FORT WORTH, Texas — A jam-packed grandstands played witness to a non-stop chase through lapped traffic as Rico Abreu won Saturday night’s Stockyard Stampede for the Kubota High Limit Racing series at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track.
Abreu, Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet played a high-speed chess match in a 30-lapper that took seven minutes and 30 seconds to complete.
Winning the FK Rod Ends Dash and earning the pole, Larson was in the catbird seat as the green flag waved, but second starter Rico Abreu aced the start and riding the high line to the early lead.
From there, it was all about traffic as Abreu’s No. 24, Larson’s No. 57, and Sweet’s No. 49 danced through there back markers and provided a thrilling duel for Fort Worth fans. There were three-wide splits with traffic and numerous close calls before Abrey ultimately topped Larson by 1.020 seconds at the line.
That’s three-straight weekends with a win for Rico Abreu Racing and his first Kubota High Limit Racing victory of the season. The St. Helena, California driver had won consecutive Saturday nights at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway.
After a NASCAR Xfinity Series win earlier today at Texas Motor Speedway, Larson ended his busy day with a runner-up effort on the dirt track.
Aboard the gold NAPA Auto Parts No. 49, the results were silver and bronze this weekend for Brad Sweet and Kasey Kahne Racing. After a runner-up finish on Thursday, “The Big Cat” extended his championship lead witha third-place run on Saturday.
Texan Sam Hafertepe Jr. and NASCAR prodigy Corey Day closed out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 24-Rico Abreu[2]; 2. 57-Kyle Larson[1]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet[5]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[4]; 5. 14BC-Corey Day[7]; 6. 87-Aaron Reutzel[3]; 7. 19-Brent Marks[6]; 8. 14-Spencer Bayston[14]; 9. 26-Justin Peck[13]; 10. 9-Kasey Kahne[8]; 11. 13-Daison Pursley[11]; 12. 42-Sye Lynch[10]; 13. 36-Jason Martin[16]; 14. 24D-Danny Sams III[15]; 15. 22M-Rees Moran[12]; 16. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[9]; 17. J2-John Carney II[23]; 18. 5-Brenham Crouch[24]; 19. 9R-Chase Randall[20]; 20. 4-Austin Mundie[17]; 21. 45X-Landon Crawley[18]; 22. 17JR-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[19]; 23. 88-Tanner Thorson[21]; 24. 69K-Daryn Pittman[22]
