by Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher Photo Credit Nick Zebelian @nickzeb
It was another picture-perfect Saturday for the second race of Attica Raceway Park’s season. Twenty-six of the 410’s unloaded, as well as 31 305’s and 28 late models ready to do battle. For the 410’s it was a tune up before the FloRacing All Star Circuit of Champions invade next weekend for the Core and Main Spring Nationals.
DJ Foos had just about a good of a night as one could ask. He was quickest in his group qualifying, he won his heat race convincingly, and he led all but the first lap of the 30 lap feature, routing the field to pick up his third career 410 win at the ⅓ mile oval.
Foos and Tyler Street paced the field to the green flag, and it was actually Street who took the early advantage over Foos. The Burmeister No. 16 machine was all over Street though, until a caution flew for an incident between Cole Macedo and Caleb Griffith who were battling for fourth.
“Tyler got a good jump on the start there andI wasn’t expecting that. I was able to make the bottom work and get to him though,” Foos said.
On the ensuing restart, Foos powered by Street on the top of turns one and two and took the lead as Chris Andrews took fourth place, but then spun on lap five to bring out the second caution. At this point, 19th starting Byron Reed had worked his way up to 12th. This will be a trending topic throughout the race. By lap seven, Reed, who had flipped in his heat race and had to come out of the BMain, was up to seventh on lap eight.
It was smooth sailing for Foos, he built a three second lead over Street as he got into lapped traffic. A caution flew on lap 13 for a spin by rookie Kyle Capodice, and a driveshaft issue forced second-running street to pull off early. This promoted Jamie Myers to second, Jon Ivy to third, and guess who; Byron Reed to fourth.
On the ensuing restart, Foos gapped Myers, and Reed got by Ivy for third before another caution. It was on that restart that Reed got by Myers for second and set his sights on Foos.
On Lap 18, Foos held a comfortable three second lead over Reed and Ivy. Lap 20 saw another caution that put Reed on Foos’s bumper for the first time. The clear track was what Foos needed, as he scooted away to a second-and-a-half lead over the eight-time track champion.
“Looking up at the scoreboard under yellows, and I saw that number 5 car in second, I knew I had to hit my marks perfect. I changed my line up in three and four and was slowing way down to hit the bottom, but then rolled up about a car length to carry more speed there,” added Foos.
“Everything in the world goes through your mind when Byron is behind you. He’s the best there is. He didn’t race for how long, started at the tail and then ran second. I was just so focused on those first few laps after yellows and making sure they were perfect so that I could get out ahead of him.”
Lap 24 saw a 2.5 second lead erased for Foos when the final caution came out, that restart would be Reed’s last chance to make a move on Foos. Again, the clear track proved to be too valuable for Foos, and he ran away to a 2.9 second lead over Reed, Ivy, Trey Jacobs and Myers.
“[Crew Chief] Mikey Sommes had the car set up good tonight,” said the race winner. “Everything was dialed in. We sucked, we were terrible here last year. So to win the second night out is hopefully a good momentum booster. I woke up this morning and all I could think about was winning. It was so great, we had great car speed all night, I’m just so pumped up for this team,” said an excited Foos.
305 Feature: After an exciting week one showdown that saw Paul Weaver get the best of Steve Rando for the win the 305 division was back at it again, racing for a nice $1,500 payday. Justin Lusk and Zeth Sabo led the field to the green flag with Lusk leading the first few laps. Sixth starting Matt Foos, brother of 410 winner DJ Foos, was making moves early and was up to fourth as third starting Weaver challenged Sabo for second.
After back-to-back cautions and restarts, Foos was in third, and looked like he may have something for Lusk and Weaver, who were starting to mingle for the lead. Weaver took the lead from Lusk on lap eight as Foos faded a bit. Four laps later, Weaver had a steady two second lead as Foos and Lusk battled for the second spot.
That allowed Weaver to add over a half second to his lead as he sliced and diced his way through lapped traffic. A lap 18 caution saw that lead disappear for Weaver, but put him back in clean air for the restart. Weaver used that clean air to his advantage and ran away from Foos before another quick caution came out on Lap 23, giving Foos one more shot at Weaver as Jamie Miller inserted his name into the mix.
The last restart saw Foos right on the bumper of Weaver, but Foos mistimed the jump by a hair and that allowed Weaver to put some distance between them, as Foos and Miller touched wheels. That would be all Weaver needed as he won comfortably over Foos and Miller.
410 Feature Finish, 30 Laps: 1. DJ Foos, 2. Byron Reed, 3. John Ivy, 4. Trey Jacobs, 5. Jamie Myers, 6. Travis Philo, 7. Cap Henry, 8. Zane DeVault, 9. Chris Andrews, 10. Zeb Wise, 11. Brandon Matus, 12. CJ Leary, 13. Corbin Gurley, 14. Brent Matus, 15. Caleb Griffith, 16. Kyle Capodice, 17. Stuart Brubaker, 18. Cole Macedo, 19. Tyler Street, 20. Leyton Wagner.
305 Feature Finish, 25 Laps: 1. Paul Weaver, 2. Matt Foos, 3. Jamie Miller, 4. Zeth Sabo, 5. Luke Griffith, 6. Justin Lusk, 7. Seth Schneider, 8. Steve Rando, 9. Brandon Riehl, 10. Kyle Peters, 11. Brandon Moore, 12. Mike Moore, 13. Kody Brewer, 14. Logan Riehl, 15. Larry Kingseed Jr., 16. Jim McGrath Jr., 17. Kasey Jedrzejek, 18. Mike Keegan, 19. Bryce Lucius, 20. Tad Peck.