FREMONT, Ohio – Craig Mintz capped off his vacation with a thrilling 410 sprint win at Fremont Speedway on Saturday.
The three time Fremont champion and current point leader, nipped defending track champion D.J. Foos by 0.020 seconds for his third win of the season at “The Track That Action Built.”
After Bobby Elliott led the first lap of the 30-lap Fort Ball Pizza Palace 410 Sprint feature, veteran John Ivy took over, leading until Mintz rocked off the high side of turn two to gain the top spot on the 11th circuit.
Mintz, who had vacationed out of the country all week, watched Foos slip by on the white flag lap. When Foos slid a lapped car in the final two turns, Mintz turned under both and the drag race to the checkers was on with Mintz edging Foos for the narrow win. Ivy, Jamie Miller and Dan McCarron rounded out the top five.
“If you don’t like that you are in the wrong sport. D.J. and I banged wheels — there wasn’t anything there — we banged wheels again — that’s just going for the win,” Mintz said. “That’s a blast. Hats off to my guys. We have to get better early on. These guys have been busting their tails all week. I haven’t even been in the states and they worked on it all week and I showed up this morning and everything was ready to go.
“Two or three laps before the end I tried to slide up in front of that lapped car and he didn’t give me room so I knew if he (Foos) slid him he wasn’t going to give him any room and I thought if he’s going to slide up I’m going to arch it the other way and slide DJ as best I could. I knew it was going to be close,” added Mintz.
In a caution-filled Steel Block Late Model Series feature, Corey Delancey led the first eight laps before encountering mechanical woes, turning the lead over to Seth Daniels who held the point for four laps.
B.J. Gregory was the only top five car to utilize the top groove, and he drove into the lead on lap 13.
A caution with just three laps to go allowed Daniels to challenge until a caution flew just after the white flag fell. Gregory got a fantastic restart and drove to the win over Daniels, Zach Milbee, Pete Crum and 16th starter Carter Murday.
The victory is the second Fremont win of his career for Gregory who also won the Steel Block Late Model Series event at Fremont in 2021. It also comes after a crash Friday in Michigan that had the No. 56 crew working to rebuilt to the wee hours of Saturday morning.
“It’s been a tough weekend and a tough season,” Gregory said. “We’ve run pretty well this year but had some tough luck and difficult things happen. Last night was no exception to that. We went up to Mt. Pleasant and things didn’t go as well as we planned. We were running good in the feature but late in the race we got caught up in a wreak and tore up almost every panel on the car, junked a bumper, it was a long night and long day.
“Got home at three in the morning and started again at seven,” Gregory continued. “I have to thank my brother Brandon — all year long he’s the set-up guy and makes this thing fast and I just drive it. My tire guy Nate and on these open tires he has had a lot of work. My mom and dad and all the family members.”
Fremont, Ohio’s Jamie Miller nursed a smoking truck to victory lane Saturday, leading all 20 laps of the Burmeister Trophy Dirt Truck A-main for his fourth win of the season in the division. Miller now has 35 total career feature wins at the track, putting him 14th on the all-time win list.
The victory also will vault Miller into the division point lead.
“Something went wrong with the brakes that last lap and I had to really get out of the gas and nurse it through the last two corners,” Miller said. “The motor is tired but it held out for the win. I want to thank Tim and all his family for putting this truck deal together.”
The Finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 09-Craig Mintz[8] ; 2. 16-DJ Foos[6] ; 3. 49I-John Ivy[3] ; 4. 26-Jamie Miller[10] ; 5. 22M-Dan McCarron[13] ; 6. 3V-Chris Verda[11] ; 7. 21-Larry Kingseed[12] ; 8. 15k-Creed Kemenah[9] ; 9. 2+-Brian Smith[5] ; 10. 7T-Troy Vaccaro[1] ; 11. 28M-Conner Morrell[4] ; 12. 5E-Bobby Elliott[2] ; 13. 75-Jerry Dahms[15] ; 14. 98-Robert Robenalt[14] ; 15. 12-Kyle Capodice[7] ; 16. 28-Gray Leadbetter[16]