It’s Day’s Trophy Cup, Starks Wins Feature

TULARE, Calif. —  After three nights of intense racing it was Corey Day who earned the Trophy Cup title by having the most points. 

Day will collect the $30,000 champion payout plus earnings from the three nights of racing. 

Starting with fully inverted eight car heat races, top point cars have an opportunity to improve their status. Of the top six in points, it was Justin Peck who gained the most with a heat win.

Peck went from four points behind Dominic Scelzi and Colby Thornhill to eight points ahead.  

The top twenty in points after the heat races moved to the A main and the B main added four more. With a 24-car invert by points, the B main transfers are automatically on the front two rows. 

Saturday’s A main is two races at the same time. First place pays $7,500 and the highest point car earns four times that amount. 

The 24-car field ran 34 nonstop laps before the refueling yellow was thrown. Trey Starks led 23 laps before Tanner Holmes took the lead out of turn four but Starks was back in the lead a lap later.

Tyler Courtney moved to third on lap 24, got second two laps later, but was back in third by the fuel break. Cole Macedo was second when the unnecessary yellow was displayed. Being nonstop the fuel stop wasn’t needed.

Eight laps were green after the restart before a red when Cole Macedo hit the turn two wall. Starks continued in the lead ahead on Tyler Courtney. 

On the restart Tanner Holmes used a turn four slider for third and on lap 46, three-time Trophy Cup champion Shane Golobic was moving potentially into the point lead and got caught up in a turn two tangle to end his chance. 

Starks led the last five laps to post the win over Tyler Courtney and Tanner Holmes. 

The high point battle was close and Corey Day made it two consecutive titles.

The 2024 donation to Make-A-Wish Foundation made the total $3,125,000 from the Trophy Cup. 

The finish:

Feature (50 Laps): 1. 26-Trey Starks[2]; 2. 57W-Tyler Courtney[6]; 3. 18T-Tanner Holmes[1]; 4. 121-Caeden Steele[7]; 5. 14-Corey Day[18]; 6. 73-Ryan Bernal[11]; 7. 88N-DJ Netto[17]; 8. 41-Dominic Scelzi[22]; 9. 42X-Landon Brooks[13]; 10. 3K-Kaleb Montgomery[20]; 11. 83SA-Cory Eliason[10]; 12. 5V-Colby Copeland[16]; 13. 2X-Justin Sanders[19]; 14. 7B-Sean Becker[14]; 15. 21P-Robbie Price[15]; 16. 19-Colby Thornhill[23]; 17. 17-Justin Peck[24]; 18. 83-Ryan Timms[3]; 19. 17W-Shane Golobic[21]; 20. 94TH-Braden Chiaramonte[12]; 21. 0-Tim Kaeding[4]; 22. 4-Jonathan Allard[9]; 23. 21-Cole Macedo[5]; 24. 29-Willie Croft[8]