ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. – After Brent Marks won race two of Pennsylvania Sprint Car Speedweek on Saturday at Lincoln Speedway, he grabbed the checkered flag from a track official and started to make his way to the front of the car.
He didn’t get far, though. His father, Jeffrey Marks, wanted an embrace, so he slapped his son on the back to get his attention.
Since the Marks family brought back their No. 19 operation in late April, they’ve looked like one of the most formidable teams around. The Kevin Gobrecht Memorial, which paid $9,200-to-win, signaled Marks’ fifth win since April 25, including two victories in the last three races.
It also springs Marks to an early Pennsylvania Speedweek points lead with eight races remaining. Marks has 288 points, while Danny Dietrich and Saturday’s runner-up Rico Abreu are close behind with 285 and 282, respectively.
“I just felt like we did a good job tonight,” Marks said. “The car was good. We unloaded fast, got quick time, and everything went smoothly.”
Marks, who led all 30 laps, seemingly couldn’t miss all night. He set his second fast time over the last three races in qualifying with a lap of 13.723 seconds. That put him in the redraw, as long as he transferred from his heat.
Marks did fall out of a transfer spot momentarily, needing to hustle past Ryan Smith in the closing laps to advance. Not only did Marks advance: he drew the pole.
By the halfway point on lap 15, Marks had survived two restarts after T.J. Stutts and Smith slowed, and maintained a 1.7-second advantage over Abreu.
Abreu, ripping around the top side, sprung from fifth to second in a short amount of time. But once he got to second, he couldn’t cut into Marks’ lead.
There were moments, however, that cracked the door. With 10 laps to go, Marks didn’t have anywhere to go in lapped traffic and his two-second lead shrunk to a second.
“You can control your own race [on the pole], but it can be stressful when you get into lapped traffic,” Marks said. ”You know it’s coming. You know the second-place guy has the best seat there. You’re trying to keep up the pace but you don’t know if you’re going too slow or not … because you don’t have anyone else to judge off besides the lapped cars.”
Once Marks wiggled his way through that tough situation, he had to survive two more restarts: one with three laps to go, with Lance Dewease in hot pursuit, and the other with one lap left.
Dewease was inching toward Marks on the bottom, but broke coming to the white flag. That set up a one-lap dash between Marks, Abreu, Dietrich, and Freddie Rahmer.
It ended in Marks’ victory by .592 seconds, giving him momentum going into BAPS Motor Speedway Sunday. Marks won the last sprint car race at the track on May 2.
“I’m happy with how things are going right now,” Marks said. “I feel like we have a car we can go anywhere with and be competitive. That’s a really good feeling.”
Rahmer went from 15th to third, earning hard charger honors for the second night in a row. Dietrich and Paul McMahan rounded out the top five.
Cory Haas, Chad Trout, Alan Krimes, Justin Peck, and Robbie Kendall closed the top 10.
USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series point leader Buddy Kofoid finished 16th after transferring in from the B-main.
Pennsylvania Speedweek title contender Anthony Macri failed to qualify for the main event one night after finishing to second to Lance Dewease at Williams Grove Speedway.
The finish:
1. 19m-Brent Marks, 2. 24r-Rico Abreu, 3. 51-Freddie Rahmer, 4. 48-Danny Dietrich, 5. 5-Paul McMahan, 6. 38-Cory Haas, 7. 1x-Chad Trout, 8. 87-Alan Krimes, 9. 13-Justin Peck, 10. 55k-Robbie Kendall, 11. 21-Matt Campbell, 12. 5w-Lucas Wolfe, 13. 07-Skylar Gee, 14. 27-Devon Borden, 15. 19w-Troy Wagaman, 16. 5x-Buddy Kofoid, 17. 16-Gerard McIntyre, 18. 6-Ryan Smith, 19. 5c-Dylan Cisney, 20. 69k-Lance Dewease, 21. 92-Dylan Norris, 22. 59-Jimmy Siegel, 23. 15h-Sam Hafertepe Jr., 24. 24-T.J. Stutts.