OSWEGO, N.Y. — Nick Stone only led two laps on Friday afternoon, but he led the right ones.
After taking the lead coming to the white flag, the Patterson, N.Y., native crossed under the first checkered flag of Super DIRT Week 54 presented by StubHub, winning the I Love NY 50 for the second time in his career.
For the vast majority of the feature, it was all Luke Horning in command of the division’s biggest race. But as the laps started to wind down and a rash of cautions kept the field bunched together, the threat behind him mounted.
By the two-to-go signal, the top three runners of Horning, Stone and 2025 winner Devon Camenga were under a blanket.
In Turns 3 and 4, Camenga made his bid for victory and went to Horning’s inside, making contact with Horning’s left-rear exiting Turn 4. Meanwhile, Stone had moved off the bottom and took a chance at running the cushion, and Horning’s loss of momentum down low opened the door for Stone to pull ahead down the frontstretch.
Horning didn’t have enough time to regain speed and fight back, leaving Stone alone on the high side as he crossed the line to become the sixth multi-time Pro Stock winner at Super DIRT Week.
“I started getting it up there, and I lost my rhythm the first time I started doing it,” Stone said. “That caution, I said, ‘Alright, let me regroup, I know that top’s going to work. Don’t lose your rhythm this time.’ I think they were being a little cautious, too. This track is really slick right now. The only lane open was that lane, and if we were going to even have a fighting chance, that’s what we went for.”
A frustrated Horning crossed the line second ahead of Camenga, while Shane Playford and Chucky Dumblewski rounded out the top five.
Bastien Caron may not have been in serious contention for the win in his Super DIRT Week debut, but the Queec driver clinched his first DIRTcar Pro Stock Series championship by taking the green flag and capped off his season in sixth.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 8N-Dominic Stone[13]; 2. 2H-Luke Horning[2]; 3. 110-Devon Camenga[9]; 4. 6-Shane Playford[4]; 5. 07-Chucky Dumblewski[10]; 6. 73-Bastien Caron[5]; 7. 14-Kim Duell[20]; 8. 7-Rob Yetman[1]; 9. 14R-Sid Harmer Jr[8]; 10. 12S-Dakota Sharp[7]; 11. 55-David Stickles[3]; 12. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[11]; 13. 48-Jocelyn Roy[28]; 14. X15-Tyler Bushey[16]; 15. 324-Jason Casey[25]; 16. 2S-Pete Stefanski[18]; 17. 9B-Slater Baker[24]; 18. 711-Rich Crane[21]; 19. 777-Tommy Lizotte[19]; 20. 76-Kyle Hoard[14]; 21. 9S-Ken Schrader[15]; 22. 32-Jonathan Levesque[30]; 23. 28-Philip DeFiglio[27]; 24. 2Z-Hugh Page[29]; 25. 72G-Denis Gauvreau[6]; 26. 9-Eric Jean Louis[31]; 27. (DNF) 57-Charles Mcspirit[26]; 28. (DNF) 2-Brandon Emigh[23]; 29. (DNF) 8ND-Andrew Graves[17]; 30. (DNF) 54S-Zachary Sorrentino[22]; 31. (DNF) 4-JJ Courcy[12]
