ATTICA, Ohio – Cap Henry survived a tangle battling for the lead early and drove through lapped traffic in perfect fashion to earn his sixth 410 sprint win at Attica Raceway Park Friday.
Ryan Markham benefited from a late race caution and drove into the lead coming to the checkers to win the late model feature while a caution flag also benefited Jamie Miller who held off Paul Weaver for the 305 sprint feature win.
Henry took the lead from pole-sitter Zane DeVault on lap two of the 30 lap Callie’s Performance Products 410 Sprint feature, but the two made contact with DeVault spinning. Henry withstood early pressure from eight time track champion Byron Reed and then picked his way through traffic to score his sixth career Attica win.
“Zack, Mike and all the guys give me a really great race car. Man I got really nervous seeing Byron right there when I came by the scoreboard. We kind of ran out of patience there on the first lap with Zane and I feel bad about that deal,” said Henry.
DeVault and Reed brought the field to green for the 30 lap 410 sprint feature with DeVault gaining the advantage over Henry, Reed, Chad Kemenah and Tim Shaffer. While battling for the lead on the second circuit, DeVault spun and on the ensuing restart Brian Lay and Caleb Griffith tangled with Lay taking a nasty flip on the front stretch; he was uninjured. On the restart Henry pulled away slightly as Reed and Kemenah battled for second.
Henry maintained about a five car length advantage over Reed while Kemenah ran comfortably in third with Shaffer battling with last week’s winner Stuart Brubaker for fourth. The leaders raced into heavy lapped traffic by the 13th circuit but Henry had little problems navigating through while Reed and Kemenah gave chase. At the halfway point the top three remained unchanged but the race for fourth was heating up between Brubaker, Travis Philo and Shaffer.
As the laps ticked off – after the lap two caution and red the race went caution free the rest of the way – Henry seemed to have things well in hand. But, with seven laps to go a pair of lapped cars were racing side by side in front of Henry and Reed and Kemenah closed. Once he was able to work past the lappers, Henry had a clear track the final three circuits to score the win over Reed, Kemenah, Brubaker and Shaffer.
With three laps to go in the Propane.com/Dirt Nerds Podcast Late Model feature Markham was nearly a straight away behind the the two leaders. Then a caution came out and the Ashland, Ohio driver sat up in the seat and passed Devin Shiels coming to the checkers for his 16th career Attica win placing him third on the all-time victory list.
“My crew chief got me too tight up on the cushion and I was running them guys down early then I jumped the cushion a couple of times and overheated the tires. I needed that caution just to settle things back down. After that it was just get up on the wheel and see what happens. It was treacherous up there…we had to let her hang out but hey, we’re up here,” said Markham.
Last week Miller, the defending Fremont Fence 305 Sprints Attica champion, crashed. Miller made up for it Friday. Miller also benefited from a caution, the yellow waiving with 10 laps to go just as Paul Weaver had passed him for the lead. Miller took advantage of the second chance and held Weaver off for his 25th career 305 sprint feature win, tying him with Mike Linder for second on the track’s all-time win list.
“I liked to see everyone of those yellows. Every time Paul would get by me I would just try to stick that top and he would sneak by me and that caution would come out and save me. After that last time I figured there’s got to be something down there…I’ve got to try it. I’m going to try to keep racing longer than Paul and cut into that 49 wins he’s got,” remarked Miller.