ATTICA, Ohio – Chris Andrews used a restart with five laps to go to grab the lead and drove to his second 410 sprint win of the season Friday at Attica Raceway Park on Columbus Equipment/Central Ohio Farmers Night.
The win gives Andrews a little bit of breathing room heading into season championship night on Aug. 23 as he seeks to wrap up his third Attica championship.
Travis Philo and Buddy Kofoid brought the field to green for the 30-lap 410 sprint feature, with Philo jumping into the lead over Kofoid, Cale Conley, Andrews, Shawn Dancer and D.J. Foos. Philo began to pull away slightly while Conley and Andrews battled for third. But, six laps into the feature Kofoid started to close on Philo just before Caleb Griffith would drive off the high side of turn two to bring out the caution.
When the green reappeared Philo again pulled away but Stuart Brubaker suffered mechanical issues to bring out back-to-back cautions with nine laps scored. On the restart Kofoid stayed with Philo this time as Conley, Andrews, Cap Henry, Byron Reed and Foos battled for third.Just past the half-way point, Kofoid executed a slider on Philo to take the lead but Philo did not give up and the pair exchanged sliders at each end of the track before encountering heavy lapped traffic on lap 18.
Lapped traffic allowed Conley to close as Andrews fended off Henry and Foos for fourth. It appeared Conley made contact with a lapped machine, breaking the front end of his car and bringing out the caution on lap 22. On the restart both Henry ad Foos got by Andrews, dropping him to fifth.
On lap 24 Henry slid in front of Philo and the pair got together entering turn one, sending both flipping. Both drivers were uninjured but that gave second back to Andrews. On the ensuing restart Andrews blasted to Kofoid’s outside and took the lead with five laps to go. Foos drove under Kofoid for second a lap later but could not close the gap on Andrews who drove to the win. Kofoid, Reed and Nate Dussel rounded out the top five.
“I’ve come to the end of the season many times close on points and you think about that non-stop. I road around on the bottom a lot at the beginning of the race and that’s not my style. A few guys wrecked out and…shit I wanted to win. I was going to just ride in third and what ever and points race. I don’t race as much as I used to but we want to win,” said Andrews of his Mackey Motorsports machine.
“I was being a wimp at the beginning running the middle and bottom and D.J. (Foos) got underneath me and I started throwing hail Mary’s into one and it was sticking and on that restart clean air helped out and the car was good. I have to thank Ken and Duane Mackey and Griff’s Engines and the whole crew,” added Andrews.
Rusty Schlenk drove around Doug Drown with all four wheels over the cushion in turn four to grab the lead in the Summit Racing Equipment UMP Late Model feature and then held off a late race charge from Drown to score his second win of the season at Attica. The victory places Schlenk in a tie for most career late models wins at the track with Drown, each recording 27. Schlenk now has 204 victories on his resume as well.
Jamie Miller, a former Attica 305 sprint track champion, took the lead on a lap four restart and never looked back. Miller held an eight second lead when he took the white flag and drove to his fourth Fremont Fence 305 Sprint feature win of the year worth $1,000 thanks to Griff’s Engines. Miller’s 23rd career victory places him in a tie with Bobby Clark for third on the all-time win list for the division at Attica. Miller also took over the point lead for the 305 sprints as defending track champion Paul Weaver suffered mechanical woes.