ROME, Ga. — Austin Horton led all 53 laps to win Sunday night’s Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals Series presented by Sunoco Race Fuels feature at Rome Speedway.
Horton, who earned $5,300, has now won this event for two consecutive seasons and it also makes him the fourth different winner in five series events this season.
Horton’s victory would be his second career Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals Series presented by Sunoco Race Fuels tour win and would come aboard the Franklin Enterprises, Super K Express, Orr’s Towing, Vapes Gone Wild, GW Performance, Gary’s Pulp and Logging, Allstar Graphics, Horton’s, Inc. sponsored #16 Rocket Chassis, Clements Race Engines powered mount.
The initial start of the event main event would not see a full lap completed as Tyler Clem and Bo Eaton would tangle in turn three. The second attempted start of the race was good, with Austin Horton jumping to the race lead, followed by Donald McIntosh, Jason Croft, Michael Page, and Brandon Overton.
The top five would remain the same as Horton would stretch his lead and would start working slower traffic on lap eight, but by lap 13, Horton would get bottled up a bit in slower traffic and McIntosh would be able to chase down Horton. Horton would finally clear some of the traffic on lap 16 and once again pull away from McIntosh. P
age would begin to challenge Croft for third and would take the position on lap twenty, while the final caution of the event would appear one circuit later when Bo Eaton would spin his car in turn two.
The restart would see Horton maintain the lead, while Page would take second, shuffling McIntosh and Overton back to third and fourth, while Jake Knowles would challenge Croft for the fifth position. Page would close up on Horton and looked to be set to challenge for the lead, but Page would slip up in turn four and lose a lot of ground to Horton.
Horton would maintain a comfortable lead at this point, while McIntosh and Overton would battle for the third position, with Overton driving past McIntosh on lap 25 and Croft would take the fourth position from McIntosh two tours later on lap 27.
Horton would maintain his lead, while Croft would reel in Overton for the third position and would grab the spot on lap 34. Horton would begin lapping slower traffic again on lap 36 and would drive around the slower traffic the remainder of the way to garner the victory, with Page settling for runner-up honors, while Croft would complete the podium finishers with a third-place effort. Overton and McIntosh would complete the top five.
The finish:
Austin Horton, Michael Page, Jason Croft, Brandon Overton, Donald McIntosh, Jake Knowles, Zach Leonhardi, Will Roland, Cla Knight, Austin Smith, Tanner English, Matt Dooley, Ahnna Parkhurst, Cody King, Tyler Clem, Aaron Ridley, Tyler Millwood, Bo Eaton, Craig Greer, Buster Goss, Joey Armistead, Mark Page.