THOMPSON, Conn. — The only thing in D.J. Shaw’s windshield Saturday afternoon at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park was redemption.
Last year’s PASS Icebreaker 75 proved elusive for Shaw who had to settle for sixth following Derek Griffith’s dominance of the 2021 event.
Content with following polesitter Johnny Clark through the opening stages, Shaw laid in wait for the first 40 laps until Clark’s handling faded away, the No.54 coming out of turn four nearly sidewise on multiple occasions.
On lap 47, Austin MacDonald, a major threat for the lead throughout his preliminary heat and the feature, slammed hard into the turn-one wall.
On the restart, Shaw launched like a rocket, with Clark and Jake Johnson in tow. While these three took off, the remaining top-ten cars cruised around the five-eighths-mile under a blanket before veteran drivers Joey Polewarczyk and Eddie MacDonald left the party.
In the remaining laps, Shaw, Johnson and MacDonald made their own lane to the finish while Polewarczyk and fellow New Hampshire driver Gabe Brown mixed it up in the final two laps with Brown on top for fourth and Polewarczyk capping the top five.
Stephen Kopick held off Mike Christopher Jr. to win the Sunoco Modified feature.
Todd Bertrand won the NEMA Lites 25-lap main event.
Jarred Roy won the mini stock feature and Gerard Giordano Jr. claimed the pro truck feature.