MALTA, N.Y. — Kenny Tremont Jr., who notched his first Albany-Saratoga Speedway DIRTcar modified win of 2021 last week after struggling with his new car’s handling through the early portion of the season, came back strong to claim his 80th career win Friday night.
“The track was wetter this week and when I caught cars on the bottom, I could go to the top and get around them,” tipped Tremont, who had struggled in the top groove previously.
The 14th-starting winner made the move of the race on the initial break, scooting low to pass Anthony Perrego and a few others, a move that would pay off in spades later. With a mid-program rain contributing to a lightning-fast surface, everyone was fast and it only took Matt DeLorenzo five laps to move from seventh to take command from polesitter Scott Huber.
A yellow the next time around saw Tremont 11th but he again got a great jump on the restart and stood seventh when the second caution came on lap nine.
Good moves on that restart and yet another on lap 11 put Tremont second on lap 13 and after a couple of high side runs on DeLorenzo that didn’t pay off, Tremont made it stick on the way to the crossed flags and drove away from DeLorenzo and Perrego, who by then had fought his way to third.
The complexion of the race changed yet again on lap 26, when the leaders caught the tail of the field, allowing his pursuers to close on Tremont. DeLorenzo managed to get even in turn one of the final lap, but Tremont pulled him down the backstretch only to have a rerun off turn four.
At the checkers, it was Tremont by a nose over DeLorenzo, Perrego, Huber, Marc Johnson, 24th starting Mike Mahaney, Jessey Mueller, Jack Speshock, Ronnie Johnson and C.B. Morey.
“I caught Matt on the bottom but I knew I’d have to go to the top to get by him,” explained Tremont. “Then I knew he’d make a run on me in traffic so I tried to time where I passed the lapped cars to bottle up his lane. On that last lap, I made sure I timed the last lapped car so that I had room to get maximum acceleration off the turn.”
“I made the decision to roll the bottom on that last lap a little too late,” offered DeLorenzo. “Traffic helped me close up on him and I gave it a good shot but it didn’t work out.”
As for Perrego, he tipped that “I got in the wrong lane on one restart and lost a couple of spots. If I could have gotten to second before Kenny it might have been a different story. He got me there on the start, then I was too free on the bottom but that’s racing.”
Mark Mosher led Jason Samrov home in the street stock feature, run on a wet track that the street stocks saved by running around on it continuously during the brief but substantial rainstorm.
Chad Jeseo then used the grippy surface to run down early leader Chuckie Dumblewski from deep in the field to take Pro Stock honors. Jason Meltz and Jason Casey trailed the lead duo.