MALTA, N.Y. — One week after losing a rear wheel when a hub nut broke, veteran Kenny Tremont Jr. showed the youngsters why he is already in the DIRT Hall of Fame with a convincing win Friday night at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
The score in the 35-lap DIRTcar modified feature marked his 81st win at the three-eighths-mile oval and his 29thwinning season but Tremont, a community college automotive instructor by trade, shunned credit, saying “It’s all about the car. When you hit the setup right, it’s great, but the cars today are really temper mental.”
New Englander Adam Pierson gave Tremont a run for his money before fading in the late going and settling for second ahead of Demetrious Drellos, Marc Johnson, point leader Peter Britten, Jack Lehner, Matt DeLorenzo, Keith Flach, last week’s winner Jesse Mueller and Jeremy Pitts.
Outside front row starter Jack Speshock appeared to be headed for victory lane early on, as a big cushion let him run nearly wide open around the top and get away from the field. But behind him, the seventh starting Tremont was running hard around the bottom and by lap 10 stood third. He then shot down Scott Huber for second just before the first yellow flew on lap 14, followed three laps later by another when Mueller went around in turn four.
By then, the 10th-starting Pierson was third and stuck Tremont in the high lane on the restart to grab second.
With the yellow coming right back out, the situation was reversed, with Tremont starting inside the second row and blowing back by Pierson. He immediately ran down the leader, started sticking his nose under Speshock in every corner and on lap 27 drove off turn four with the lead. Speshock then dropped out with four to go, promoting Pierson to second.
Britten was the big mover on the night, advancing from 21st to fifth after running last in his heat.
“The cushion wasn’t so good up in turn four late in the race and that hurt me,” summed up Pierson. “I live on the top and Kenny is a bottom guy. For sure, he’s got it figured out and he got better as I started to struggle.”
“I knew Sheshock was slowing down,” added Tremont. “He was fast and he’s going to win some races. Adam was quick up there too and I was actually glad when he got second away from me. That let me restart on the bottom the next time. I knew I wasn’t that good on the top and I was really glad to get back to the bottom.”
Chuck Dumblewski prevailed in the Pro Stock feature, with Scott Duell and Rob Yetman trailing.