OSWEGO, N.Y. — Nick Stone found the missing piece to his DIRTcar Pro Stock résumé Saturday night at Oswego Speedway.
After years of trying, the Rotterdam, N.Y., driver finally reached a victory lane that’s eluded him — the DIRTcar Pro Stock 50 at NAPA Super DIRT Week.
However, while the statistics show “The Manimal” led 39 laps, his win was anything but easy.
Chucky Dumblewski grabbed the early lead, pulling away from pole-sitter Kim Duell.
Behind them, Stone started to rise from his fourth starting position. It took him eight laps to power past Duell for second and set his sights on Dumblewski.
He quickly closed on the Amsterdam, N.Y., driver, but Dumblewski took the outside lane away, successfully blocking his attempt to take the lead in turn two. Stone immediately switched lanes down the backstretch and used momentum off turn two to inch ahead of the No. 7d in turn four to take the lead on lap 13.
It was a lead he wouldn’t relinquish, despite a final challenge in the race’s closing stages — three attempts at a green-white-checkered finish.
The Pro Stock veteran kept his competitors at bay on all three, holding on to score his first win at Oswego Speedway.
“All I can say is finally,” Stone said. “We’ve been trying since back in Syracuse, and I’ve been trying here ever since it’s been here. And we finally did it.”
Despite grabbing the lead early, he struggled initially. It wasn’t until he passed Duell on the bottom that he realized it was the place to be.
“At the beginning of the race, I was trying anything,” Stone said. “I kind of shot it in up there. I didn’t want to be up there. There was no traction. I just got a heck of a run off the corner, and it worked out.
“Getting out there early was the way to go.”
Dumblewski held on for second — his third runner-up finish in the DIRTcar Pro Stock 50.
“The restarts were definitely tough,” Dumblewski said. “Once I got rolling, I was real good. The longer runs were where I felt like I was much better.
“I think it’s the third time we’ve finished second here, so a win would’ve been nice, but it’s a very good weekend for us.”
Pete Stefanski finished third, scoring his best finish at Oswego.
“We started a bit farther back than these guys, so we had a lot of really good cars to pass,” Stefanski said. “I kind of got shuffled back at the beginning, and I figured if we bided our time, then we could get back to the front.”
Kenny Wallace finished fourth and Bruno Richard rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 8N-Nick Stone[4]; 2. 7D-Chucky Dumblewski[2]; 3. 2-Pete Stefanski[11]; 4. 36-Kenny Wallace[8]; 5. 72-Bruno Richard[10]; 6. 2H-Luke Horning[3]; 7. 1X-Justin White[18]; 8. 4-Dean Charbonneau[23]; 9. 6-Shane Playford[12]; 10. 57-Charles Mcspirit[28]; 11. 30-Zach Daniels[26]; 12. 17-Nick Hilt[13]; 13. 09J-Shawn Perez[22]; 14. 75-Eli Gilbert[20]; 15. 76-Frank Hoard[30]; 16. 00X-Josh Coonradt[7]; 17. 56-Jay Fitzgerald[19]; 18. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[16]; 19. 322-Jay Casey[6]; 20. 9S-Ken Schrader[24]; 21. 14J-Johnny Rivers[21]; 22. X15-Tyler Bushey[15]; 23. 25-Chad Jeseo[14]; 24. 7-Rob Yetman[17]; 25. 14-Kim Duell[1]; 26. 55-David Stickles[25]; 27. 00C-Michael Clark[27]; 28. 69-Rich Crane[5]; 29. 6C-Brian Carter[29]; 30. 324-Jason Casey[9]