by Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
Fremont Speedway and round two of the All Star Circuit of Champions Ohio Speedweek had big shoes to fill after an exciting round one finish at Attica Raceway Park Friday night. As everyone found out, Fremont was up to the task on Saturday. Forty-one drivers and teams signed up to tackle Fremont Speedway for $10,000 on a warmer, but still beautiful day in northwest Ohio.
Friday night’s winner Zeb Wise, and Cap Henry, who owned four wins at Fremont in 2023 coming into Saturday, would lead the field to green as the 40 lap battle was about to commence. Henry used his outside starting spot to his advantage, getting the jump on Wise, who fell back to third as third-starting Cole Macedo got around Friday night’s winner. Cap quickly gapped Macedo by 1.302 seconds as he hit the top all the way around Fremont Speedway.
By lap five, Henry was starting to deal with lapped traffic and Macedo started to inch closer to the leader, but the red flag would come out for Stuart Brubaker, the night’s quick qualifier, as he flipped in turns one and two, collecting Cale Thomas. On the restart, Cap got another good jump and led over Macedo, Wise, Tyler Courtney, and Danny Dietrich. Henry’s lead broke the two second mark on lap eight. Once again, lapped traffic became a factor on lap ten as Dietrich made his way into fourth. “Sunshine” Courtney and Macedo started to battle for the second spot as lap 11 turned into lap 12, and they collectively started to slowly reel in Henry for the lead, but Henry’s lead was still 1.365 seconds on lap 14.
As Henry picked his way through lapped traffic, Macedo, Courtney, and Dietrich all decided that they wanted to battle for the chance to chase Henry down for the lead. Courtney did get around Macedo for second, but those three were all nose-to-tail as the caution flag would come out at the halfway point.
Twenty laps down, twenty laps to go as the green flag waved once again. Henry again had an excellent restart as the battle between Courtney, Macedo, and Dietrich resumed. Dietrich would get by Macedo on lap 21 for third, and on lap 23, Zeb Wise would enter the fourth position. The Yellow came out again on lap 23. Dietrich tried to make a move on Courtney for second, but the All Star points leader was able to hold his ground in second. Cap grew his lead from 1.177 seconds to 1.605 seconds on lap 26.
Henry entered into lapped traffic again on lap 31, which cut his lead to .953 seconds as Dietrich closed in on Courtney for second. The yellow would fly for the final time on lap 32, setting up an eight lap dash for $10,000. Cap got the jump on Courtney and Dietrich and gapped them by .985 seconds as they slid each other for second. Dietrich temporarily held P2 in turns three and four, but Courtney was able to get back by. Dietrich tried his hand again and was able to get the second spot
That’s when things got interesting. On lap 35, Henry, who had run a near-perfect so far, bobbled in turns three and four. It was a whole new race. Dietrich was now all over Henry for the lead. Dietrich would run the bottom of turns three and four and make up time on Henry. On lap 38, they were side-by-side for the lead. On the white flag lap, Henry had a small mistake on the top of turns one and two, but he still had a good run down the backstretch and was able to block Dietrich going into turn three. Henry then committed to the bottom of turns three and four, forcing Dietrich to go up top. Henry slid up to the top on the exit of turn four, and Dietrich cut under Henry, setting up a drag race to the checkered flag. Dietrich had just a slightly better run down the frontstretch, and nipped Henry by .054 seconds.
This was Dietrich’s fourth career Ohio Speedweek win, his first at Fremont, avenging his loss to Cole Duncan in 2021, which saw Duncan beat out Dietrich in a drag race to the checkers.
“I was really good rolling into the top of turn one, and arching it down. I lost my momentum doing that once I got by Tyler [Courtney]. Cap [Henry] was running the top and I didn’t want to follow him,” said Dietrich. “We gained on Cap, and maybe thought I showed my nose a little too soon. But we were pretty good all over.”
“I tall kind of worked out, I just kept peaking my nose in there and I caught him a little off-guard going into one, and he screwed up a little bit. Sometimes it plays in your favor being able to show your nose and show your nose, it gets down to the last couple of laps and they panic,” continued Dietrich.
“I definitely think he got up in the seat a little bit, and at least here, you have to be so calm to win these races. It was a good race, it’s fun racing with Cap, Tyler, and Zeb. Everybody raced clean and hard, really hard. It was great to get this win,” Dietrich said.
Turns three and four is where Dietrich was able to make up a good amount of ground on Henry, and eventually where the winning move came from.
“Eventually it got to be so far around three and four, it got to the point where I had to go where they weren’t and run the bottom, because everyone else was pounding the top.”
“When Cap took my line down the backstretch, I knew he had to go to the bottom of three, he didn’t have any other option. It was a matter of pulling the ole “Cole Duncan” he pulled on me a few years ago here. Just criss-cross, get to his right rear, get some clean air and carry some momentum.”
Coming into Ohio Speedweek, Dietrich had 19 top-five finishes but only one win to boot for the year, so to come to Ohio Speedweek and roll the car into the trailer with confetti on it at the end of the night felt pretty good for Dietrich: “Getting Fremont added to the list is awesome considering we felt like we weren’t owed one, but a little bit of redemption from the other year when we led 39 ⅞ laps just like Cap did. It feels really good to get one here at Fremont, we’ve always been good coming here.”
Danny Dietich’s full interview can be found here: Danny Dietrich Wins All Star Ohio Speedweek at Fremont 6/10/23
Cap Henry’s full interview can be found here: Cap Henry Post-Race at Fremont 6/10/23