BRISTOL, Tenn. — Story by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Steel Horse Racing photo —
After a night that saw a rash of caution flags and more than half the field collected in various incidents, Steel Horse Racing’s Greg Evans was the last man standing in racing’s “Last Great Coliseum,” winning the Ford Performance Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in dominating fashion.
Evans took the lead at lap 87 and left the field, leading 137 of the final 138 laps and 159 laps overall en route to his second =RSR= Full Throttle Cup Series victory of the season.
“I wasn’t sure if Washington was going to give me a bump or not, but I knew if he was clean we had enough to hang on,” Evans said after his third career series win. “As soon as I cleared him on that last restart I knew it was in the bag. Those final cautions really helped us out, burned up enough laps that we could hold them off on the restarts. Those were really my strong suit all night long.”
“I really needed this. After not even finishing the last couple of races, tonight was about getting back to basics and maybe getting a top 10. The final result is way better than that.”
Polesitter Mitch Rollo took off like a cannon on the initial green flag, opening up a 1.5-second advantage over the field before the first yellow flag of the night at lap nine for Paul Fugate’s hard hit into the inside wall. On the restart, chaos broke after Daniel Eberhardt spun on the apron, seeing Corbin Himstreet, Brennan Mercer and others trapped a lap down as no caution flew to collect the field.
The tempers began to flare early as contact between first Anthony DeBaro and defending champion Eric Brundies, and then DeBaro and Rollo on lap 33 led to cars getting squirrelly and ultimately the second caution of the night at lap 33 when Rollo was collected in lapped traffic before his teammate delivered the finishing blow.
That handed the lead to Steel Horse Racing’s Greg Evans, who held the point over a pair of his teammates in Jeff Ward and Nick Kohan before a third caution at lap 56 that saw Brundies grab the lead on pit strategy. That lead would be well-served when the fourth caution of the night flew for another multi-car crash that collected Anthony DeBaro, Mercer and David Comstock in the process.
On the restart, Nathan Little would surge to the front and use a lap 70 yellow to snatch the point from his teammate, the first time all season the No. 41 had paced an FTCS event, but his time at the front would be short-lived as he piled into a three-car incident in turn one on lap 83 and sustained heavy damage to the right side of his Chevrolet. Brundies would re-inherit the point for the restart before a dive-bomb move by the wounded car of Evans handed him the top spot despite his collection in the lap 83 melee.
“The damage we got in that deal tightened us up and as surprising as it sounds, I think it may have made us a little better in the long haul,” Evans added. “At first I was really nervous about it when it happened, but in the end things worked out alright.”
As yellows continued to rack up, Evans continued to put down laps at the top of the field as a 40+ lap green-flag run finally took shape. Evans held off rookie Dylan Jones and his teammates Ward and Kohan until a lap 147 yellow for a spinning Douglas Wyatt set up a restart leading into the final third of the 225-lap event.
Unfazed, however, Evans would reassume the point ahead of Ward and hold the lead through cautions at lap 161, lap 187 and lap 197 (Vaughn around after contact with 36), with tempers continuing to flare and carnage continuing to ensue. The final yellow of the night came with seven circuits remaining and saw Doug Roth make heavy contact with the inside retaining wall, setting up the dash to the finish.
Though Washington had a shot at Evans on the final restart, he was forced to settle for second after not having the run on the top side to challenge the No. 23 in the final mile of competition.
“The only way I was going to get the win was if I used the bumper or if Greg made a mistake,” Washington admitted. “I talked about it with my team and our goal was to stay clean and not tear up the equipment tonight. We did that and I’m very proud of that. Right now it’s all about gaining seat time and going after wins, and hopefully soon we’ll be giving the field a show every week.”
Jones followed his Stroker Aces teammate home for his second straight podium finish in third, followed by Jeff Ward and David Comstock, who rebounded from his early race issues to round out the top five.
Points leader Dwayne Vincent had his roughest night of competition all season, finishing one lap down in 20th.
A total of 15 cautions slowed the action for 77 laps, with 10 lead changes among seven different drivers.
The =RSR= Full Throttle Cup Series returns to action on August 31 for the Garry Mercer Trucking Southern 200 at Darlington Raceway.
RESULTS: =RSR= Full Throttle Cup Series; Ford Performance Night Race; Bristol Motor Speedway; August 24, 2015
- Greg Evans
- David Washington
- Dylan Jones
- Jeff Ward
- David Comstock
- Dan Murray
- Nicholas Kohan
- Johnathon Caddell
- Schyler Brown
- Nick Silver
- Chad Cole
- Scott Simley
- Eric Brundies
- Thomas Lattimore
- Steve Gottschalk
- Matt LaCross
- Scott Stenzel
- Jimmie North
- Sean Casto
- Dwayne Vincent
- Brennan Mercer
- Doug Roth
- Christopher Hurlow
- Rich Jette
- David Camarra
- Ryan Vaughn
- Joe Dinsmore
- Mitch Rollo
- Douglas Wyatt
- Anthony DeBaro
- Corbin Himstreet
- Nathan Little
- J.R. Johnson
- Thomas George
- Daniel Eberhardt
- Adam Benefiel
- Paul Fugate
About the Writer
Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network. Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s. He is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for both the United Sprint Car Series and the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
Email Jacob at: speed77radio@gmail.com
Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77
