ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. – After surviving early race cautions, Danny Dietrich ultimately came to the front of the field to win Saturday’s 410 sprint car feature at Lincoln Speedway.
Dietrich was running third when the leader, Chase Dietz, had a mechanical issue that ended his afternoon. He later squeezed by Chad Trout for the lead with five laps to go and went on to earn his 55th career win at Lincoln.
Freddie Rahmer started on the pole of the 30-lap feature and shared the front row with Bradley Howard.
Rahmer led the field into turn one but the caution came out for Kyle Moody who got turned around in the first turn. Moody had lined up third for the start of the feature.
The field lined up for a complete restart with Rahmer and Howard getting together at the end of the front stretch. Rahmer took a wild ride bringing out the red flag.
The melee at the front of the field caused a 10-car pile-up, including Tim Wagaman, Brandon Rahmer, Scott Fisher, Steve Buckwalter, Rickey Peterson, Jordan Givler, Aaron Bollinger, Dylan Norris, Greg Plank and Troy Wagaman.
In addition to Freddie Rahmer and Howard not being able to rejoin the field, Brandon Rahmer was also done for the afternoon.
Dietz inherited the lead and led the field alongside Trout for another complete restart. Dietz led the field into turn one with Billy Dietrich and Matt Campbell battling for third behind him. Billy Dietrich took the spot at the line.
Jim Siegel was tracking down Campbell for fourth and took the spot at the line on lap three. Dietz then entered lapped traffic on lap five with a 4.6 second lead over Trout.
Trout had Dietz’s lead down to 1.6 seconds by lap 10 as they worked through lapped traffic.
Danny Dietrich was reeling in Campbell to work his way into the top five and took the spot on lap 11. Meanwhile, Billy Dietrich had caught Trout and wanted second. Billy Dietrich got a good look under Trout in turn three, but a lapped car kept him from making the pass.
A three-car battle for third was on between Billy Dietrich, Siegel and Danny Dietrich. The Dietrich brothers split Siegel with Danny taking third and Billy falling to fourth.
Campbell then got by Siegel for fifth before taking fourth from Billy on lap 17, but the yellow flag flew on lap 18 for Greg Plank in turn two. Plank collected Alan Krimes and Glenndon Forsythe.
Dietz led Trout, Danny Dietrich, Campbell and Siegel on the restart. Dietz hung onto the lead and pulled away from the field while Campbell tried the inside of Danny Dietrich and took third.
Danny Dietrich took the spot back with a slider in turn four before the caution came out on lap 20 for the leader, Dietz. Dietz appeared to have a mechanical failure when he hit the wall in turn four.
Trout inherited the lead with Danny Dietrich, Campbell, Siegel and Tim Shaffer lined up behind him for the restart. Campbell was the only driver to opt for the top in turns one and two on the restart. Siegel got a nose under Campbell, but he kept the spot.
Danny Dietrich was all over Trout’s back bumper on lap 22 and tried a slider for the lead in turns three and four, to no avail.
Campbell was still using the top in turns one and two to reel in the leaders, while Danny Dietrich was using the top of turns three and four to hunt down Trout.
Finally, Dietrich squeezed by Trout coming out of turn four to take the lead with five laps to go. Now in second, Trout was holding off Campbell. Campbell looked to the inside of Trout after getting a solid run out of turn four, but couldn’t make the pass.
Dietrich eventually got to the checkered flag 2.898 seconds ahead of Trout to take home the $4,000 prize. Campbell held on to third and Siegel finished fourth. Shaffer, last week’s winner, completed the top five.
Heat race winners were Shaffer, Howard and Billy Dietrich.
In addition to winning the feature, Danny Dietrich was also the hard charger, driving from 15th starting spot to the victory.
Jeremy Ott won the Central PA Legends feature over Bill Diehl and Jorgie Sweger.
The finish:
1. 48-Danny Dietrich ($4,000); 2. 1X-Chad Trout; 3. 21-Matt Campbell; 4. 59-Jim Siegel; 5. 72-Tim Shaffer; 6. 75-Tyler Ross; 7. 8-Billy Dietrich; 8. 87-Alan Krimes; 9. 17B-Steve Buckwalter; 10. 99M-Kyle Moody; 11. 5E-Tim Wagaman; 12. 44-Dylan Norris; 13. 69-Tim Glatfelter; 14. 90-Jordan Givler; 15. 16A-Aaron Bollinger; 16. 19-Troy Wagaman; 17. 2-Ricky Peterson; 18. 21T-Scott Fisher; 19. 39-Chase Dietz (DNF); 20. 2w-Glenndon Forsythe (DNF); 21. 11P-Greg Plank (DNF); 22. 51-Freddie Rahmer (DNF); 23. 49H-Bradley Howard (DNF); 24. 88-Brandon Rahmer (DNF)