DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Recap by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — LSRTV audio — Boomtown Sim photo —
Anthony DeBaro was the last man standing in Real Sim Racing action on Monday night at Daytona International Speedway.
DeBaro kept his car straight after a misjudged bump-draft from RCO-Boomtown Sim teammate Corbin Himstreet in turn two ignited a massive crash behind him coming to the white flag. As cars went spinning and chaos broke out, DeBaro came back to the caution flag as the leader, ultimately collecting his first career =RSR= Full Throttle Cup Series win in the Firecracker 200.
The win was DeBaro’s second career =RSR= victory following an Outlaw Truck Series win earlier in the year, but the emotion and significance of finally tallying a Monday night victory was not lost on the rookie competitor.
“First off, that’s not how I wanted to see this race end at all. We were just watching the runs everyone was getting, trying to make sure that no one got to us on the outside,” DeBaro explained. “Corbin was pushing — that’s the name of the game — and he pushed me down into three a little hot and our bumpers never really separated. It got me sideways and the rest is history.”
“I don’t even know how the car came back straight. I guess it was meant to be. This was definitely a team win — I couldn’t have done it without the rest of the guys — and it means we’ll be celebrating for a lot of hours this week!”
While the field was thinned a total of three times, the biggest incident was the one that ultimately ended the event. Entering turn three with just over a lap to go, Himstreet got a run and gave DeBaro a bump that he hoped would keep the No. 9 far enough out in front to claim the victory, but the contact sent DeBaro up a half lane on the race track.
When the rookie leader came back down, he came across the bumper of Himstreet’s No. 69, sending the =RSR= veteran into a spin that saw multiple leaders collected and left Himstreet wondering what could have been — after Boomtown cars were running first through third for the entirety of the final five lap stint before the caution.
“I’m still not entirely sure what happened,” Himstreet admitted after the race. “We’ll be looking at the tapes to figure it out this week. What I do know is we were pushing hard, trying to keep Anthony out front and maybe get Boomtown Sim a one-two-three finish, and going into turn three I must have just not quite timed the bump right. It sent him up the race track, and by the time I checked up, he was already coming down and it was too late.”
“I hate it for everyone who was torn up in the melee, but I couldn’t be happier to see Boomtown Sim finally in victory lane,” added the team owner. “It’s been a long time coming and I never would have expected it would be Anthony who made it to grab the win first out of all of us, but it gives me a lot of pride to see it finally work out for us.”
Through the smoke and spinning cars, recently-crowned =RSR= Asphalt Assault XFINITY Series champion Jeff Ward came home the runner-up to DeBaro’s No. 9 Chevrolet at the finish, continuing a recent on-track performance rivalry between the two and allowing Ward to rebound after several tough weeks of late on the Full Throttle Cup Series trail.
“We really caught a break there at the end when everyone piled in,” Ward admitted. “We probably weren’t a second-place car at the end there, but we got a strong finish. I hated to see that for some of those guys who were running so well, but going from seventh to second was a great shot in the arm for us right at the finish.”
“We battled right front damage the entire night after getting caught up in the first Big One [at lap 19], but after that there was one point where I had lost the draft completely and had no help back in 12th or so — I thought our race was over before we got another caution to get caught back up. It was just a nice rally for us, and now we’ll go onto our home track in Kentucky next week and see if we can’t get another win.”
Ward’s Steel Horse Racing teammate Steve Gottschalk rounded out the podium in third, followed by Jason Swann and former series champion Chad Cole.
In total, six cautions slowed the pace for 22 laps, but two of the yellows stood above the rest before the race-ending caution flag came out.
On lap 17, an RSR-record 24 cars were involved in the first ‘Big One’, sparked when series points leader Dwayne Vincent moved up the race track and came across the nose of the No. 23 of Greg Evans — which sent cars in the lead pack scattering and spinning. Names including Doug Roth, Mitch Rollo, Ryan Vaughn, Scott Simley, defending champion Eric Brundies and more got a piece of the carnage in the largest crash in series history.
The fun would not stop there, however. Coming to 10 laps to go, three separate instances of contact — one involving the No. 84 of Jimmie North and the No. 53 of Nick Kohan; a second involving the No. 52 of Sean Casto and Himstreet; and a third between DeBaro and the No. 36 of Rich Jette — ended with a dramatic melee in turn three that gave DeBaro the lead for good.
The race featured 11 lead changes among six different drivers, and took just over one hour, 22 minutes to complete.
Following the event, Vincent maintains a 21 point advantage in the regular season championship standings over David Comstock, with Comstock leading the Chase Grid on the strength of three victories in 2015.
The =RSR= Full Throttle Cup Series returns to action on July 20 with the running of the Bluegrass Brawl powered by Full Throttle from Kentucky Speedway. Justin Wilson is the defending winner of the event.
For more information on Real Sim Racing, visit www.realsimracing.com.
Audio with race winner Anthony DeBaro:
Audio with runner-up Jeff Ward:
Audio with third-place Steve Gottschalk:
Audio with Corbin Himstreet post-race:
RESULTS: =RSR= Full Throttle Cup Series; Firecracker 200; Daytona International Speedway; July 13, 2015
- Anthony DeBaro
- Jeff Ward
- Steve Gottschalk
- Jason Swann
- Chad Cole
- Nick Silver
- Thomas Lattimore
- William Kempf
- Brennan Mercer
- Paul Fugate
- Doug Roth
- Matt LaCross
- Scott Simley
- David Comstock
- Corbin Himstreet
- Sean Casto
- Mitch Rollo
- Danny Sanchez (subbing for Christopher Hurlow)
- Eric Brundies
- Scott Stenzel
- Douglas Wyatt
- JR Johnson
- Rich Jette
- Jimmie North
- Nicholas Kohan
- Kevin Linden
- Ryan Vaughn
- Dwayne Vincent
- Jose Malbran
- Johnathon Caddell
- Joe Dinsmore
- David Camarra
- Greg Evans
- Thomas George
- Bryan Harvey
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
