MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Brent Marks, Lance Dewease and many other drivers likely wondered what their National Open fruits could have been with a boost of fortune.
The luck factor often comes across as cliché and it can feel like a cheap reason to explain unfulfilled goals. But this past weekend at Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway demonstrated how much luck goes into a faultless drive to victory.
Marks, an 11-time winner this year and the 2019 National Open winner, controlled his fate when led the first 10 laps from the pole. Then contact with a lapped car ruined it all and he finished 15th.
“It’s just really unfortunate,” Marks said.
Dewease was positioned for another dash appearance through his heat race, running comfortably in second with two laps to go. A caution for Jacob Allen altered the course of events and an aggressive Anthony Macri throttled past Dewease putting the Hall of Famer out of a spot in the dash.
Dewease started the 40-lap main event 10th and finished seventh. Macri, meanwhile, started fifth and finished fourth.
On Friday, Kyle Larson needed all the breaks he could get to score the preliminary night victory. He started seventh in his heat and moved from third to second, into a dash spot, when Danny Dietrich broke while leading.
Larson drew the pole for the dash and won it and the 25-lap feature.
“We really just caught a lot of breaks all night,” Larson admitted afterward. “Hopefully, we didn’t use up all of our luck before tomorrow.”
Larson, in fact, did use up all his luck on Friday. Saturday night, he started 13th and salvaged an eighth-place finish.
Winner Carson Macedo, on the other hand, needed a shot of fortune on a mid-race restart while running fourth.
He got bottled up exiting turn two and lost four positions. But a red flag for T.J. Stutts and Robbie Kendall gave Macedo a mulligan.
Macedo worked his way to third once things resumed and won the $75,000 prize with a timely move with five laps to go.
“We definitely caught a break with that red flag,” Macedo said.
• Anthony Macri was the highest Posse finisher with a fourth-place run on Saturday.
The 22-year-old also finished fourth on Friday, a weekend that now gives him four top-five finishes in 14 World of Outlaws races this year.
• Freddie Rahmer surged from 26th to finish seventh on Friday night, but was involved in a first-lap accident on Saturday and credited with 27th.
• Lucas Wolfe was unable to race this past weekend because of engine issues with Jim and Laura Allebach’s No. 5w sprint car.
Wolfe damaged another engine on Sept. 26 at Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway and will nurse his minimal resources the rest of the year. Still, he plans to compete with the World of Outlaws this weekend at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway.
• Carson Macedo’s National Open victory scored big for Pennsylvania sponsors Jonestown KOA and the Hershey-based Saich Family.
Macedo also became the only World of Outlaws regular to win one of the crown jewel events this year.
• Port Royal hosts its final 410 weekend of the year when the World of Outlaws permeate the half-mile clay oval this Friday and Saturday night.
Logan Wagner, Lance Dewease and Anthony Macri finished on the podium in the track’s last event, the 54th annual Tuscarora 50 sanctioned by the All Star Circuit of Champions, on Sept. 11.
• Lance Dewease is in jeopardy of going two full seasons without a World of Outlaws victory, something that hasn’t happened to the National Sprint Car Hall of Famer since 2012 and ‘13.
Dewease’s last World of Outlaws triumph came May 18, 2019, in the Morgan Cup at Williams Grove. That’s also the last time a Posse driver defeated the World of Outlaws regulars.