HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Zach Newlin found his way to victory after 25 laps at Hagerstown Speedway for the first time as he held off a hard-charging Ken Duke Jr. in the closing laps during the first night of the inaugural IMCA RaceSaver East Coast Sprint Nationals.
The Millerstown, Pa., driver drove his No.11z mount past pole sitter Dylan Proctor going into turn one from the outside, and pulled away from the field into lapped traffic by lap nine until a caution flag waved for the spun car of Jonathon Jones on the tenth circuit.
Duke had started the race from 13th, and quickly marched his way toward the front. He was up to sixth by lap five, fifthth by lap seven, and fourth when the first caution came out.
After the restart, Duke moved past Christian Rumsey a lap later, then around Brad Mellott for second position another lap after that.
Meanwhile, Newlin had pulled away and again was working through traffic before Duke was hot on his heels. Duke reeled in Newlin and pulled even with him on lap 19, but Newlin was able to main the lead by a slim margin. The pair battled for the lead as two more cautions setup restarts; the last being a one lap shootout to the finish.
Duke’s slider off of turn two was close, but not enough to get by Newlin, as Newlin held Duke off the final half of a lap to the checkered flag.
“I was probably out of breath on like lap 15 I think. I’ve been sick since Wednesday…….it’s been rough. I’m going to sleep good tonight, I know that. I saw Ken’s nose under me, and I knew I had to pick up the pace and get good restarts”, said Newlin.
Following Newlin and Duke at the finish were Rumsey, 19th-starting Scott Lutz and Jaremi Hanson.
Justin Weaver had to chase down Chad Myers over the first half of the 25 lap Mason Dixon Shootout Series feature event on A&C Racing Engines night, and then had to battle Myers for several laps side-by-side before securing the advantage for the lead with only a few laps remaining.
Weaver’s win was his second overall at Hagerstown in 2019 as he has a Super Late Model win to his credits. It was the 27th career Late Model Sportsman win.
Rounding out the top five were previous 2019 Late Model Sportsman winner James Lichliter and Scott Palmer and Andrew Yoder.