TRENTON, N.J. — One might as well call Zack Bealer “Mr. Friday Night” as he blasted to the lead early and kept a charging Steven Snyder Jr. behind on a green-white-checkered restart to win the Friday East Coast Indoor Dirt Nationals at CURE Insurance Arena for the second straight year.
“It was important to get to the lead early and control your own destiny because these guys are all killer,” said the Lehighton, Pa., driver, who pocketed $1,250 for his efforts. “But I was surprised with how fast that door opened. As we got ready for that last restart, I was confident in my equipment, so I knew that I had good enough drive to catch the moisture off four and take his (Snyder’s) line away, and get back to my line. There was a hole in the middle and I had to angle the car right to not get into that. I was hoping everyone behind me was tripping on it. I’m just super blessed everything worked out.”
Bealer started fifth in the 25-lap affair, but found himself on the bottom step of the podium when the first caution flew on lap five. On the ensuing restart, Bealer got those in attendance in their feet as he entered turn one up against the cushion and sliced his way under Wayne Scott like a knife through butter off turn two to take command.
However, it became apparent once Bealer got the lead it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park to the checkered flag as Snyder followed through to second and briefly took the lead with a power move in turn one on lap seven. But fortunately for Bealer, the yellow flew again before the lap could he completed.
As the laps clicked off, Bealer got to feel a little bit of relief because Snyder began to lose touch with him as he and Scott put on a crowd-pleasing performance trading slide jobs lap after lap for the second spot.
But whatever sense of comfort Bealer was feeling was short-lived when a lap 16 yellow brought the field back to his rear-bumper. From there, he could hear the “Jaws” theme music in his head as Snyder, known for pounding the top to perfection, was coming like a freight train while Bealer had two slower cars side by side in front of him.
Snyder looked to be on the attack going into turn one as the white flag waved in the wind, But Bealer was once again saved by the bell with a caution. He then rocketed away to the victory on the single-file restart by 0.718 seconds. Snyder, Alex Ruppert, Kyle Spence and Connor Gross completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps) : 1. Zack Bealer, 2. Steven Snyder Jr., 3. Alex Ruppert, 4. Kyle Spence, 5. Connor Gross, 6. Tyler Catalano, 7. Wayne Scott, 8. Brian Carber, 9. James Roselli, 10. JT Bierman, 11. Kenny Miller III, 12. David Schilling, 13. Johnny Smith, 14. Rodney Westhafer, 15. Zach Curtis, 16. Chris Gerhart, 17. David Burns, 18. Adam Buchel, 19. Aiden Borden, 20. Kyle Lick, 21. Cole Perez, 22. Billy Calvert, 23. Christopher Allen, 24. Kole Kirkman
