ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. — Brian Montieth won Monday night’s Pennsylvania Speedweek sprint car feature at Lincoln Speedway. It was round four of the series.
Aussie Darren Mollenoyux started on the pole with Cory Eliason on the outside of row one. Lincoln regulars Montieth and Chase Dietz shared the second row.
Mollenoyux got out to the lead on the start and slid up in turns one and two to block Cory Eliason’s run for the lead. Montieth was all over Eliason for second. Another Aussie in the field, James McFadden got around Dietz for fourth. Eliason pulled away from Montieth and started to reel Mollenoyux in for the lead. Eliason gets Mollenoyux out of turn two on lap seven.
The leaders drag raced to the flag stand with Eliason having the advantage. Mollenoyux gets the lead back on the next lap.
Montieth closed in on the leaders and made the pass for second at the line on lap 10. Montieth and Mollenoyux were wheel to wheel at the line on lap 12. Montieth got under Mollenoyux in turns one and two for the lead.
NASCAR stars Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell battled for fifth at the halfway point with Larson getting the spot. Eliason got around Mollenoyux for second.
Montieth entered lapped traffic halfway through the 30-lap feature. With McFadden up to third.
As Montieth struggled to get around a lapped car, Eliason reeled him in.
The caution came out on lap 25 for Brock Zearfoss who got spun around by McFadden in turn three. McFadden was running third and had a flat left rear tire. Zearfoss rejoined the field. McFadden’s team got the flat tire changed and he rejoined the field as well. Bell was running sixth when the caution came out but pulled into the pits, ending his night.
Montieth led the field to the cone for the restart with Eliason, Larson, Dietz and Mollenoyux lined up behind him.
Eliason tried the bottom with Montieth and Larson to the top. Montieth put some distance between himself and Eliason.
The caution flag came out again on lap 28 for Cory Haas and Glenndon Forsythe who got turned around in turn four.
Montieth led the field to another restart with two laps to go. Larson got by Eliason for second in turns three and four.
Montieth bounced back from his unfortunate finish on Saturday night to win Monday night’s race over Larson by 1.2 seconds. Eliason held onto third. Dietz crossed the line fourth and Aaron Reutzel finished fifth.
Reutzel set quick time over the 37-car field with a lap of 13.789 seconds.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps) – 1. 21-Brian Montieth ($7,000); 2. 57-Kyle Larson; 3. 26-Cory Eliason; 4. 75-Chase Dietz; 5. 87R-Aaron Reutzel; 6. 55K-Robbie Kendall; 7. 69K-Lance Dewease; 8. 48-Danny Dietrich; 9. 52A-Darren Mollenoyux; 10. 11-TJ Stutts; 11. 1X-Chad Trout; 12. 51-Freddie Rahmer; 13. 87-Alan Krimes; 14. 15-Adam Wilt; 15. 11B-Dale Blaney; 16. 88-Brandon Rahmer; 17. 24R-Rico Abreu; 18. 24W-Lucas Wolfe; 19. 39M-Anthony Macri; 20. 9-James McFadden; 21. 39-Cory Haas; 22. 2W-Glenndon Forsythe; 23. 70-Brock Zearfoss; 24. 39B-Christopher Bell (DNF)