The multi-car incident drew a red flag period of roughly 20 minutes for cleanup, but once the field resumed racing with 45 laps to go, it was again Sargeant out front, this time being chased by Townley and Michael Self.
It only took two laps before a caution flew again, however, with Gus Dean blowing a tire and pounding the outside wall in turn two to slow the pace for the fourth time.
Once green flag conditions resumed with 36 laps to go, racing was uninterrupted the rest of the way and Briscoe wasted no time in beginning to rally.
He used the extreme high lane to maneuver to second behind Sargeant, with Michael Self moving into third the next time by. That order would remain largely unchanged until Sargeant ran into ignition problems while leading with 24 to go, ceding the point as Briscoe returned to the top of the pylon for good.
While Cindric cut the deficit down to less than a second during the final 15 laps, he was ultimately forced to settle for second as his teammate took home all the spoils of victory on the final night of the season.
“We were so evenly matched once we caught up to him (Briscoe) in traffic that I could just never get to him,” said Cindric, who was seeking his second-straight ARCA win. “It’s an awesome night for these Cunningham guys … I mean, we came from last to the front and last to the front three or four times there. It’s been a great year, but man, we wanted that last victory. Just not quite enough.”
Self finished third ahead of his Ranier Racing with MDM teammate Brandon Jones, who rallied from a flat tire at lap 42 to record a fourth-place finish.
Noah Gragson completed the top five ahead of Matt Kurzejewski, John Wes Townley, Shane Lee, Hessert and defending event winner Mason Mitchell.
Sargeant ended up 12th, but still clinched the General Tire Superspeedway Challenge title for Venturini Motorsports, as well as SCOTT Rookie of the Year honors in his own right.
“Tonight was a lot of fun,” Sargeant said. “I really enjoyed the race and I feel like the guys did a great job setting up our car. We definitely had ups and downs … with running second there early in the race and having some ignition problems that dropped us all the way back to (22nd) place.”
“I got the car back going and thought everything was going good. We were leading there, with about 20 to go and it started doing it again. The car just shut off. It was definitely a bummer, with the car being as fast as it was, but it’s an honor to be the Rookie of the Year in a field with so much talent. Overall, it’s cool to win the awards we won tonight, but I was hoping to win that race.”
Briscoe, Sargeant and other top ARCA performers will be honored for their 2016 performances on Dec. 10, during the annual awards banquet in Indianapolis, Indiana, held in conjunction with the Performance Racing Industry Trade Show weekend.
