AVONDALE, Ariz. — Recap and photo by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman —
Jordy Lopez ended the Ray Alfalla winning streak at three during Sunday night’s ASCORS ProGeek Consulting Cup Series stop at the Phoenix International Raceway, using a strong No. 40 P-Money Designs/Nexxus eSports Toyota to dominate the second half of the Duel in the Desert and rolling to his first victory of the young season.
Lopez led 62 of the race’s 156 laps and was out front when the fifth and final caution flag flew for carnage on a late restart, freezing the field and handing the New Jersey driver the coveted trophy after he stayed out on old tires just hoping to hang on.
The key to his win, however, was a lap 94 restart in which Lopez was able to wrest the lead from Alfalla after the latter chose the inside lane as the leader and couldn’t capitalize.
“As soon as I grabbed (a spot on) the front (row), I was surprised that he picked the bottom on the (lap 94) restart because it’s such a weak lane on fresh tires at Phoenix,” Lopez explained. “When he did it was a gift because I had a chance to pass him. It worked out perfectly for us to get the lead, and then from there I was able to just play defense.
“My whole mindset (late in the race) was to hold everyone up, because I knew I wasn’t as fast as the guys behind me were. I knew if I could have everyone pushing their tires I knew I had a great shot of winning the race and it was a blast. I’m glad it worked out.”
Matt Bussa led the field to the green flag, holding off Alfalla for the first three laps of the 250-kilometer event before the two-time NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series powered by iRacing champion charged through the open dogleg on the fourth circuit to work his way clear and begin to walk away from the field for the fourth consecutive race. Alfalla would maintain a roughly two-car length advantage through the first stint of the race, turning back every advance Bussa made before the duo made their first pit stop at lap 52.
As Trey Eidson took over from Alfalla and led five laps on a one-stop pit strategy, the different tire wears and strategies of the 43-car field began to play out. Mitchell Hunt, attempting a three-stop plan to maximize his fresh tires, led laps 58 through 68 before Alfalla caught him for the race lead again and resumed command over the field.
Hunt pitted to grab his third set of virtual Goodyear Racing Eagles as the AlfallaTech Ford blew by to take over the lead for the second time on the night at lap 69, and by the time halfway hit nine laps later it was Alfalla leading Jordy Lopez, Bussa, Adam Gilliland and Michael Conti atop the field. However, a caution at lap 88 for problems that befell the No. 97 of Alex Monteferrante put the lead lap cars back on the same strategy and set up a barn-burner final third to the event.
A restart on lap 93 saw Alfalla unable to hold the bottom of the race track after electing to start there, allowing Lopez to work the momentum of the top lane to assume the lead for the first time a lap later. He would fully clear the No. 27 AlfallaTech Ford on the next circuit and dominate the race from that point on — leading all but one of the final 63 laps on his way to victory.
The path wasn’t as easy as the box score made it sound, though. Lopez still had to survive four restarts inside the final 50 laps, caused by four incidents that all affected strong cars at different points of the night. Yellow number two flew on lap 108, when Brad Patton slowed enough on the race track to unfurl the flag, while the third caution dropped on the restart from that incident at lap 113 — with Byron Daley being hooked into the wall by the No. 88 Chevrolet of Allen Lewis and sparking a massive crash as a result.
The fourth incident of the race came with nine laps remaining, ending a 30 lap green flag run when Alfalla’s teammate Bryan Blackford ran into trouble, sending most of the leaders to pit road as Lopez and Justin Fuller stayed out to preserve their track position despite being on worn tires. That slowdown set up the race-ending wreck that came out on the final restart with five rounds to go, jumbling the order and playing right into the hands of the top two drivers.
Fuller was second at the moment of caution and admitted after the race he was far from a top-two car, but that he would take the result any way he could get it.
“This is by far not my best track, by any means, so we definitely stole one tonight,” the driver of the No. 51 NOS Energy Drink Toyota said. “We didn’t drive up there. I stayed out because we were running 13th when that last caution flew and I knew it was our only shot at a real good finish. We were probably a 15th to 20th place car all night, but we needed this boost tonight after the bad luck we’ve had across the league starting out here. ”
Polesitter Bussa completed the podium in third, while Alfalla faded late to finish fourth.
Despite his first non-winning result of the season, the Florida driver still maintains a massive 50 point advantage in the championship standings with four races of 12 complete in segment one.
“It was very difficult to pass,” Alfalla lamented. “I should have restarted on top in retrospect, but I honestly didn’t expect the high side to be so quick. Once Jordy got by, he was able to choose high on the restarts and passing low was just such a difficult task. We tried some tire strategy at the end, but the yellow flew too quickly after the green and we could never take advantage of them. You hate to see a win streak come to an end, but we’ll take fourth with how the race played out.”
Chase Cabre rounded out the top five, followed by Joseph Gulotta, Bentley Glaser, Austin Jones, Brad Newman and Monteferrante.
Michael Conti, who ran as high as second with 37 laps to go, was the catalyst of the final crash on lap 152 after contact with Blackford that sent both drivers spinning and left many others with no place to hide. The 2014 NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series powered by iRacing champion was credited with 16th in the final rundown.
“That’s a tough one to swallow after what happened at the end,” Conti said after the race. “It was on me. I restarted under Blackford and drifted up to him — more than he came down — and just hooked myself. At that point it was race over. I’m disappointed for all the folks at PEAK Antifreeze because we were trying to get them a good showing tonight, but it just didn’t work out. We’ll go onto Fontana and see what happens there.”
The ASCORS ProGeek Consulting Cup Series returns to action on March 20 with the Auto Club 200 from the virtual Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
RESULTS: ASCORS ProGeek Consulting Cup Series; Duel in the Desert-Phoenix 250k; Phoenix International Raceway; March 13, 2016
- Jordy Lopez
- Justin Fuller
- Matt Bussa
- Ray Alfalla
- Chase Cabre
- Joseph Gulotta
- Bentley Glaser
- Austin Jones
- Brad Newman
- Alex Monteferrante
- Rich Jette
- Trey Eidson
- Doy Woods
- Matthew Moose
- Corbin Himstreet
- Michael Conti
- Dustin Lengert
- Jordan Hightower
- Scott Mitton
- Tyler Tucker
- John Wilcko
- Brad Patton
- Tyler Dalton
- Josh Jones
- Jesse Kovacs
- Brandon Wilkinson
- J.D. Laird
- Matthew Quick
- Bryan Blackford
- Greg Spears
- Mathew Chafe
- R.J. Williams
- E.J. O’Rourke
- Chad Coleman
- David Comstock
- Craig Stykes
- John Gorlinsky
- Adam Benefiel
- Adam Gilliland
- Mitchell Hunt
- Allen Lewis
- Byron Daley
- Brian Day
Lead Changes: Seven between six drivers.
Lap Leaders: Bussa (1-3); Alfalla (4-52, 69-93); Eidson (53-57); Hunt (58-68); Lopez (94-110, 112-156); Patton (111).
Laps Led: Alfalla (74); Lopez (62); Hunt (11); Eidson (5); Bussa (3); Patton (1).
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.
The 22-year-old 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
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