After three overtime periods, Adam Cabot came out on top in the Interstate Batteries Monday Night Racing Pro Series’ Next Level Racing Throwback 200 at Auto Club Speedway Dec. 19.
Cabot, season four champ, was deemed the leader over defending season five champion Presley Sorah after the caution came out for The Big One in the second attempt of overtime. On the final restart, Cabot shot out ahead of the field as other cars battled for positions behind him.
Nick Olsen took second away from Sorah, while Leighton Sibille and Will Rodgers claimed fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Collin Fern, Justin Melillo, Robby Lyons, Joey Padgett and Ronnie Osmer completed the top 10 finishers.
Cabot joins Garrett Smithley, Chase Cabre, Corey Heim, David Schildhouse and Sorah in the playoffs. Fern also locked himself in on points after tonight’s event.
Tonight’s Action
The 1987 NASCAR Cup Series cars were in play Monday night, and boy, was it exciting. Cars battled for the lead all throughout the race, even spanning three and four wide across the 2-mile oval.
These cars were hard to drive, too, with multiple drivers missing shifts on restarts. Oftentimes, these missed shifts led to cautions for those behind unable to avoid a slower car.
There were quite a few cautions in the first half of the race that involved George Balfanz Jr., Preston Pardus and Ford Martin, to name a few. All these cautions allowed for several different pit strategies, and in turn, different leaders. Collin Fern battled Sorah, Cabot, Schildhouse and Blake McCandless for the lead from about lap 40 to until lap 50 when he made his green flag pit stop.
McCandless, who made his series debut, fought for first place with Schildhouse until the next caution came out for another multi-car incident involving Belfanz.
Since Fern and Cabot pitted before, they stayed out during that caution and restarted up front with about 37 laps left. But Schildhouse was strong and went to the bottom to take the lead.
After another caution, James Bickford found himself up front and dueled with Schildhouse for the top position until a yellow with about 20 to go.
For the rest of the race, various drivers, like Cabre, Padgett and DJ Cummings, made their way to the lead as some of the field made their final pit stops. But fresher tires seemed to be better, at least until the final 10 laps. Fern had spun on his own with 10 to go and appeared to be out of contention for the win.
However, Cabre himself got loose…
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