In Semi-Pro, Matt Mead put three rounds of frustration behind him and finally broke through for his first-career Summer Shootout victory, leading the final six laps en route to an emotional celebration.
Mead had been in contention for each of the prior three victories, but whether it was a broken axle or being involved in a late-race crash, he had not been able to seal the deal prior to Tuesday night.
“Man, all our hard work has finally paid off,” Mead said with a huge smile. “I can’t thank Mark Nahrstedt and my whole team enough for all their hard work; and the same to my family. This means so much to me to finally have a trophy from the Shootout after everything we’ve fought the first three races.”
Scott Joy started the Semi-Pro feature from the pole and led from Tyler Truex at the outset of the race. An early green flag run saw Joy hold the top spot ahead of Truex and opening night winner Jacob Heafner, but a caution on the eighth circuit for a spinning Robert Norfleet put Joy back into the clutches of the field and saw Jordan Stillwell jump from fourth to second via the choose cone.
Once the field was bunched up, yellow fever began to strike with a second caution on lap nine, caused by a crash collecting Grant Winchester and Garrett Biggers in turn three. The next restart was the one that allowed Truex to power forward, passing Joy for the lead on the 12th round and bringing Heafner with him as Joy slid backwards to fifth.
Yellows on laps 14 and 15 gave Mead a chance to regroup and charge – which he was finally able to do with a textbook pass of Truex with seven laps to go. And once the No. 24 was out in clean air, it was lights out for the rest of the field, as Mead went on to a .775-second victory over Truex in the end.
Stillwell, Gus Dean and Nolan Pope completed the top five ahead of Austin Langenstein, Heafner, Craig Biryla, Joy and Jack Fread.
The Young Lions class made history on Tuesday by tying the closest finish in Summer Shootout history, with Gio Bromante edging out Eddie Fatscher by .004 of a second just before a caution flag flew on lap 15, ending the race due to time constraints.
Though Fatscher cleared Bromante in turn one and was clearly ahead coming to the line to complete the 16th round, a crash back in turns one and two forced race control to call the yellow, with scoring reverting to the last fully completed lap as a result and handing Bromante his second victory of the summer.
“This feels great. I didn’t think I was going to get the win, honestly, with Eddie passing me and coming to the line right as the caution came out,” explained Bromante, who becomes the 19th multiple winner in Young Lions class history at the Shootout.
“It was a crazy finish, but when they finally said on the radio that they were scoring the finish at lap 15 – I knew that I had it, even if it was only by an inch.”
Polesitter Alex Verhagen led the first six laps, but lost the top spot on a lap seven restart as Bromante pulled away and never looked back. From there, yellow fever reigned as six cautions flew over the final nine completed circuits, including the race-ending spin.
Carson Kvapil, Brody Pope and Garrett Manes rounded out the top five.
