the lead as Lia and Preece follow, front 5 single file. Lia looks low, but can't pass Pennink, as Preece, B. Myers and Stefanik follow. As of lap 50, no change in position on top 10 as they run single file.

The field is now getting spread out, as Pennink runs 3 car lengths in front of Lia, who  is 3 in front of Preece. B. Myers and Stefanik follow, with Stefanik 6 car lengths in front of Silk, while the complete top 10 runners have pulled away from the rest of the field by 15 car lengths after running 10 green flag laps.

On lap 62, Lia has caught up to Pennink, running 1 car length off his bumper, as Preece run 8 cars in back of them. On lap 65, Glenn Tyler joins the race, that many laps down, as Pennink has once again stretched out his lead over Lia to 4 car lengths as they begin to negotiate lapped traffic on lap 70. Christopher has dropped out with a blown engine as of lap 69.

Pennink has now built himself a lead of over 12 car lengths over Lia, who is at least that many in front of Preece.  On lap 77, Bush and Gene Pack collided in the back stretch, yellow out once more, but both are able to continue. All the leaders are pitting under this caution, giving the lead to Buddy Emory for the moment. Pasteryak ends up with the lead as the green flies again, with Tomaino in 2nd, Smith in 3rd, Szegedy 4th, and Stefanik in 5th. Pasteryak builds a lead of 10 cars as Tomaino got bumped on the restart, and Szegedy quickly works his way to 2nd a few lap later, with Stefanik coming to 3rd by lap 90.

Pasteryak now has a lead of over 20 car lengths as Szegedy and Stefanik follow some ways back. as Tomaino and Pitkat contend for 4th as the race approaches the 100 lap mark. By lap 110, Pasteryak still enjoys a lead that will only be closed up by a caution flag as he s just cruising way out in front of 2nd place Szegedy. From Szegedy to 4th place Tomaino there is about an 8 car length spread, if that.  Pasteryak is all alone up front, a good feeling for anyone enjoying it, as he is now lapping multiple cars as he continues to cruise around the half mile speedway. Where are the leaders from before, you might wonder? Well,Preece is 5th, Lia is 7th, Pennink is 9th.

The race is now 136 laps old, and Preece has worked his way to 4th, as Lia runs 5th, as Tomaino has fallen to 6th, spot. Pasteryak has yet to pit, and if there is no caution by the time he needs to, his huge lead will go away when he does.  The field is so strung out at this point it seems more like watching practice than a race. Point leader, Ted Christopher, who left with reported engine failure, has rejoined the race 60 laps down. 

As of lap 150, Pasteryak still leads, but Szegedy is closing as Pasteryak is mired in traffic, but no one else seems to be closing much.  Szegedy, unless he needs to pit again, will inherit the lead if and when Pasteryak does pit.  Beers is reported to be leaking, but the officials are double checking before black flagging him. Szegedy has now closed to Pasteryak's bumper, and will probably get the lead as yellow flies again for McDonald's spin in the front stretch on lap 163. Pasteryak pits during the caution, with Szegedy inheriting the lead as Brunnhoelzl gets the free pass.

For this restart, Szegedy is now the leader, with Stefanik 2nd, Preece 3rd,Lia 4th, and Pennink 5th. Green is back out on lap 172, with 31 cars still left on the track, as Szegedy takes off, but Flemke, running 6th at the time, gets loose on the restart, and gets punted into the wall in turn 2, along with Smith and yellow is back out once more. Green is out once more on lap 179, with K. Goodale now  6th, and szegedy and Stefanik run side by side, with Stefanik taking the lead on lap 180, but on lap 181, Lia and B. Myers get together in turn 2, as yellow comes out  again. Flemke had been ordered to do a pass through for speeding on pit road, did not do so, and is now being penalized at least one lap for doing so, as he was speeding on pit road when ordered to the pits!

Green came back out on lap 185, as Stefanik took over the lead again, but a wreck off turn 4 involving at least 5 cars, Pennink among them, brings yet another caution into play. Also involved are Andy Suess, Jason Myers, and Chris Pasteryak as the red flag comes out on lap 188. There will be no free pass, as all the eligible cars were involved in the wreck. What was a modified race seems to have turned into an enduro race using Modifieds. 

With the top 5 now Stefanik, Szegedy, Preece, K. Goodale and Silk, the green flew again on lap 191 in a single file formation, and Stefanik too off with Szegedy right on his bumper. as Silk got under K. Goodale, along with B.Myers, dropping K.Goodale to 6th. Up front, Stefanik is holding Szegedy in check as Preece looks on a car length back by lap 197, and the 3 of them pull away form the rest as they get the 2 to go signal. Mike Stefanik holds on to take the win, as Todd Szegedy, Ryan Preece, Ronny Silk, and Burt Myers complete the top 5. Following them in 6th through 10th are Kevin Goodale, George Brunnhoelzl III, Donny Lia, Eric Goodale and Jamie Tomaino.

The win in this race is Mike Stefanik's 5th win at Martinsville. The victory was Mike Stefanik's 70th victory on the WMT, making him the first non Sprint Cup driver to reach that plateau in NASCAR. 
Burt Myers will also be credited with a win on the SWMT as the highest finishing driver from that tour.

Notable finishes: Point leader (maybe former) Ted Christopher finished 30th after rejoining the race. Johnny bush finished 18th, Gary McDonald finished 19th, Ken Heagy 28th,, Glenn Tyler 31st and JR Bertuccio 37th.

That completes our coverage of the race, we thank you for joining us today. Let us know how you enjoyed this type of coverage by posting a comment.


 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
  • No trackbacks exist for this entry.
Comments
  • No comments exist for this entry.
Leave a comment

Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed.

 Enter the above security code (required)

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.