FONDA, N.Y. – Brett Haas made the most of Thursday’s Underdog 33 feature for dirt modifieds at Fonda Speedway, earning his first victory of the season on the opening day of Fonda 200 weekend.
A regular competitor at New York’s Lebanon Valley Speedway, Haas finished third in the season standings without the benefit of a race win. The Underdog 33 at Fonda was held with that in mind as it was for competitors from any race track who didn’t have a victory during the 2021 campaign.
“I’ve had some awful luck here,” Haas said in victory lane. “But tonight, I had a good draw, and I knew that I had a good car, so I was finally able to get the monkey off my back here at Fonda.”
Tucker O’Connor and Haas started the 33-lap feature on the front row with Haas leading at the start. Before any laps were completed, the yellow flag was out for O’Connor, who came to a stop in turn two while running second. O’Connor was able to restart at the rear of the field.
Three more restarts were needed to get the race going again. One of them came after Josh Hohenforst jumped the start. The other two were the result of crashes involving Cody Clark and Mark Pullen. When the race finally did get going again after a single file restart, Haas led the way with fourth place starter Josh Hohenforst in second.
Twelfth-place starter Craig Hanson moved into the third position on lap three while Tyler Dippel, who started 21st, was 10th on lap 10. Hohenforst was on the leader’s rear bumper by lap 14 in lap traffic but when the caution came out two laps later for Dippel who had a flat right rear tire it opened up the track for the leaders. At that point, the top five consisted of Haas, Hohenforst, Phil Vigneri III, Brian Pessolano, and JaMike Sowle.
Hohenforst jumped the next restart and was warned that if it happened again, he would be penalized. When the caution waved for the restart infraction by Hohenforst, it bunched up the field on the front stretch resulting in five cars getting together including Dippel who drove away with more damage to his race car. He was able to continue on again and if there was an award given for the amount of cars passed Dippel would have certainly won that award.
Haas built up a straightaway lead on lap 25 only to have the red flag come out for O’Connor, who flipped in between turns three and four into the tire wall. O’Connor was not injured in the wreck. On the restart, Hohenforst jumped the start again resulting in getting set back one row into the fourth position on the next restart.
A yellow flag with one lap to go for George Foley, who came to a stop in turn four, gave everyone one last shot for the win, but Haas got a good restart and went on to the victory over Vigneri III, Pessolano, Sowle, and Pep Corradi.
The finish:
Brett Haas, Phil Vigneri III, Brian Pessolano, JaMike Sowle, Pep Corradi, Adam McAuliffe, Josh Hohenforst, Addison Bowman, Tyler Dippel, Tanner Warner, Brian Gleason, Jeff Rockefeller, Steve Akers, Will Shields, George Foley, Tim Dwyer, Dylan Scribner, Brian Calabrese, Tucker O’Connor, Jim Introne Jr., Rich Christman, Craig Hanson, Mark Mortensen, Ray Zemken, Ronnie Holmes, Chris Curtis, Mark Pullen, Cody Clark.