PLYMOUTH, Ind. — On occasion, a backup plan becomes the master plan. That was the case for C.J. Leary and the Michael Motorsports team as Leary dominated Thursday night’s USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series event at Plymouth Speedway.
A bad vibration and a broken U-Joint forced driver C.J. Leary and his Michael Motorsports team to pull down the spare car from the trailer June 20 at Bloomsburg (Pa.) Fair Raceway.
After a 21st to seventh charge at Bloomsburg, the team stuck with the backup car and Leary led all 30 laps at Plymouth.
Leary entered Plymouth with just one top-five result in his last eight starts with the series, but Plymouth proved to be a “get-right” track for he and his Michael Motorsports/Kodiak Products – Gray Auto – Valvoline/DRC/Cressman Ford, with the No. 77m feeling just the same to Leary as it did when he left Bloomsburg – fast.
The victory was the 13th USAC National Sprint Car feature triumph for Leary, the 2019 series champion.
Polesitter Leary and fifth-starting Justin Grant entered Thursday’s event as the only two drivers to finish inside the top-three in each of their last two visits to the three-eighths-mile Plymouth dirt oval.
Leary, in fact, had finished second in 2019 and third in 2020, and also owns the one-lap USAC track record at Plymouth. He also has winning experience there, capturing the non-sanctioned 2016 Tony Elliott Classic.
On this night, Leary sought the winning formula once again at Plymouth, gliding his way to the lead after a side-by-side tussle into turns one and two on the opening lap with outside front row starter, and series rookie Paul Nienhiser with Leary emerging as the leader by the time the pack hit the back straightaway.
Third-starting Tanner Thorson soon slotted into the second spot past Nienhiser on the second circuit while Grant, likewise, slipped underneath Nienhiser for the third position on lap three.
As Leary fashioned a half-straightaway lead throughout the first half of the event and entered into a frenetic fray of lapped traffic, the war waged on for positions two, three and four in his vapor trail.
At the halfway point, Fatheadz Eyewear fastest qualifier Kevin Thomas Jr. jumped from fourth to second.
As Leary began to distance himself from Thomas, Grant began to close on Thomas. On the 24th lap, Thomas became entangled in the middle of the racing surface exiting turn two as he worked his way around a slower car. That provided the upper hand of momentum to Grant, who conducted a slide job in turn three that moved him past Thomas.
Grant now had Leary right within his scope, quickly eating up ground that put Grant within a single car length of Leary’s rear bumper with just three laps remaining. However, when Grant snagged the turn four cushion with his right-rear tire that same lap, the “ground” was now a substantial unoccupied space between the two.
Grant was unable to get any closer than that snapshot right there while an unfazed Leary sealed the door shut for his first series score since April by .605 seconds over Grant, Thomas, Thorson and Brady Bacon, who started 13th.
Leary said he never felt pressure from Grant.
“We got that track position that I think is really crucial here,” said Leary. “We’ve been good here in the past but have never been able to pick up a USAC win. I had to slide a couple guys in traffic, but I never really heard anybody pressure me. I was surprised I didn’t hear anybody, but I just got on cruise control out there, hit my marks, and made sure I got a good bite off the cushion.
“The cushion was banked off the wall in two and you could really get a bunch of speed down the back stretch off that,” Leary continued. “If you missed it, I felt like that was an opportunity to get passed, and a guy could slide you in three and four with how wide the racetrack got. Without ever hearing Justin, I was just making sure I didn’t do anything stupid and give it away at the end.”
Grant remains the lone multi-time USAC National Sprint Car winner at Plymouth but came up one spot short of becoming the first three-time victor at the track Thursday night.
“We were good,” Grant acknowledged. “I could run to Leary’s bumper, but there’s so much momentum when it’s on the curb like that. When I’d get to his bumper, it would almost slow me down to his speed. I had trouble going faster than him when I was right behind him. When it was kind of an open track, I could run him down. I always seemed to have a row of lappers there rolling the bottom where I couldn’t really peel off and pull off the slider.”
Thomas finished third.
“I think a lot of our passes were because of lapped traffic,” Thomas admitted. “I didn’t really feel as good as we looked. Once we got all strung around the top, C.J. had us covered, then Justin slid back by us and took off. We’ve just got to do a little work when it gets to that, and the majority of that is me.”
To see full results, turn to the next page.