Winning Moment: Owensboro, Ky.’s Tyler Nicely held off three spirited charges from Tuesday Winternationals winner Drake Troutman to score the modified win at East Bay Raceway Park Thursday (Feb. 2), an emotional first win at the track for a longtime Winternationals competitor.
Nicely initially took the lead on lap 23 of the 30-lap feature with a high-side pass of Lucas Lee on an earlier restart.
Dramatic Moment: Thursday’s race was blown open on lap 22 when Lee capitalized on lapped traffic to steal the point from Denny Schwartz, who had led the opening 21 circuits from the pole. Schwartz ended up in the fence a lap later.
In a Nutshell: The features are getting longer and the big names are continuing to rise to the top of the Winternationals field at East Bay.
What They’ll Be Group Chatting About This Morning
Another weekday race with the feature done before 10 p.m. and the track surface offering multiple racing grooves. When the biggest complaint dirt track Twitter can muster is the one below, things are going good.
The real news in dirt racing this Thursday came off the track, though Flo Racing was indeed at the center of it. First, the good news, the Kyle Larson Late Model Challenge that (at least as of its running last spring) marked the highest-viewed stream in Flo Racing history, will return to Volunteer Speedway this season.
As I’ve already had to answer this question more than once, yes, this is the same race that last April saw Volunteer Speedway packed to the rafters, only for the track to close a few weeks later citing financial troubles that at least hinted the track had not made money on their biggest crowd in decades. For the record, the track re-opened later in the summer.
Having said that, there is a new promoter in place at Volunteer for 2023, and all involved need to be hoping that this event proves workable. Flo Racing needs to promote the hell out of it to get the same viewer count back, Volunteer needs to pack the grandstands and the powerhouse late model teams need to make the haul. Because honestly, if a super late model race with a…
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