by Jacob Hord, @HordRaceWatcher
It was a beautiful, breezy evening for sprint car action at the speed plant located in Attica, Ohio. Twenty-three 410’s made the call for action on what would turn out to be a barn-burner of a feature.
Redemption was on the mind of Jordan Ryan. He lost a race at Attica Raceway Park in heartbreaking fashion in 2022, and he had a solid opportunity to get himself and the MAR Motorsports team into victory lane for the first time in 2023 as he led the field to the green flag.
On the start, it was Jordan Ryan getting the jump over second-starting Bryce Lucius. Ryan held on to a slim lead over Lucius on lap one, as Lucius was able to carry momentum on the top of the track. It didn’t take long for Stuart Brubaker to catch Lucius, though, and Brubaker took the second spot on lap two.
Ryan had gapped Brubaker by .862 seconds on lap four, and added another two tenths on the next circuit. Cap Henry, Travis Philo and seventh-starting Trey Jacobs were battling for fourth as the red came out for Leyton Wagner and Mitch Harble on lap six.
On the restart, it was all Ryan. He jumped out to a .772 second lead, which increased to 1.328 seconds on lap eight as Trey Jacobs made his way into fifth. Ryan’s lead over Brubaker held steady around 1.3-1.4 seconds for the next few laps, until he got into lapped traffic on lap 14. With lapped traffic on the bottom, where Ryan’s line was, Brubaker was able to cut into the lead. All of the sudden, Brubaker was only a half second behind Ryan just past the halfway point, as they both searched for their first win of the season.
Ryan was trying to find a way around the lapped cars on lap 17 when he was able to get a big run down the back stretch and put a lapped car between himself and Brubaker. Meanwhile, Travis Philo got by Lucius for third, and he brought Jacobs with him. Cap Henry wasn’t too far behind, either. Jacobs was actually able to get by Philo for third, but it was short-lived as Jacobs found himself facing the wrong direction in turns one and two on lap 20. This set up a ten lap shootout, but it also put Ryan back in clean air.
On what would be the final restart, Ryan executed to near perfection and was able to pull a 1.095 second lead as Philo and Brubaker battled for second. Brubaker held off Philo’s first attack, but Philo was able to use the momentum of the top side in turns three and four and take the second spot from Brubaker on lap 23. With seven laps remaining, Ryan had a 1.536 second lead, but Philo had something up his sleeve.
The lead dwindled from 1.536 seconds to 1.244 seconds to .780 seconds with five laps remaining. Philo was pounding the top of turns three and four and making big gains down the front stretch. On lap 28, Philo had a huge run, but Ryan was able to fend him off. The lead was only .218 seconds, though. Coming to the white flag, Ryan had .426 seconds between himself and Philo. All of the sudden, Cap Henry appeared as well in turns one and two. Philo got a run down the backstretch which set him up for a monster turns three and four. Henry threw a slider in the middle of turns three and four, trying to steal the win from both Ryan and Philo. Philo railed the top once again as Ryan was committed to the bottom. Philo was able to drive around Henry’s slider, setting up a drag race down the front stretch towards the checkered flag.
Philo had the advantage of momentum, and was able to power around Ryan for the lead, just before the checkered flag. For Philo, it was another exciting Attica win, his first of the season. For Ryan, another tough pill to swallow, as that was the second year in a row he lost out on his first Attica 410 win coming to the checkered flag.
“It came down to the wire,” said Philo “I had a run with two or three to go and I didn’t want to stuff it in there on Jordan going into one. I bit myself because I would get such a strong run off of four that I would carry too much speed into one and I was really struggling running the bottom in one and two.”
“Lapped cars helped me because Jordan was committed to the bottom, and we were able to roll the top of three and four really well. That’s really where I was able to pass all of those cars. I had such a head of steam coming off of four that I would peel off the wall and just go by them as if they were standing still,” continued the race winner.
“It was a good night. We finally put one together, and hope we can do it again tomorrow,” concluded Philo.
Philo’s full post-race interview can be found at this link: Travis Philo wins at Attica 5/27/23