PONTOON BEACH, Ill. — A late-race red flag put the lead into Scott Bogucki’s hands and the SawBlade.com No. 28 driver held off the last-lap charge of Colton Hardy for his first victory of the season with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network Friday night at Tri-City Speedway.
“It got really narrow up top in the closing laps. Honestly, it was tricky because we were tight early, so when Seth would get into traffic, he could move through better than we could. I kept getting rolled up, but I just had to be patient. I’m not very good at that, but I’m slowly, slowly, learning,” chuckled Bogucki. “When we had cautions, Anthony, my crew guy, was signaling me that I was doing everything right, so at the very end, we were good.”
Seth Bergman was untouchable the opening 19 laps, running through traffic with ease. But traffic was his undoing.
Chasing the No. 47x of Dylan Westbrook to put him a lap down, the right-rear tire suddenly gave up, trapping Seth behind the No. 47x. Hard into the tail tank of Westbrook, the result was Seth flipping into the turn-one fence.
Handing the lead to Bogucki, the No. 28 made it to the white flag with breathing room, only to see caution lights come on for a pair of cars stopped on the track.
Hardy challenged Bogucki on the restart, but contact with the wall allowed Bogucki to pull away for his fifth career victory.
Hardy’s best career finish against the National Tour, the defending ASCS Southwest Regional Champion, was pursued by Matt Covington, who had second until Hardy rolled by on lap 23. Blake Hahn from 10th made it to fourth, with J.J. Hickle following from 11th to complete the top five.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 28-Scott Bogucki [2]; 2. 41-Colton Hardy [5]; 3. 95-Matt Covington [4]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn [10]; 5. 63-J.J. Hickle [11]; 6. 75-Tyler Blank [16]; 7. 91T-Tyler Thomas [14]; 8. 77X-Alex Hill [9]; 9. 17B-Ryan Bickett [20]; 10. 19-Colby Thornhill [15]; 11. 24-Garet Williamson [3]; 12. 99-Carson McCarl [18]; 13. 28V-Luke Verardi [22]; 14. 86-Timothy Smith [23]; 15. 23-Seth Bergman [1]; 16. 47X-Dylan Westbrook [8]; 17. 88-Travis Reber [21]; 18. 11-Austin O’Neal [7]; 19. 13-Brayden Gaylord [6]; 20. 21-Gunner Ramey [13]; 21. 11C-Colton Fisher [12]; 22. 14M-Jordan Masson [17]; 23. 91-Zach Pringle [19].