MALTA, N.Y. — Empire Super Sprints kingpin Jordan Poirier and Albany-Saratoga Speedway’s leading winner in 2025, Matt DeLorenzo, shared victory lane in front of a near standing room only crowd Friday night.
The ESS redraw saw Poirier pull the pole, much to the consternation of the rest of the field. The fleet Canadian then led the entire 25 laps but not without challenges.
Front row companion Jeff Trombley held second early on but lost it to Paulie Colagiovanni on lap six, just before Poirier caught the tail of the field.
Colagiovanni then got close in traffic only to have Trombley go around in turn four for a yellow that put Poirier back in clean air.
Danny Varin, who had advanced from seventh to fourth, shot down Shawn Donath shortly after green reappeared and spent the late teens swapping second back and forth with Colagiovanni.
But Varin’s night went south with three to go when he disappeared over the turn two banking, promoting Dylan Swiernik to third.
They finished that way, with Jason Barney, Donath, Dalton Rombaugh, Joe Trenca, Matt Tanner, Kyle Smith and Jordan Thomas trailing.
“I knew I was good up top using the cushion,” Poirier told the crowd from victory lane. “Then I thought that 3 and 4 was going away but we held on and fought Paulie off.”
“I thought I had a run on him up there in three and four,” added Colagiovanni. “Then the caution came out and he got away, but I think we have something for him in the next few races. I might have made it any way but I didn’t want to take him out.”
DeLorenzo’s DIRTcar modified win, his third in a row and fifth overall, came at the expense of Jack Lehner, who seemingly had DeLorenzo pinned behind the lapped car of his teammate, Brian Gleason, on the white-flag lap. Lehner hit turn three high with a huge run but inexplicably turned down to run the middle instead of the line that got him there and DeLorenzo escaped.
“I thought Brian saw me and would let me go,” tipped the elated winner. “The bottom was so locked down that I didn’t dare go outside. Then I saw Jack going in hard on the outside. The top was fast into three but bad out because there was no grip off four. The sprint cars changed the track completely but I was lucky, as this car and engine combination is very driveable when it gets slick and I got off strong!”
Lehner was a smoldering heap of disappointment, as last week he had his first win of the season seemingly locked up only to tangle with a lapped car and go off on the hook.
“I thought I’d make it tonight,” he declared. “I thought my car was better than Matt’s but he got to the lead first. Then, on the last lap, I thought I had him off two and into three but I flat screwed up when I dropped to the middle and lost my momentum.”
Polesitter Matt DePew got the drop on Lehner on the break and led through the first yellow on lap 13. Lehner then got even in turn two on the restart but couldn’t get all the way by, letting DeLorenzo get down inside him and snatch second two laps later. DeLorenzo then went to the high line and drove around DePew on lap 16 only to have an immediate caution put him back to second.
The restart saw DeLorenzo blow around DePew in turns one and two and drive off, leaving him to wrestle with Lehner as the track got blacker and slicker. Lehner finally prevailed at halfway in the 35-lap feature but trailed the leader by a wide margin until DeLorenzo got into lapped traffic and struggled to lap Gleason, allowing Lehner to close and take his last gasp shot at the win.
Kyle Armstrong turned in a strong run to claim third, even surprising himself.
“The longer we ran the better we got,” declared the relatively new to Albany-Saratoga Armstrong. “The track got locked down and I didn’t dare leave the bottom because I’m not good yet on slick tracks, but we kept going forward.”
DePew checkered fourth ahead of Peter Britten, Mike Mahaney, Ronnie Johnson, Marc Johnson, Derek Bornt and Neil Stratton.
Rich Crane bested Jason Casey and Western New Yorker Pete Stefanski in the Pro Stock finale while Mike Benson led Nick Brundige and Chris Jakubiak home in the Sportsman feature.
