ROSSBURG, Ohio — C.J. Leary had long yearned to crack the code of what it would take to capture a win during #LetsRaceTwo at Eldora Speedway.
Four times the Greenfield, Ind., native finished as the runner-up in the event, doing so in 2015, again in 2016, and on both nights in 2019.
On Saturday night at the half-mile dirt oval, Leary uncovered the combination to unlock a long desired, yet elusive piece on his résumé, which earned him a $10,000 reward.
The 2019 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship led all 30 laps this time around to become a two-time winner with the series this season in his BGE Dougherty Motorsports/Altoz – Hornbeck Concrete – Highsmith Guns – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts/DRC/1-Way Chevy.
Leary added a third career USAC feature victory at the Big E after earlier scoring a Sprint Car and Silver Crown win in 2017 and 2018, respectively, while also ascending to the top of the standings in a dead heat with Friday night Eldora winner Justin Grant who served as Leary’s nemesis throughout the first two-thirds of Saturday’s main event.
“I knew Justin was going to be the guy to beat,” Leary explained. “I chased him here during the 4-Crown last year and he was excellent last night as well. We went back to the drawing board after last night and I think we figured out what the problem was. It’s a relief for me; it’s been awhile since I’ve been in victory lane here at the famed Eldora Speedway.”
Leary slid backward from his outside front row starting spot and wound up with a disappointing seventh place finish on Friday. On Saturday, he found himself in the exact spot to start with, but he had no intentions of doing anything but getting out front ASAP and remaining there for the entirety.
Throughout the first half of the feature, Leary was the man everyone else had to beat as he swiftly proved his prowess toward the balance of the 24-car field. However, on lap one, trouble ensued as 12th-starting Max Adams barrel-rolled in turn two. Fourteenth place starter Kody Swanson also spun sideways to a stop in an effort to avoid the tumbling Adams.
Nonetheless, Adams made a miraculous recovery, restarting the feature from the tail before driving from the last spot on the grid to finish ninth while Swanson took 15th.
Upon the resumption, a three-wide battle for the lead ensued on the back straightaway with Leary splitting down the middle between Chase Stockon and Emerson Axsom to assume the lead. Meanwhile, seventh running Grant had already hustled his way to third by lap five while Leary was beginning to establish himself at the head of the field, leading by nearly two full seconds.
Grant ripped second from Stockon and began his pursuit of Leary and the lead, cutting the interval down to .775 sec. as both drivers rode the polarizing high line. Grant soon became close enough to look to the inside of Leary for the position on lap 15 with major traffic afoot.
The most pivotal turning point of the whole shebang arrived in turn three on lap 19. Zack Pretorius, making his first career Eldora Speedway feature start, got over the cushion and ricocheted into the outside wall, coming to a rest directly into the lane of the oncoming Grant who slammed sideways into Pretorius’ parked car. The resulting impact sent Grant flipping directly into the path of Geoff Ensign who banged his roll cage into the bouncing Grant who finally came to a rest on his wheels on the low side of the track.
“I knew Justin was hot on my trail,” Leary remembered. “I didn’t know if he hit him because I heard ‘yellow’ on the radio and the lights immediately went red. I didn’t know exactly what happened, but then I saw a replay on the big screen. With half the race over, I felt like if I just hit my marks and ran a good race, it was going to be tough to beat us.”
From that point onward, Leary was cruising as he opened a sizable advantage that nobody was able tighten up down the stretch, with Leary cinching his bid for victory with a 3.380-second margin in his favor at the finish line with Jake Swanson, Chase Stockon, Mitchel Moles and Kyle Cummins following in his wake.
“It’s very special,” Leary said of the win. “I didn’t know the whole story of Bubby Jones, but I worked with Davey Jones for two or three years and learned a lot about his dad. Last year, I was really excited for these races coming up, but we didn’t get to win any of them, so I’m super appreciative to win this one.”
Swanson was a happy man following a runner-up finish in his Team AZ Racing/Apache Transport – Stratis Construction – USW Cat Construction/DRC/1-Way Chevy. Swanson topped his previous best Eldora finish of eighth in what was, undisputedly, a night and day difference from his ninth place run 24 hours earlier.
After a dispiriting 11th place result during Friday’s #LetsRaceTwo opener, Stockon and the team made a fantastic recovery for the second go-around on Saturday night aboard his KO Motorsports/Banded Ag – Dewig Meats – AMSOIL/Flea RC/Fisher Chevy.
The Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, May 6, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-15.931; 2. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-15.946; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.003; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-16.153; 5. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-16.159; 6. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-16.164; 7. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall-16.190; 8. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.212; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17GP, Dutcher-16.222; 10. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.224; 11. Max Adams, 5x, Adams-16.273; 12. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-16.305; 13. Kody Swanson, 98, Wedgewood-16.318; 14. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-16.388; 15. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-16.442; 16. Dallas Hewitt, 21, Hewitt-16.475; 17. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.519; 18. Geoff Ensign, 3F, Ensign-16.547; 19. Scotty Weir, 23K, NIKSTE-16.703; 20. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-16.707; 21. Jadon Rogers, 5, Baldwin/Fox-16.723; 22. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-16.729; 23. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-16.733; 24. Dalton Stevens, 99x, Stevens-16.780; 25. Brian Hayden, 2H, Hayden-16.904; 26. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-16.908; 27. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-17.118; 28. Tim Creech, 31c, Creech-17.142; 29. Jack James, 99, James-17.255; 30. Keith Sheffer II, 86, Sheffer-17.258; 31. Ivan Glotzbach, i1, Glotzbach-17.305; 32. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-17.321; 33. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-17.356; 34. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-17.446; 35. Evan Mosley, 27, Barkdull-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Kody Swanson, 5. Jadon Rogers, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Brian Hayden, 8. Jack James, 9. Matt Goodnight. 2:07.41
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Geoff Ensign, 5. Carson Garrett, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 8. Brandon Mattox, 9. Keith Sheffer. 2:08.00
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Max Adams, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Scotty Weir, 5. Ryan Barr, 6. Zack Pretorius, 7. Hunter Maddox, 8. Ivan Glotzbach. 2:10.01
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Dallas Hewitt, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Briggs Danner, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Tim Creech, 7. Dalton Stevens. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Zack Pretorius, 2. Carson Garrett, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Keith Sheffer II, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. Logan Seavey, 8. Ryan Barr, 9. Brian Hayden, 10. Brandon Mattox, 11. Tim Creech, 12. Hunter Maddox, 13. Jack James, 14. Matt Goodnight, 15. Ivan Glotzbach. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (2), 2. Jake Swanson (6), 3. Chase Stockon (3), 4. Mitchel Moles (5), 5. Kyle Cummins (4), 6. Carson Garrett (20), 7. Emerson Axsom (1), 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 9. Max Adams (12), 10. Robert Ballou (9), 11. Briggs Danner (13), 12. Matt Westfall (24-P), 13. Daison Pursley (18), 14. Dallas Hewitt (8), 15. Kody Swanson (14), 16. Jadon Rogers (19), 17. Logan Seavey (23-P), 18. Brady Bacon (10), 19. Geoff Ensign (16), 20. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (21), 21. Keith Sheffer II (22), 22. Justin Grant (7), 23. Zack Pretorius (15), 24. Scotty Weir (17). NT