PORT ROYAL, Pa. — The richest paying race in Port Royal Speedway history lived up to the billing on Saturday night as the PA Posse dueled with the drivers from Kubota High Limit Racing and Danny Dietrich claimed victory at the end of 40 laps.
Dietrich, who was sporting the Weikert Livestock No. 29 and colors for the weekend’s event, started third to start the A-main event.
Through the opening 15 laps, he would run in the fourth spot, when a restart with 25 to go allowed him to drive by polesitter and leader through the first portion of the race Devon Borden.
The pass would move Dietrich up to second as High Roller with High Limit Racing Tyler Courtney took the lead from Borden on the ensuing restart.
A flat tire for Corey Day brought the field back together for a restart with 22 laps remaining, which brought the Weikert 29 alongside the NOS Energy Drink No. 7bc.
Once racing resumed, Anthony Macri passed Dietrich to move into the runner-up spot but the two PA drivers would battle for position for the next nine laps without ever losing ground on Tyler Courtney in the top spot.
Dietrich took the runner-up spot back from Macri with 13 laps remaining and set his sights on the top spot. He passed for the lead in turns three and four and come across the line with 10 laps remaining.
Dietrich opened his lead to over 2 seconds, but he wouldn’t walk away with the win without some late race dramatics.
With four laps remaining, and Tyler Courtney closing in, a caution caused by Zeb Wise would bring the field back to the tail of Dietrich.
Over the next three laps, Dietrich would work the bottom and middle lanes in the corners and Courtney would run the extreme top side trying to mount momentum to get around Dietrich.
As the drivers were going into turn three on the white-flag lap, Courtney drove to the inside and passed Dietrich for the lead, but as soon as he did, the caution flag waved for Borden, who sat still at the top side of turn four, giving Dietrich the lead back for a green-white-checkered finish.
As the green flag waved on the single file restart, Dietrich was able to pull away from the field behind him as Rico Abreu attempted a slide job on Courtney giving Dietrich enough space to cross the line in first for the $75,000 payday.
“I was just trying to drive every lap as hard as I could,” said Dietrich in victory lane. “I slowed up a bit in turn three coming to the checkered because I ran out of fuel. I wanted to do some donuts but I don’t have enough fuel to do it.”
“Tonight was about 75 grand,” said runner-up Tyler Courtney. “It sucks we couldn’t finish that lap, but that’s how racing goes.”
Dietrich would ultimately take home $76,500 dollars as he was also the Durst Dice Roll driver after a fan rolled a three in victory lane meaning the fan and Dietrich, who started third, would split $3,000 if Dietrich would win from that position.
In Zimmerman Truck Repair limited late model competition, Brad McGinnis put the rest of the division in his rearview mirror as he would lead every lap.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 29-Danny Dietrich[3]; 2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[4]; 3. 24-Rico Abreu[8]; 4. 39M-Anthony Macri[7]; 5. 9P-Parker Price Miller[5]; 6. 19-Brent Marks[19]; 7. 2-David Gravel[11]; 8. 1Z-Chase Dietz[17]; 9. 69K-Logan Wagner[9]; 10. 1S-Logan Schuchart[2]; 11. 55W-Mike Wagner[22]; 12. 8-Cory Eliason[23]; 13. 5C-Dylan Cisney[26]; 14. 83-James McFadden[6]; 15. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[24]; 16. 13-Justin Peck[20]; 17. 21-Brian Brown[10]; 18. 49-Brad Sweet[18]; 19. 77-Michael Walter[28]; 20. 55-Chris Windom[27]; 21. 14-Corey Day[16]; 22. 9-Kasey Kahne[13]; 23. 88-Tanner Thorson[25]; 24. 23-Devon Borden[1]; 25. 26-Zeb Wise[12]; 26. 35-Austin Bishop[15]; 27. 5-Spencer Bayston[14]; 28. 42-Sye Lynch[21]
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