Trey Gibson came into this weekend looking to get redemption after being disqualified from a win and a second place finish in Greenville Pickens Speedway’s opening night of racing on March 5th. He got exactly that as he took the lead on a late race restart following the races first caution and held off rookie Chase Purdy who was credited with both victories on opening night.
Gibson qualified in tenth as Rodney Howard qualified on the pole but right from the start of the race Gibson was methodically moving forward but not using his tires up while the cars at the front of the field were setting the pace. Ryan Walker who won a race in 2015 at Greenville Pickens put his car out front from the drop of the green flag with Howard tucking in behind him.
Behind him Purdy was on the move from the fifth position he started from and found himself in third. Gibson was also moving forward and was up to sixth position by lap 24. RD Smith who had qualified in fourth, started shotgun on the field and was also making moves through the field and was up to 12th in the 19 car field by lap 28.
Walker was out front but Purdy was on his way as he moved past Howard and into second on lap 32 as he brought along Dylan Hall with him into third. Howard then began a free fall to the rear of the field as Lance Gatlin moved up to fourth and Gibson to fifth. Howard would soon fall out of the top ten as Landon Huffman moved inside the top ten.
Gibson would take fourth from Gatlin on lap 38 as Walker continued to lead up front by over a full second on Purdy. Another driver on the move in this race was Anthony Alfredo. He was up to sixth with Randy Gentry up to fifth position with 30 laps to go.
RD Smith now moved inside the top 10 as Purdy closed the gap from over a second to just 0.174 on lap 55. Purdy would move by Walker on lap 56 and looked to be headed to victory lane as the green flag laps clicked off but with 18 to go the caution would wave as Hall spun while working lapped traffic.
Purdy would lead Walker, Gentry and Gibson under caution. Gibson made his way to the lead soon after the green flag waved and began putting distance between himself and Purdy. Walker was now back to third and Alfredo was up to fourth by lap 60.
Gibson now out front and looking for the win but Purdy wasn’t giving up. He was turning the fastest laps of the race on lap 61 and 62 as he gave chase to Gibson. To no avail though as he did close the lead a little but he would finish second to Gibson with Walker third, Alfredo fourth and Hall coming in fifth.
All information from Race-Monitor and Twitter. RACE22.com isn’t at Greenville Pickens tonight. Race number two will begin shortly.
Race #1 Unofficial Finish
1 – Trey Gibson #12
2 – Chase Purdy #41
3 – Ryan Walker #28
4 – Anthony Alfredo #5
5 – Dylan Hall #4
6 – Landon Huffman #75
7 – Randy Gentry #29
8 – Lance Gatlin #97
9 – Tyler English #5
10 – Neil Meredith #36
11 – Will Burns #82
12 – David Roberts #18
13 – Ralph Carnes #8
14 – Tasha Kummer #35
15 – Don Morgan #2
16 – RD Smith #16
17 – Rodney Howard #16
18 – Richard Starkey #8
19 – Greg Tinsley #37