Carrick led Logan Seavey, Rico Abreu, Courtney and Kevin Thomas Jr. to the restart. Seavey slid Carrick for the lead before Carrick returned the favor, as the two Kunz/Curb-Agajanian teammates continued to trade slide jobs back-and-forth for the top spot before Carrick again settled in out front. On lap 16, Carrick hopped the cushion, tagging the backstretch wall out of two and Seavey capitalized in his break in momentum, setting up a big slider into three to take over the lead.
USAC MIDGETS
(25 laps)
1 – Tyler Courtney
2 – Tanner Carrick
3 – Logan Seavey
4 – Rico Abreu
5 – Kevin Thomas Jr.
6 – Chris Windom
7 – Justin Grant
8 – Zeb Wise
9 – Tucker Klaasmeyer
10 – Tanner Thorson
11 – Chad Boat
12 – Holley Hollan
13 – Dave Darland
14 – Jesse Colwell
15 – Karsyn Elledge
16 – Andrew Layser
17 – Sam Johnson
18 – Jerry Coons Jr.
19 – Jason McDougal
The race was developing into a three-car battle between Seavey, Carrick and third-place runner Courtney, who began throwing sliders in an attempt to take over the lead, as well.
A big slider by Carrick put him out front once again, with both Seavey and Courtney challenging. With five laps to go, Courtney had moved past Seavey for second and was challenging Carrick. With four laps to go, Courtney slid Carrick to take over the lead, but in three and four Carrick dove to the bottom with a slider to again re-take the point. Courtney slid Carrick in one but Carrick drove back under him in two.
As the two entered turn one with two-to-go, Carrick banged the cushion, upsetting the car as Courtney slid underneath him to take over. Carrick hounded Courtney for the final two circuits, but it was Courtney claiming the win, with Carrick second, Seavey third, and Rico Abreu and Kevin Thomas Jr. rounding out the top five.
Entering Eldora, not only was Courtney the defending USAC sprint 4-Crown winner, but he had won the last three consecutive USAC sprint car events at Eldora Speedway, tying Jud Larson, Bubby Jones, Jack Hewitt and Steve Butler as the only drivers to win three in a row at the Big E. With a lap of 16.671 seconds, Courtney claimed his second quick time of the night, topping a 33-car field in the Clauson/Marshall/Newman No. 7BC.
USAC SPRINT CARS
(30 laps)
1 – Tyler Courtney
2 – Chris Windom
3 – Justin Grant
4 – Kevin Thomas Jr.
5 – Brady Bacon
6 – Dallas Hewitt
7 – Matt Westfall
8 – Chase Stockon
9 – Isaac Chapple
10 – Nick Bilbee
11 – Carmen Perigo
12 – Jason McDougal
13 – Scotty Weir
14 – Mario Clouser
15 – Chris Phillips
16 – Dave Darland
17 – Dustin Clark
18 – Corey Smith
19 – Max Adams
20 – Kory Crabtree
21 – Josh Hodges
22 – C.J. Leary
Kevin Thomas Jr. and 2017 4-Crown USAC sprint winner C.J. Leary made up the front row for the feature, and Thomas jumped out front at the green, with Leary second. By the third lap, Courtney had moved forward from his sixth-place starting position to take over third with a big slider.
Courtney passed Leary for second, as Thomas weaved through lapped traffic, putting cars between himself and “Sunshine.”
The track had developed into a typical Eldora courage-tester, as the cushion inched closer and closer to the intimidating wall. By lap 14, Courtney had closed on Thomas as the duo skillfully worked through traffic breaking away from the rest of the field.
On lap 18, Thomas slapped the wall hard with the right rear exiting turn four, turning the car and bouncing the right front off the wall as well, allowing Courtney to close to his push bar through turns one and two. Courtney set up the pass down the backstretch and with a big slider in three and four took the lead.
With nine laps to go, Courtney entered turn one running the top, with KTJ running through the middle. Third-place runner C.J. Leary dove to the bottom attempting to slide them both, but as they exited turn two Courtney came off the cushion and Leary slid across the track Leary‘s right front made contact with Courtney‘s left rear resulting in Leary spinning with his left rear contacting the wall.