The restart came with 24 laps left and saw Shullick get away from Sitterly and 2016 track champion Michael Barnes, with four lapped cars separating Shullick from any sort of challenge.
Quickly, the winged supermodified ace opened up a six-second lead over his pursuers, with Sitterly fading to fourth with 18 to go as Barnes and Abold got through.
Abold dispatched Barnes for second two laps later and gave chase, but had a 7.5 second margin to deal with as the race wound into its final 10 circuits around the five-eighths-mile oval.
Shullick mastered slower traffic until two laps to go, when his car sputtered and a seven second gap suddenly closed to 3.3 seconds. He got the car refired and appeared to be okay as he crossed under the white flag, even at a reduced pace, but the car lost power again entering turn one and sealed his fate.
At that point, Shullick could only watch as Abold flew by and stole the Classic win from his fingertips, with Barnes and Sitterly completing the podium in the end.
For Barnes, it was his second-consecutive runner-up finish in the Classic, following a similar effort behind Bob Bond a year ago – but he was no shortage of complimentary to Abold on the win either.
“My hat’s off to Jeff,” Barnes said. “That kid is a raw race car driver. He’s probably one of the most talented guys at this track. I’m glad they got that car going good and they’ve finally been able to show it.”
“I actually screwed up towards the end. I started to catch D.J. and Otto and I just went too soon. I looked up and there was still 60 (laps) to go, and I got loose and just had to back off. Tried to make a few more runs at it but could never quite make it work. If Jeff hadn’t held the advantage over us there on that last run, we might have had a shot at it, but again – he did a great thing today and I’m proud of him.”
Shullick crossed the line in fourth after his troubles on the final lap, and was unavailable for comment following the conclusion of the race.
Former IndyCar star and 1997 Classic champion Davey Hamilton Jr. rounded out the top five.
Dave Gruel, Dave Danzer, Joe Gosek, Brandon Bellinger and Tim Snyder were the rest of the top 10 finishers.
Polesitter Michael Muldoon was never a factor in the race, never leading a lap and finishing a lap down in 11th, while Davey Hamilton Jr. came home 14th and was crowned the Rookie of the Race.
Audio with race winner Jeff Abold:
Audio with runner-up Michael Barnes:
Audio with Budweiser Lap Leader Keith Shampine:
Audio with Rookie of the Race Davey Hamilton Jr.:
