WAYNESFIELD, Ohio — Chris Andrews was determined not to let a feature win slip through his grasp Thursday at Waynesfield Raceway Park.
The Sandusky, Ohio, driver got up on the wheel the last three laps and blasted around Bryce Lucius in the last corner of the last lap to score the NAPA Auto Parts All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Valvoline Oil win during the 44th Annual Overwatch Precision Ohio Sprint Speedweek Presented by Kistler Engines and Kistler Racing Products.
It was an emotional win for Andrews, who has struggled to start the season.
“That last lap I said to myself, ‘Chris it’s time to ball up and go.’ My guys have worked so hard to turn this program around. You give so much to this sport and it sometimes just beats you down and I was to the point I was about to give up. I put it to the fence and drove the wheels off this thing,” said Andrews.
Andrews led the first 16 laps of the 35-lap feature at “The Field” before Lucius took over. Andrews fell back to third by lap 21 behind Lucius and Nate Dussel. With just seven laps to go Lucius was mired in thick lapped traffic and Dussel and Andrews closed.
Andrews got around Dussel on the white flag lap and entering the final set of turns, Lucius had to make a decision with a lapped car and Andrews pounced, blast to the outside and around Lucius for his second career All Star win, his other series win coming in 2013.
Lucius, Dussel, D.J. Foos and Cap Henry rounded out the top five.
Defending Ohio Speedweek champion Danny Dietrich’s sixth-place finish places him in the lead heading into the $10,000 to win show Friday at Fremont and the $10,000 to win event at Wayne County Speedway Saturday.
In the USAC D2 Midgets, Zach Wigal led all 20 laps for his second win of the year with the series.
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 15C-Chris Andrews[1]; 2. 27H-Bryce Lucius[2]; 3. 1-Nate Dussel[9]; 4. 3-DJ Foos[3]; 5. 33W-Cap Henry[11]; 6. 48-Danny Dietrich[6]; 7. 66-Ryan Newton[8]; 8. 71-Parker Price Miller[18]; 9. 45-Tim Shaffer[5]; 10. 98-Ricky Peterson[13]; 11. 11N-Darin Naida[19]; 12. 28N-Trey Jacobs[16]; 13. 49X-Cale Thomas[25]; 14. 101-Kalib Henry[23]; 15. 38-Leyton Wagner[26]; 16. 14-Zane DeVault[10]; 17. 5T-Travis Philo[21]; 18. 16-Gauge Garcia[24]; 19. 17GP-Hank Davis[15]; 20. 20B-Cody Bova[22]; 21. 44-Aiden Price[7]; 22. 29Z-Zeth Sabo[12]; 23. 79-Cole Duncan[17]; 24. 97-Zach Hampton[20]; 25. 5P-Gavan Boschele[14]; 26. (DNS) 09-Craig Mintz
