The NEO Racing News Legends League made the trip to Charlotte Motor Speedway, where the past couple seasons the Legends would take on the small infield road course. This time they would tackle the big road course which featured some tight and sweeping turns in the infield section of the road course, as well as a big portion of the 1.5 mile oval which lead to drivers reaching speeds up above 120 mph before bailing it back down into the infield.
A new division record of 23 cars would take the green flag after their 10 minute open qualifier finished up. Paul Boswell would pick up his first career SARA pole ahead of Travis Warling in 2nd, and the field would take off from a standing start on the front stretch to get the race going. The field cautiously headed into the infield and looked to sort things out, but a spin in mid-pack would let the front group of cars get a little separation from the back half of the field. Boswell would lead the field around for the first couple of laps before Bill Martin was able to take over the top spot.
Behind Martin, Warling moved back up into 2nd place and kept the pressure on the new leader and just a couple short laps later, Martin would feel the pressure going into turn one and his car got sideways and ended up spinning. Warling was able to sneak by the spinning 39 car and he would inherit the lead, while Boswell followed fairly closely behind him. But once Warling took the lead, he began to pull away from the rest of the field.
Behind Warling, Christian PaHud was able to get by Boswell for the second spot. Joshua Kotten and Clay Snider had settled into the top 5, with Mike Rhyno and Martin right behind Snider for the 5th spot in the closing laps. With just a lap to go, Boswell would drive into turn 1 but the car wouldn’t stick and he found himself sitting backwards in the track. But by the time he began to gather the car up and get it straight, the cars behind him were closing in which forced Rhyno and Martin to loose control and get collected in the wreck, while Kotten and Snider were able to get by it all.
But back up front, Warling had continued to pull away in the lead, driving out to a 6-7 second lead, and he would come around to pick up the victory on the 2.25-mile Charlotte road course. Warling’s win would be his 5th career SARA Legend victory and his second of the season. Behind him it would be PaHud who finished in 2nd, while Kotten and Snider moved up into the 3rd and 4th positions. Martin would be the first car to gather it up after the late incident and he would come around for the top 5. Snider was able to hang onto his points lead by just 10 points following his 4th place finish.
- Travis Warling
- Christian PaHud
- Joshua Kotten
- Clay Snider
- Bill Martin
- Jacob Beauchesne
- Paul Boswell
- Todd Cousins
- Mike Rhyno
- Matt Rolfe
- Jarrett Lawrence
- Daniel Vining
- Stan Bragg Jr
- Dale Owen
- Mike Belanger
- Ken Belanger
- Patrick Hahe
- Forrest Gregg
- Nick Ramsay
- James Poleske
- Derek Colson
- JayJay Day
- Mark McFadden
Next week the series heads to the NHMS mini-oval for a 60-lap event. Last season Warling took the victory in that race so we’ll look to see if he can defend his win.
For full results and standings, click HERE.