WICHITA FALLS, Texas — Danny Dietrich led all 30 laps to earn his first Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 feature of the season in Friday’s Cometic Gasket Thunder Through The Plains presented by Hercules Tires event at Monarch Motor Speedway.
Dietrich earned $5,000 for his 12th career All Star triumph.
“My goal coming down here was to win at least one of these races. We were pretty close last night, so to get it done here tonight is pretty awesome,” Dietrich said. “It has been a pretty demanding week. Getting a win with the All Stars makes the work and the heat totally worth it. Hopefully we get to come back to this place and do it again next year.”
Earning the pole position by way of dash win, Danny Dietrich’s route to Monarch Motor Speedway victory lane was relatively unchallenged, first dealing with a pair of opening lap stoppages before the race could officially commence.
Immediately choosing the cushion over the bottom groove, Dietrich jumped to the early advantage, keeping fellow front row starter Cory Eliason at bay as the duo raced beyond the flag stand to complete the opening lap.
Continuing to zing the top of the speedway, Dietrich and Eliason met traffic for the first time on lap 12, thus allowing Eliason to close the gap on Dietrich ever so slightly. Traffic continued to be a factor over the next several circuits, ultimately intensifying with cars stacked two and three wide by lap 21.
Although Dietrich did his best to lose Eliason among the slower cars, the driver of the Rudeen Racing entry held on and kept pace with the Gettysburg-native, driving himself within a few car lengths of Dietrich’s back bumper.
Eventually finding his way back to clean air, Dietrich quickly picked up the pace and sailed home, increasing his lead to just shy of three seconds by the time the final checkers waved.
Besides the pair of red flag incidents on the opening lap, the first for Premier Motorsports’ Justin Peck and the second for a multi-car pileup on the front straightaway, the evening’s 30-lapper would go on to be caution free.
“I just want to thank my car owner, Gary Kauffman, for allowing this trip to happen. There are a lot of great people who support this race team and we wouldn’t be in this position without them,” Dietrich continued. “We still have two nights to go, so hopefully we can do this again and give our fans back home something to be even more proud of.”
Cory Eliason would finish second at Monarch Motor Speedway, followed by Southern Oklahoma winner Brock Zearfoss, Roger Crockett and Dominic Scelzi.
The finish
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 48-Danny Dietrich [1]; 2. 26-Cory Eliason [2]; 3. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [5]; 4. 11C-Roger Crockett [7]; 5. 41S-Dominic Scelzi [9]; 6. 11-Zeb Wise [18]; 7. 23B-Brian Bell [12]; 8. 14-Tony Stewart [20]; 9. 99-Skylar Gee [3]; 10. 13-Paul McMahan [15]; 11. 87-Aaron Reutzel [4]; 12. W20-Greg Wilson [8]; 13. 11X-John Carney [10]; 14. 16A-Justin Sanders [11]; 15. 17-Josh Baughman [6]; 16. 4-Danny Smith [19]; 17. 1X-Jake Bubak [17]; 18. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [13]; 19. 70-Justin Peck [14]; 20. 9$-Kyle Clark [16] Lap Leaders: Danny Dietrich (1-30)