HANFORD, Calif. — Dominic Scelzi won the 30-lap Kings of Thunder 410 feature on the opening night of the Peter Murphy Classic at the Keller Auto Speedway on Friday night.
Scelzi was aboard the No. 41 for Scelzi Enterprises at the Murphy promoted King’s County Fairgrounds three-eighths-mile dirt oval.
Corey Day brought the Myers Construction No. 14 home in the runner-up spot ahead of the No. 17 NOS Energy Drink/Elk Grove Ford of Shane Golobic.
Hired gun Kasey Kahne in the Roth Motorsports No. 83 and Scelzi brought the 24-car field to the initial start. Both drivers exchanged slide jobs at either ends of the track on the first two laps before Scelzi would take command on the next circuit.
The race’s first caution came out before the fourth lap when Kyle Offill came to a coasting stop on the front stretch. Once restarted, Offill tagged the rear of the field.
On the restart, Day took advantage of the bunched-up field to take the second spot from Kahne. Austin McCarl, another out of town driver, passed Shane Golobic for the fourth spot on lap six.
It wasn’t long until Scelzi would come up on the back markers, but as the track turned to dry-slick, the front group failed to gain anything on each other as the top four runners maintained relative equal distance apart from first to fourth. There was little forward bite, therefore no one was advancing.
Offill would drive over the first turn banking, but kept going and there was no caution. Mark Barroso would join the “over the banking” club on the next lap and avoided the caution when he kept going.
The best battle on the track now was between Mitchell Faccinto and McCarl for fifth just past the 20th lap. This battle would end when Faccinto pulled off the track in the fourth turn on lap 27.
The race would stay green as there weren’t any changes up front.
The finish:
Dominic Scelzi, Corey Day, Shane Golobic, Kasey Kahne, Bud Kaeding, Willie Croft, D J Netto, Sean Becker, Tim Kaeding, Austin McCarl, Kyle Hirst, Kalib Henry, Mitchel Moles, Tanner Holmes, J.J. Ringo, Sean Watts, Koen Shaw, Kenny Allen, Craig Stidham, Mark Barroso, Mitchell Faccinto, Kyle Offill, Robbie Price, Adam Kaeding