The NEO Racing News Legends League made their return to Lucas Oil Raceway tonight after a “rainout” (glitch) would force them to postpone their week 11 event just a couple weeks ago. This set the race up to be the division’s season finale which once again saw the Legends championship come down to the final race of the season to determine the championship. Clay Snider entered the night by 1 single point and would look to see if he could hold off the division’s defending champ, Matt Rolfe as he looked to put on a late charge to take the title. The night started off with Ty Majeski picking up the pole position with a time of 25.556 seconds, over 2 tenths of a second ahead of 2nd place Bill Martin. Rolfe would start 3rd, while Snider would start in the 6th spot.
Majeski would lead the field to the green flag and quickly jumped ahead into the top spot, with Martin following in right behind as they went into the corner. Majeski’s car proved to be strong in the early laps, but Martin wouldn’t let him get too far away as he stayed within a few car lengths of the lead. Rolfe settled into the 3rd spot in the first couple laps, with Kenny Smith putting pressure on him early, and Rolfe would give up the spot. Dale Owen would follow Rolfe for a number of laps staying up close to the back bumper of him before finally moving up into the 4th spot just past the half way mark, as Rolfe looked to be playing it safe in the early going.
Snider started in the 6th spot and stayed there early in the race, but seemed to be fighting handling issues as the race went on and he too would drop a couple spots throughout the run. Brian Tedeschi was able to get by for the 6th spot, but as the field got to the halfway point in the race he would make contact with the wall, resulting in a spin and ending his night early. As that happened, Travis Warling was able to get by Snider and kept Snider back in the 7th spot.
Back up front at halfway, Majeski had pulled out to a small lead as he stretched it out to over a half of a second, but that’s when Martin would start making the push back to the leader. By lap 30, Martin had closed back up to the rear bumper of the leader, but the hard part would be getting by him as the laps wound down. As Martin was chasing down the lead, Owen was chasing down the 3rd spot and caught up to him with just 5 to go and was able to get by for the 3rd spot. Back to the lead, Martin still wasn’t able to make his move as Majeski held him off, not allowing him to get a run.
Majeski was able to pull the lead out to a couple car lengths over the final couple of laps, holding off the pressure and he would come around to take his 3rd Legends victory of the season. Martin would finish in the 2nd spot, while Owen moved up to a 3rd place finish late in the race. Kenny Smith had a solid 4th place finish, while Rolfe came around in the 5th spot.
With just 1 point separating the points leaders, their finish in the race would most likely determine the champion. Snider ended up with a 9th place finish, but Rolfe would finish 5th on the night which was enough to grab the SARA NEO Racing News Legends League Championship by just 9 points, or 3 total positions on track during the season. The title is Rolfe’s 4th SARA championship, following up his Street Stock championship by defending his Legends championship, picking up his 2nd title in the division out of 3 seasons. Rolfe’s championship consisted of 1 pole, 7 top 5’s, 10 top 10’s, and 1 lap led. Both of Rolfe’s championships were won, without winning a single race all season and only leading a combined 4 total laps.
- Ty Majeski
- Bill Martin
- Dale Owen
- Kenny Smith
- Matt Rolfe
- Travis Warling
- Mike Rhyno
- Stan Bragg
- Clay Snider
- Josh Kotten
- Todd Cousins
- Brandon Wilkinson
- Jeff Hoggard
- Ken Belanger
- Patrick Hahe
- Forrest Gregg
- Todd Sipe
- Brian Tedeschi
- Huston Hamer
Tonight’s race marks the end of the Summer Season for the entire league, but a new season will be starting up in a few weeks where the action will pick right back up.
For full results and final championship standings, click HERE.