WAVERLY, Ohio – Cole Duncan sailed by Brinton Marvel late in the race to win the FAST Series Freedom 40 Saturday night at Atomic Speedway.
Duncan, a six-time winner with the series entering Saturday’s race, chased Marvel for most of the event before finally taking the lead out of turn four on the 36th circuit.
Once out front Duncan sealed the deal, winning the fall event at Atomic Speedawy for the fifth-straight season.
“Boy, he (Marvel) was really good, man I went really hard there,” stated Duncan. “He did not make any mistakes, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Right there in the middle when we got to lapped traffic he was a couple car lengths in front of me and I couldn’t get to him. I noticed on the last caution I pulled the wing back and got going it felt better then I caught the rubber just off the exit of turn four. I just stayed with the rubber as it moved down.
“He just didn’t know, the rubber kept moving down and he just kept running the same line he had been leading with the whole time. He’s doing a great job, he’s just young. He was out front all night, he just did know what the rubber was doing and he needed to move down.”
Marvel would blister off from the outside pole position as Duncan would pull up to second by the second lap. From there the chase was on. Marvel would dash to the top with a lot of momentum as Duncan went down low early to try and make up ground.
Lapped traffic at lap 18 and past the halfway point forced Duncan to move up to the top in search of a racing line. At times it looked like Marvel was pulling away, just to see Duncan get a head of steam and close ground.
By lap 32 Duncan closed and this time kept closing until he took the lead.
“I grew up watching my Dad race here,” said Duncan. “This place is close to home, less than an hour away, the place has not changed that much. It’s my home track and no matter the track condition, it’s good. It is a cool place, last week I won here it was rough and heavy, tonight it was slick and took rubber the last ten laps, and it still produces good racing. I have a lot of sponsors around here, and it’s good that they can come watch us.”
The finish:
Cole Duncan, Brinton Marvel, Lee Jacobs, Danny Smith, Ricky Peterson, Travis Philo, Max Stambaugh, Cale Conley, Jimmy Stinson, Tyler Gunn, Keith Baxter, Jordan Harble, R.J. Jacobs, Lance Webb, Ryan Myers, Cody Gallogly, Sye Lynch, Cody Bova, Josh Davis, Jac Haudenschild, Ronnie Blair, Kory Crabtree.