Dirt Racing’s Winning Moment: For the second time in less than a month, Rico Abreu bested the World of Outlaws, leading flag-to-flag to score the Jason Johnson Classic win at 81 Speedway in Kansas Saturday night (April 8), his 11th career WoO triumph and arguably the most significant of his career.
In the late model ranks, it was Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points leader Ricky Thornton Jr. making noise, blasting past Shane Clanton to win the inaugural race of the Hunt the Front Dirt Series at All-Tech Raceway in Florida on Saturday.
Thornton was part of a headline field of cars that made the trip down south after rainouts continued to plague much of the East Coast.
Dirt Racing’s Dramatic Moment(s): Sprint car racing stole the show Friday night with not one, but two last-lap passes for the win. It started at Williams Grove in Pennsylvania, with Zeb Wise pouncing on local driver Anthony Macri as he struggled with lapped traffic to win the track’s season opener.
Later that night at 34 Racway in Iowa, Hunter Schuerenberg executed a jaw-dropping last-corner move that bested Parker Price-Miller to score the season opener win on the IRA sprint car tour.
What Dirt Racing Fans’ll Be Group Chatting About This Morning
Dirt racing sadly comes with a price and the sport came to collect in more ways than one this weekend. The USAC ranks were rocked with tragedy Saturday night at Lawrenceburg Speedway in Indiana, as Justin Owen was killed as a result of injuries sustained in a qualifying wreck in his wingless sprint car.
All of us at Frontstretch extend our thoughts and prayers to Owen’s family, race team and colleagues. Racing at Lawrenceburg was suspended for the weekend following the incident.
For those that wish to see video of the wreck that claimed Owen’s life, it is easily searchable on Youtube and social media. The video is not included in this article, as I do not wish to bring the wrath of angry commenters onto Frontstretch as a company. But after seeing countless Tweets and Facebook posts from both media and fans alike describing how they watched the video and then decided not to post it, I’m firmly in the camp that not sharing video of this incident because of its tragic content does more harm than good. And not just because all such posts do is further incentivize people to search for it.
Posting video of wrecks at the racetrack is commonplace. And frankly, it’s necessary. Yes,…
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