FORT WORTH, Texas — With their backs against the wall and championships hopes hanging by a thread, Giovanni Scelzi and his Spire Motorsports Chili’s Grill & Bar No. 77 team stepped up to the plate.
Scelzi drove from seventh starting spot to victory in the penultimate High Limit Racing event of the season Friday night at The Dirt Track at Texas Motor Speedway.
Entering Friday’s opener of the All-In Championship Weekend down by 45 points to Rico Abreu and Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing, Scelzi and Spire knew that a big-time performance was needed to keep them in the title fight, especially considering Abreu had won three of nine High Limit events at TMS.
Starting from seventh in the 25-lap feature, Scelzi was already behind the eight-ball as Abreu rolled from third and ripped into second right out of the gate.
In fact, for 11 of the 25 laps, Scelzi would have been mathematically eliminated from title contention had the checkered flew as they ran with Abreu in front of him by multiple spots.
However, the kid they call “Hot Sauce” dug deep for his clutch gene and found another gear – storming into third on Lap 14, taking second on Lap 16, and then ripping past Abreu to take the lead on Lap 18.
Scelzi led the final eight circuits in arguably the best High Limit race held at Texas Motor Speedway – holding on to secure back-to-back series victories and send him into Saturday’s season finale 36 points behind Abreu and TSR.
The clinching scenarios are simple for Saturday’s finale in Fort Worth:
– Abreu 16th or better – he wins championship
– Abreu 17th/18th – Scelzi has to win to take championship
– Abreu 19th/20th – Scelzi has to run 1st/2nd to take championship
– Abreu 21st/22nd – Scelzi has to run 1st/2nd/3rd to take championship
– Abreu 23rd – Scelzi has to run 1st-4th to take championship
– Abreu 24th – Scelzi has to run 1st-5th to take championship
While Scelzi enjoyed his third trip to Whiskey Myers Victory Lane this season, Tyler Courtney chased him to the stripe, completing a charge from 11th to second aboard the Clauson-Marshall Racing No. 7bc.
After leading laps 13-17, Abreu fell back to finish third aboard his Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing No. 24.
Rounding out the top five were Tanner Thorson and Daison Pursley.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 1. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[7]; 2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[11]; 3. 24-Rico Abreu[3]; 4. 88-Tanner Thorson[5]; 5. 9-Daison Pursley[2]; 6. 19-Brent Marks[10]; 7. 9R-Chase Randall[12]; 8. 13-Tanner Holmes[1]; 9. 55-Brady Bacon[6]; 10. 10-Ryan Timms[16]; 11. 17GP-Kerry Madsen[13]; 12. 5-Brenham Crouch[4]; 13. 88W-Austin McCarl[19]; 14. 26-Justin Peck[21]; 15. 4-Kasey Kahne[8]; 16. 21-Brian Brown[15]; 17. 11-Roger Crockett[9]; 18. 22M-Rees Moran[23]; 19. 42-Sye Lynch[17]; 20. 24D-Danny Sams III[14]; 21. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[24]; 22. 45X-Ashton Torgerson[22]; 23. 44-Chris Martin[20]; 24. 12X-Landon Crawley[18]
