ATTICA, Ohio — Craig Mintz executed a last-corner pass to score his second career Tezos All Star Circuit of Champions victory to open Attica Raceway Park’s season and the Core and Main Spring Nationals.
Mintz was running fourth when the caution flew with 10 laps to go. The former Attica track champion used the yellow to cool his tires and it paid off. He moved into third on lap 28 and took second with six laps to go and quickly closed on leader Zeb Wise.
Entering the final two turns, Mintz drove to the outside of Wise and the drag race to the checkers saw Mintz win by .074 seconds. It was his 16th career win at Attica and his first All Star win since April of 2012.
“We’ve been struggling with bleeders all night. Just couldn’t get going on those long runs. During that caution I was actually trying to cool my tires down,” Mintz said. “I knew we had a great car and I probably showed my hand a little early. It’s fun to race with Zeb (Wise). We were both really going for it…you could probably measure that win in millimeters.”
Wise finished second.
“That was frustrating,” said Wise. “Hats off to Craig. He drove one heck of a race. I feel like I let my team down there. I really didn’t know where to go in turns one and two.”
Hunter Schuerenberg led the first 27 laps and held on to finish third, followed by Brent Marks and Parker Price-Miller.
Despite losing his brakes halfway through the Dirt Nerds Podcast, Propane.com UMP Late Model A-main, Rusty Schlenk took the lead from Ryan Missler on lap 18 and drove to his 36th career victory at Attica.
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. O9-Craig Mintz [7]; 2. 26-Zeb Wise [2]; 3. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [1]; 4. 19M-Brent Marks [3]; 5. 29-Parker Price Miller [4]; 6. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [5]; 7. 33W-Cap Henry [6]; 8. 5T-Travis Philo [9]; 9. 97-JJ Hickle [19]; 10. 5-Byron Reed [16]; 11. 4-Chris Windom [11]; 12. 9-Trey Jacobs [8]; 13. 99-Skylar Gee [14]; 14. 25R-Jordan Ryan [21]; 15. 35-Stuart Brubaker [23]; 16. 68G-Tyler Gunn [22]; 17. 23-Zeth Sabo [24]; 18. 8M-TJ Michael [20]; 19. 7N-Darin Naida [12]; 20. 70-Scotty Thiel [18]; 21. 28M-Conner Morrell [25]; 22. 45-Tim Shaffer [15]; 23. 4T-Tyler Street [10]; 24. 15c-Chris Andrews [13]; 25. 22-Brandon Spithaler [17]