The heat races have concluded for today’s event following three smooth sailing events. Typically every year the heat races are full of attrition, but this year there were only a few small incidents.
In heat race one, Brayton Haws ran with the lead while RD Smith, Tommy Lemons, and CE Falk continuously went back and forth while battling for position. Derrick Lancaster and Kevin Smith spun in turn one with no damage; moreover, the race was a breeze from that point on.
Mike Darne fell off the pace for a electrical issue which took him out of the race. Ronnie Bassett maintained a lot of front end damage that forced him to make the trek to the garage mid-race. Chris Dodson hit the wall coming out of turn four and completely destroyed the front end of the machine. It is not clear whether any of them will continue on today.
Heat race two brought a little more…heat. Lee Pulliam and Josh Berry, who don’t have a very good history between them, battled for the lead back and forth throughout with Lee finishing in the top spot. Matt Waltz forced Myatt Snider to fall back to fifth and continued a heated battle between himself and Kres VanDyke.
A spin by Kyle Barnes collected Jamie Byrd and Michael Fose, but all continued on. Kyle Dudley broke the rear end on his machine and had to take it to the garage.
Dalton Sargeant barely made the top ten as he was in a massive battle with Anthony Anders and Brendan Queen. Brendan Queen was forced to the LCQ.
At the beginning of the third heat race, you would have thought that Matt Bowling was going to run with it without looking back, but Todd Gilliland made sure that wasn’t the case. Gilliland started fourth, but quickly drove his way to the top spot. He got around Brandon Butler on lap six for second and focused on taking the spot from Bowling in the lead. Gilliland got himself the checkered flag.
Kaz Grala, who never tested his car previous to practice day, had an incredible run landing himself in the top five. He was supposed to be driving for KBM this weekend, but is instead running in a Garrett Campbell machine.
Austin Thaxton unfortunately had an engine failure to end his day which ended up leaving fluid around the entire track for a lengthy caution. Joey Throckmorton took a turn in turn two but was able to continue on for the day. On the final lap, there was a three car pileup in turn three including Dude Gibbs, Ryan Robertson, and Bryan Reedy.
Who moves on:
Heat 1: Brayton Haws, R.D. Smith, CE Falk, Tommy Lemons Jr., Sam Yarbrough, Jamey Caudill, Travis Swain, Shane Lee, GE Waldrop, and Davin Scites.
Heat 2: Lee Pulliam, Josh Berry, Kres VanDyke, Matt Waltz, Myatt Snider, Ryan Wilson, Patrick Coleman, Blake Stallings, Anthony Anders, and Dalton Sargeant.
Heat 3: Todd Gilliland, Matt Bowling, Stacey Puryear, Kaz Grala, Tony Keen, Brandon Butler, Bruce Anderson, Spencer Davis, Alex Yontz, and Quin Houff.
