SAN TAN VALLEY, Ariz. — Buddy Kofoid broke out the six-shooters for a second night in a row by storming to victory lane in Saturday night’s second leg of the inaugural Wild Wing Shootout at Arizona Speedway.
Kofoid countered a Cory Eliason bid for the lead midway through the 35-lapper before checking out on the field over the final half of the race to secure the $10,000-winnner’s share aboard the Reinbold/Underwood Motorsports AME Electric No. 19az.
Another lap would have proven costly for the Phoenix-based team, however.
“It’s a good thing that wasn’t a 40-lap race or even a 36-lap race, going down the backstretch I think she let go. It soaked oil everywhere, I just tried to limp it home,” Kofoid explained. “I’m pretty speechless right now, it’s pretty cool to go back-to-back against all these guys.”
After winning Friday’s opener from the pole starting position, the 19-year-old from Penngrove, Calif., gridded Saturday night’s main event inside the third row as Eliason and D.J. Netto led the way to the green flag.
Eliason raced into the early lead aboard the Rudeen Racing No. 26 with third-starter Giovanni Scelzi in tow as Kofoid made his way to third by the fourth lap. Reaching lapped traffic by the ninth lap, the trio closed up exiting turn two on the tenth lap with Kofoid emerging from a three-wide race down the backstretch to take command as Eliason slipped to third.
Eliason worked back around Scelzi to recapture second soon after a lap ten caution and put the pressure on Kofoid, sliding briefly into the lead in turns one and two on the 18th lap only to have Kofoid counter the move to recapture the lead.
“He got by and I decided I better move up the track some,” Kofoid explained. “I started running the lower middle part of the track and that seemed faster than right around the tires.”
It proved to be, as Kofoid stretched his lead over Eliason to a full straightaway by the time the checkered flag flew.
Carson Macedo battled past Scelzi on the 33rd lap to claim the third position aboard the Tarlton Motorsports No. 21 entry for the second night in a row with Scelzi and Rico Abreu rounding out the top five.
Eliason topped Saturday’s qualifying with a lap of 13.176.
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 19az-Buddy Kofoid (5), 2. 26-Cory Eliason (1), 3. 21-Carson Macedo (10), 4. 18-Giovanni Scelzi (3), 5. 57-Rico Abreu (7), 6. 41-Dominic Scelzi (4), 7. 83-Aaron Reutzel (6), 8. 14d-Corey Day (17), 9. 37-Mitchell Faccinto (21), 10. 15-Donny Schatz (13), 11. 42x-Tim Kaeding (12), 12. 93-Kalib Henry (18), 13. 14-Tony Stewart (9), 14. 56-Sammy Swindell (23), 15. 5T-Ryan Timms (15), 16. 98-Sean Watts (19), 17. 14T-Tim Estenson (25), 18. 18T-Tanner Holmes (16), 19. 1-Robbie Price (22), 20. 88n-D.J. Netto (2), 21. 33m-Mason Daniel (14), 22. 75-Brian Boswell (24), 23. 21b-A.J. Bender (20), 24. 18s-Jason Solwold (11), 25. 69k-Lance Dewease (8). DNS: 13-Bill Balog.