MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Brent Marks picked up his fourth Pennsylvania Sprint Car Speedweek win in his last five starts with a win in the Mitch Smith Memorial Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway.
The victory was worth $15,000 for the Speedweek point leader and was his 10th overall win of the season.
“This car is really good and this team is really good,” Marks said. “I felt a little off in the beginning. We had to work on the car to get it better during the open red. Didn’t feel all that good right after that and I was a little worried, but the longer we ran, the better it got.”
Marks shot into the lead riding high on the cushion. Rico Abreu wrestled the second spot away from Dylan Norris during the opening laps.
Marks quickly built a 2.7-second lead over Abreu in only five laps. He started lapping slower cars as well. They didn’t hold him up as he quickly put three cars between himself and Abreu.
Marks’ big lead was erased with nine laps completed when Logan Wagner spun in tun two bringing out the yellow flag. A broken rear axle was the cause.
Marks controlled the restart as Anthony Macri passed Robbie Kendall and Troy Wagaman Jr. advancing to fourth spot.
Lance Dewease made hard contact with the inside frontstretch fence bringing out another yellow with 10 laps completed. Dewease was OK, but done for the night.
An incident on the restart kept the field under yellow. Austin Bishop and Lucas Wolfe were involved and Justin Peck also stopped on the frontstretch. The cars were stopped allowing crews to refuel.
Macri and Norris battled for third after the restart with Macri getting the spot as Marks got away from Abreu.
His lead was 1.56 at the half-way point. He closed on the back of the field once again with Abreu and Macri in tow.
The lead was a little less as he started lapping slower cars.
Two cars were right in front of Marks running the cushion with 19 laps complete. This allowed Abreu to close under a second. Macri wasn’t far behind in third.
Marks used the inside line to lap two cars. This allowed him to get some breathing room over Abreu.
The lead was back up to 1.3-second with seven to go.
Macri blasted under Abreu in turn three taking over the second spot. Abreu tried to take it back in turn one, but Macri secured the spot.
He closed on Marks with three laps left. Marks got around a lapped car and Macri slipped up a bit on the second-turn cushion.
Marks took the white flag, but a slower car took his top line entering turn one. Marks tried the middle, but lost a lot of speed. He spun his tires down the backstretch with Macri coming with a head of steam.
Macri tried a slider in turn three, but couldn’t clear the pass as Marks raced clean off turn four to the checkers by just over a second. Abreu completed the podium.
“I made a mistake with that lapped car,” Marks said. “I got myself stuck in the middle. I knew Anthony got into second and I knew he’d be coming in a hurry. When I spun the tires, I figured he had a run on me. I went into turn three and held it wide open and hoped for the
best.”
Norris and 13th starter Danny Dietrich completed the top five.
T.J. Stutts set quick time over the 32-car field with a lap of 16.805.
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. Brent Marks. 2. Anthony Macri. 3. Rico Abreu. 4. Dylan Norris. 5. Danny Dietrich. 6. Robbie Kendall. 7. Troy Wagaman Jr. 8. Freddie Rahmer. 9. Ryan Smith. 10. Justin Peck. 11. TJ Stutts. 12. Devon Borden. 13. Matt Campbell. 14. Tanner Thorson. 15. Sye Lynch. 16. Steve Buckwalter. 17. Chad Trout. 18. Kyle Reinhardt. 19. Kyle Moody. 20. Lucas Wolfe. 21. Austin Bishop. 22. Lance Dewease. 23. Logan Wagner. 24. Chase Dietz.