In Group B, Weiss laid down a lap of 16.041 seconds, only good enough for 15th in Group B. However, with the lineup procedure for the Heat races, Weiss started on the pole in Heat 4 and won, setting himself up for a fourth-place redraw effort. And did he ever make the most of it.
Right from the drop of the green, the Turk Enterprises, Sweet-Bloomquist chassis No. 7 was a rocket ship. He made the move underneath Chris Madden on a crossover move out of turn four to take the runner-up spot on lap four and wrestled the lead from Jacob Hawkins by lap 10.
From that point onward, it was smooth sailing for Weiss. Nobody was able to even come near the black-and-orange No. 7, as he led the final 16 laps to claim his very first feature win at “The Big E.”
“From the second we pulled in, my crew unloaded the car, and we’ve all been pretty confident on that car and that program,” Weiss said. “This is one of our favorite tracks, and we knew, coming in, that we’d be something to contend with.”
As expected, Weiss and the crew had a lot of Scott Bloomquist’s teachings in the back of their heads on Thursday night, and were especially proud to pick up the victory for his brand.
“This was just an awesome race for the Bloomquist cars. It just goes to show how strong we really are,” Weiss said.
Meanwhile, Chris Madden got the bounce-back finish he needed on Thursday, fighting for the runner-up spot with Jacob Hawkins early and finally running off with the spot on lap 13. He held that spot and looked very strong the rest of the way — a much-needed boost of confidence after experiencing some mechanical misfortunes in previous weeks’ competition.
The finishes:
Group A Feature: 1. 29-Darrell Lanigan[5]; 2. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 4. 22-Chris Ferguson[11]; 5. 39-Tim McCreadie[1]; 6. 1P-Earl Pearson, Jr.[7]; 7. 22S-Gregg Satterlee[10]; 8. 1S-Chad Simpson[4]; 9. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[8]; 10. 71-Hudson O’Neal[16]; 11. 83-Scott James[14]; 12. 40B-Kyle Bronson[6]; 13. 88R-Andrew Reaume[15]; 14. 18X-Michael Page[18]; 15. 28-Dennis Erb, Jr.[20]; 16. 32S-Chris Simpson[12]; 17. 17-Zack Dohm[21]; 18. 23B-John Blankenship[19]; 19. 2-Brandon Overton[17]; 20. 32-Bobby Pierce[23]; 21. 1ST-Johnny Scott[13]; 22. 99JR-Frank Heckenast, Jr.[24]; 23. 24-Dylan Yoder[9]; 24. 2H-Nick Hoffman[22]
Group B Feature: 1. 7W-Ricky Weiss[4]; 2. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 3. 8H-Jacob Hawkins[1]; 4. 17M-Dale McDowell[7]; 5. 20-Jimmy Owens[8]; 6. 25C-Shane Clanton[9]; 7. 28M-Jimmy Mars[3]; 8. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 9. 157-Mike Marlar[12]; 10. 1-Brandon Sheppard[16]; 11. 0B-Shannon Babb[6]; 12. 7R-Kent Robinson[14]; 13. 7M-Donald Mcintosh[15]; 14. 18-Chase Junghans[11]; 15. 33-Jonathan Henry[10]; 16. 50-Shanon Buckingham[13]; 17. 87-Ross Bailes[18]; 18. 8S-Kyle Strickler[23]; 19. O-Scott Bloomquist[19]; 20. B1-Brent Larson[24]; 21. 99RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[17]; 22. 16T-Tyler Bruening[22]; 23. 5-Don O’Neal[20]; 24. 14-Josh Richards[21]