PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Brent Marks won for the second time in three races during Pennsylvania Speedweek sprint car feature Wednesday night at Port Royal Speedway.
Marks started outside the front row and took the lead early on in the 30-lap event and led throughout to earn the $7,000 top prize.
It was Marks’ eighth sprint car victory of the season, including three with the World of Outlaws and two with the All Stars.
Anthony Macri and Marks led the field of 24 410 Sprint Cars to the green flag and Marks got the early jump on the field through the middle of turn’s one and two to lead the opening circuit. After starting fourth on the grid, Logan Wagner made his presence felt early as well as he got by Macri to take the runner-up spot on the opening lap as well.
Marks quickly distanced himself from Wagner and the rest of the field and by lap five he held more than a 1.3 second advantage. However, the caution flew three laps later when Justin Whittall came to a stop on the backstretch to put the field on Marks’ tail.
Marks again took off the restart, while weekend invader Kyle Larson was starting to show his muscle as he moved into the fourth spot after lining up from the fifth position. With 20 laps remaining in the 30-lap A-main, Larson used the extreme high side of the Speedway to get by Macri for the final podium position, while Wagner was uncharacteristically using the low side to reel in the leader.
Marks moved to the top of the Speedway in an effort to thwart the momentum Wagner had found on the bottom and the move worked as he again started to stretch out his lead. Meanwhile, Larson was coming fast as he got by Wagner for the runner-up spot and started chipping away at the leader.Â
With 10 laps remaining, Larson had closed to less than a second behind the leader, while Macri had regrouped and was quickly coming back into the picture. However, his chances at picking up his seventh Port Royal Speedway victory of the season came to a close with eight laps remaining when he blew an engine entering turn three to bring out the caution.
Marks took off again on the restart, but all eyes were on Larson, who had a noticeably low right-rear tire during the caution break. Both Wagner’s capitalized on Larson’s issues and they moved into second and third respectively on the restart.
Larson’s hopes at a third career PA Speedweek victory at the Speed Palace came to a close with four laps remaining when the right-rear tire finally let loose and he came to a stop in turn four on the outside guardrail.
Larson didn’t rejoin the field and the restart gave Logan Wagner an opportunity to take his shot at Marks. However, Marks was too strong and pulled away with ease. He went on to pick up the victory by a margin of 3.110 seconds.
Mike Wagner got by his song for second in the closing laps while the younger Wagner finished third. Lance Dewease and Justin Peck rounded out the top five.
Marks has a 20-point lead over Macri with four Speedweek events remaining.
Mark Smith topped the companion URC sprint car feature at the half-mile track.
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1 #19B Brent Marks 2 #55 Mike Wagner 3 #1 Logan Wagner 4 #69K Lance Dewease 5 #13 Justin Peck 6 #5 Dylan Cisney 7 #5W Lucas Wolfe 8 #11 TJ Stutts 9 #24R Rico Abreu 10 #51 Freddie Rahmer 11 #10 Dave Blaney 12 #45 Jeff Halligan 13 #48 Danny Dietrich 14 #19T Brock Zearfoss 15 #39B Christopher Bell 16 #39 Chase Dietz 17 #5T Ryan Timms 18 #57 Kyle Larson 19 #39M Anthony Macri 20 #67 Justin Whittal 21 #12 Blane Heimbach 22 #42 Sye Lynch Sprints 23 #35 Tyler Reeser 24 #33W Michael Walter II