While Grala led the field to the green flag to kick off segment one, it only took one lap for calamity to strike and sweep up half the field in its wake.
A mis-timed shove from the Brad Keselowski Racing Ford of Chase Briscoe to the back of Noah Gragson’s Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota sent Gragson spinning into the pack, sparking a 14-truck accident that wiped out a swath of contenders on lap two.
Among those collected at the bottom of the banking in turn one were Briscoe’s BKR teamamte Austin Cindric, Stewart Friesen, John Hunter Nemechek, Tommy Joe Martins, Terry Jones, Scott Lagasse, J.J. Yeley, Cody Coughlin, Ryan Truex, Clay Greenfield, Ross Chastain, Myatt Snider and Tyler Young.
From there, the opening segment resumed at lap 10 and saw the outside lane be the way to pass in the draft, with Bell, Spencer Gallagher and Brett Moffitt all taking turns leading laps before drama broke out on the last lap of stage one that shuffled the deck exiting the final corner.
Contact from behind in both lanes sent Moffitt and Bell around from the front row of the draft, while Sauter came to the line as the leader to collect his first set of 10 bonus points on the night.
Green flag racing in stage two began with the restart on lap 27, when Sauter swooped down from the top lane on the restart to assume the lead again over Grala and proceeded to pace a GMS stranglehold of the top four spots.
Sauter, Grala, Spencer Gallagher and Lagasse ran in that order for the entirety of the green flag run, finishing first through fourth and collecting maximum points for the team in the process.
The only incident of note in stage two came on lap 38, with two laps to go before the second break, when John Hunter Nemechek lost a right rear tire and nearly spun out in turns three and four before making his way to pit road.
The younger Nemechek got back onto the track before the end of the stage, but lost a lap to race leader Sauter coming to the line.
Pit stops handed a brief lead to Timothy Peters before the next restart on lap 47, but the star of the opening stint in the final stage was Ben Rhodes, who charged to the lead on lap 53 and was out front for 16 consecutive circuits before a challenge from Bell, who had rallied from his airborne excursion to be back in contention.
However, Bell’s charge suffered a second blow with 29 to go, when he went around off Peters’ front bumper in turn four and sustained heavy damage to the front fascia of his No. 4 Toyota.
Racing resumed six laps later, following pit stops, with Sauter back out front over Grala.
The lead pair then stayed in that order, holding off all comers, until a spin on the backstretch by John Hunter Nemechek with six laps to go set up the race’s final restart and chaotic finish.
Full results can be viewed on the next page…
