Kyle Barnes proved to be king of “The Concrete Jungle” with his second straight Late Model Stock Car feature win. However, pending a post-race protest the official results won’t become final until a ruling by NASCAR on Monday.
Current Late Model Stock Car point leader Ronnie McCarty set fast-time at 15.066 seconds to earn the pole award, but roll of the dice inverted the top five from qualifying to place Joey Trent and Wayne Hale on the front row for the 60-lap main event.
Trent, a relative newcomer to stock car racing with only a few years of experience, jumped out to the lead on the start for the first time in his career pacing the field, followed by Hale, Barnes, Kres VanDyke and Taylor Coffman.
With the race running clean-and-green, top 12 in the running order were all on the same straightaway at lap 20. At the halfway distance Trent, Hale, Barnes and VanDyke had put a few car lengths between themselves and Ronnie McCarty, Coffman, Lee Tissot, Zeke Shell, Justin Fontaine, Austin Peters and Robbie Ferguson in the running order. The event’s first caution waved on lap 32, when Greg Bohanon Jr. dropped fluid on the track on the backstretch.
Following the lap 32 yellow, over the next seven circuits three additional cautions waved. For a spin involving Derek Lane and then for heavy contact between Fontaine and VanDyke exiting the second corner, plus an incident on lap 39 involving Tissot, Shell and which collected Ferguson between turns three and four.
Back under green Hale took the lead over Trent, with Barnes getting past McCarty for third. Trent began working the high-side around the .375-mile banked concrete oval to challenge Hale for the point and the duo raced hard door-to-door for several laps, with Barnes lurking in the wings.
Racing down the front straightaway on lap 50, just past the flag stand Barnes made a bold move to force his way inside of Hale. But with Trent on the outside of Hale, and Barnes attempting to make it three-wide entering the first turn, that wasn’t going to work.
Contact to the left side of Hale from Barnes moved Hale over into Trent, which sent Trent spinning between turns one and two and bringing out the caution. Both Hale and Trent were relegated to the tail of the field for the restart.
Off the ensuing double-file restart Barnes moved out front and went on to capture his second consecutive victory, being chased to the checkered flag by VanDyke, Shell, McCarty and Coffman.
Completing the top 10 finishers were Trent, Hale, Allen Hawkins, Rick Pannell and Bohanon.
Following the race, second-place finisher VanDyke protested the engine under hood of Barnes’ car and the Late Model Stock Car results are unofficial until ruling by NASCAR at first of the week.
