PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Logan Wagner felt poised to win Saturday’s Tuscarora 50 at Port Royal Speedway whether Lance Dewease operated at full strength or not.
At 5 p.m., Wagner lounged inside the Zemco Racing trailer a half-hour before hot laps, easing the quiet period with a crew member and was open to conversation.
“I feel good. I feel relaxed, laid back,” he said, his voice mellow and his white fire suit unzipped to his waist. “I’m ready to do what we’ve been doing all year. … Pass cars, get in the feature and see what happens.”
It looked clear: Dewease would have won his eighth Tuscarora 50 if it weren’t for an oil malfunction that hindered his machine and altered his vision.
Wagner’s confidence, speed and relevance, however, needed appropriate calculation.
He didn’t finish outside the top 10 this season until the Knoxville Nationals.
Wagner entered Saturday’s 50-lap main event with two quick time awards in three days. He had all the reasons to start ruminating the comforts of a $54,000 prize and place in Central Pennsylvania history.
At the green flag, Wagner wanted to settle into the top three. He let polesitter Rico Abreu do his thing out front and rode in second.
Dewease passed Wagner on lap three and powered to the lead soon after.
“I was OK with Lance getting by me,” Wagner said. “I just wanted to ride.”
When Wagner shot past Abreu for second on lap 17, he soon realized he had a powerful car. Before the halfway fuel stop, he began catching Dewease, whose struggles were equally apparent in dirty air.
“It clicked,” Wagner started, snapping his fingers. “He’s not that good. I just don’t think he had the car he usually has. In dirty air, it was balled up. And we were really good.”
Prior to the redraw earlier in the evening, Wagner conversed with Dewease.
“I was telling him how bad my car was in dirty air, which it’s not too bad,” Wagner said. “He said, ‘Man, mine’s real bad dirty air.’ I knew then if we got to dirty air, I was going to be a threat.”
His head tilted left and an aw-shucks grin appeared.
“He’s probably going to watch this video and say I shouldn’t have said that,” Wagner said. “But I gather everything in.”
Dewease reached traffic again on lap 31 and in a matter of two laps Wagner erased his 1.8-second deficit. But when Wagner tried slinging around the top of turns three and four on lap 33, he smacked the guardrail and Dewease scampered away.
The race’s final caution came out on lap 37, leaving plenty of time for Wagner to feast on traffic.
Dewease reached the end of the field one more time with eight laps to go. With five laps left, Wagner chopped the margin from two seconds to one.
Three laps later, Wagner noticed Dewease drift in no man’s land, the middle of turns three and four.
“I smelled blood in the water,” he said, walking through his move to undercut Dewease and take the lead.
The winning maneuver and a celebration that captivated a soldout crowd had been ignited.
“I was so calm early,” Wagner said. “I knew what we had to do. I knew what we had to do.”
Ecstasy. @LoganWagner_1 and @ZemcoRacing are Tuscarora 50 champs here at @PortRoyalSpdway. pic.twitter.com/jyzuR8jBN4
— Kyle McFadden (@ByKyleMcFadden) September 12, 2021