ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. — Alan Krimes ended a two-year drought from victory lane earlier this year. On Saturday Krimes was back in victory lane with his 20th career win at Lincoln Speedway.
For the second week in a row Cole Young started on the front row of the sprint car feature, but this week it was the pole. Brett Michalski shared the front row with Young.
Young went to the top of the track at the start which let Michalski get his nose under Young going into turns one and two. Michalski was about to lead lap one when the caution came out for Chad Trout who got turned around in turns three and four. The caution set the field up for a complete restart.
Michalski got his nose under Young again on the restart but this time Young got a good run coming out of turn two to give him the edge over Michalski going down the back stretch to lead lap one.
Chase Dietz, Brent Shearer and Krimes were waging a three-way battle for third place. Dietz emerged the victor and started to work on Michalski for second. It didn’t take long for Krimes to join in and once he did, he made quick work of Dietz and Michalski in two laps to take second.
While Krimes was working his way through the front of the field Adam Wilt was doing the same and had just moved into fourth when the red flag came out on lap 11. The race leader, Young, hit the front stretch wall and flipped ending his night.
Krimes inherited the lead and led Dietz, Wilt, Michalski and Brian Montieth to the cone for the single-file restart.
Monteith, true to his nick name “The Edge” went to the top of the track in turns one and two on the restart and got around Michalski for fourth.
Wilt got under Dietz in one and two for second and they stayed side by side with Wilt edging Dietz at the flag stand by half a car length for the position on lap 14.
With Krimes approaching lapped traffic, Wilt was able to close the gap between him and the leader. Once the leaders were in lapped traffic Wilt was able to keep pace with Krimes. Wilt gave it one last shot trying the bottom in turns one and two but he couldn’t catch Krimes.
Krimes beat Wilt to the checkered flag by .772 seconds. Montieth held onto third. Dietz finished fourth and Michalski completed the top five.
Doug Hammaker won the 358 sprint car feature and Steven Drevicki topped the USAC East Coast sprint car season opener.