Huhn needs a hood? #30 earns victory at Bristol

BRISTOL,TN -- In front of a packed grandstand of 165,000 fans the FU Motorsports duo of Brad Fleischauer and Anthony Crane would lead the field to the green flag. Fleischauer would jump out to an early lead until the races first caution on Lap 3 when Justin Rowden was found giving Brian Fletcher a shove off of turn number four. Fletcher would spin, but would manage to keep his car off the wall and would continue on with no damage. The first pit stops of the day occurred at this time as teams attempted to setup their pit strategy for the day. Pat Fogel was the first car to stay out and thus put his #09 SKF Charger out front.

Caution two would come out just after the green flag as Rowden, once again, drove into the back of another car off of turn four. This time twelfth place runner Trey Eidson was the victor of the bump and would spin just across the start finish line. Eidson would then be hit by Tim Handler causing his car to roll over on the front stretch. Eidson would be forced to retire from the race and had choice words for Rowden after being released from the infield care center.

“I don’t know what the hell Justin’s problem is. He was bumping people all weekend long and spun two cars within ten laps. I hope NASCAR parks his ass for that kinda *expletive*,” Eidson was quoted as saying. Rowden would not be penalized as he remained on the lead lap in thirteenth position.

Green flag racing would be short lived once again as the caution would wave on Lap 18 for Brian Fletcher being spun again, this time by the #38 of Michael Strohl. This time Fletcher wasn’t as lucky as he collected Ryan Bridwell and newcomer Kevin Lennox, causing all three cars to head to pit road for repair. Bridwell would be forced to retire from the event as Ray Racing’s disappointing weekend at Bristol came to a close.

After pit stops the leader would be Rowden in his #07 Menards Dodge. Rowden drew plenty of boos from the fans as he came off the pits with the lead and even more so when he was seen bumping the #77 of Andy Watkins out of his way to lap him. Rowden and Jack Yaudes would find themselves playing cat and mouse for much of the next 50 laps as each would take their turn out front. The next caution would come out on Lap 68 for a single car spin by the #08 of Steven Lewis.

The next green flag run would see Yaudes jump out to an over five second lead over Rowden as he was easily the fastest car on the track at the time. That run would last until Lap 93 when John Gamboa would clip the right rear quarter panel of Tyler Wildman spinning Wildman, but with both drivers sustaining little damage. Pit stops would give Scott Huhn Jr, front runner from last week’s race at Atlanta, the lead as he would stretch it out to several seconds over second place Michael Strohl. Wildman would later when the Mike Henry Move of the Race award as he would hit the end of the pit road wall while attempting to pit, and would be forced to retire from the event.

Huhn Jr, while leading, would bring out the next caution on Lap 140 as he was spun by Kurt Goshen while slowing on the apron of the track. The #30 Mitchell Chevy would make a quick 360 off of turn four and would drive to the caution while still maintaining the lead. Huhn would actually lose the lead in the pits to Brad Packard, but would soon thereafter charge to the lead until a caution came out on Lap 151. Matt Peyton would attempt to run three wide with Josh Chin and heat winner Matthew Wells only to fail in this endeavor and cause all three drivers to wreck into turn one. Ryan Spaulding and Brent Sweet would also become involved, with both receiving minor cosmetic damage.

Caution would come again on Lap 157 as drivers attempted to take it FOUR wide off of turn two sending all parties involved towards the inside wall. Tyler Dalton, one of those initial instigators, would then head back up the to collect a few more cars and then would practice for the upcoming Olympics by landing a beautiful single barrel roll.  Dalton would be forced to retire from the event, although fans in the stands were seen to be giving him several 10.0s. Huhn still maintained the lead, but was being challenged by Tim Phillips when Phillips brought out the next caution by spinning problem driver Justin Rowden in turn one. Rowden would go on to collect Derrike Fox, Tim Handler and several others before coming to rest near the outside wall. Fox and Rowden would find themselves retire from the race, with Rowden leaving the track undercover for obvious reasons. Phillips was soon thereafter parked by NASCAR for the intentional wrecking of Rowden.

The field would enjoy a long green flag stretch and would see the lead battled between Huhn, Yaudes, Peyton and Packard, with heat winner Chris Wetz not far behind. Lap 205 would see another caution come out as Charlie Krill and Drew Glover would get together coming off of turn two. Both drivers would spin to the apron of the track and continue on without damage. The incident occurred right in front of the leaders and would see Yaudes take evasive action to miss the spinning Glover. That allowed Peyton to sneak by and edge Huhn at the line for the lead, only to lose the lead to Wetz in the pits.

Lap 217 would see Jory Fleischuer punt Ritch Garcia heading into turn three causing Garcia to smack the outside wall.

“You know how many times that SOB has wrecked me?” Garcia told reporters. “I think I’m gonna find his ass on the freeway tonight and spin him for a change, see how he likes that!”

Fleischauer would be at it again on Lap 233, spinning tenth place driver Corey Bradley in turn three once again. Bradley would recover with minor damage, but Fleischauer was warned by NASCAR that another such incident would cause him to be parked for the race. The leaders would not pit under yellow allowing Yaudes to maintain his lead. Shortly after taking the green flag though both Yaudes and Wetz would dive onto pit road for service, giving up their lead lap positions.

While racing for with seventh place driver Sebastian Scholl on Lap 260, Brian Yaczik would slam the outside wall off of turn two and then come down on the #26 of Scholl, spinning both drivers to the apron of the track. Both would be able to continue on without damage. Once under green again Huhn would find himself charging to the front again after being mired back in traffic for much of the last fifty laps.

Michael Strohl would be the next victim of Bristol’s high banks, smacking the wall coming off of turn two on Lap 290. Strohl would make contact with fifth place runner Kevin Lennox and would then clip Matthew Wells sending him directly into the path of Ron Gephart. The ensuing collision saw Wells become airborne briefly, only to be hit by Ryan Spaulding shortly thereafter sending Wells tumbling down the turn three banks. Gephart, Wells and Spaulding would all find themselves marked with a DNF next to their name at race’s end. Packard would end up with the lead after pit stops, with Peyton, Handler and Huhn Jr right on his tail. Huhn had received damage during the last incident and now found himself traveling the high banks of Bristol missing a hood.

On Lap 323, while running tenth, Michael Strohl would find himself turned into the wall by Derek Cash in the middle of the backstretch. Strohl would recover although was caught giving Cash, who was already many many laps behind, a love tap as they came to the caution. Matt Peyton would make the decision to stay out and inherit the lead under the caution, only to find himself pitting under green flag conditions for a flat tire which dropped him one lap behind the leaders. Another caution would come out soon thereafter for Brian Yaczik spinning off of turn four and collecting Michael Strohl, Corey Bradley and Kurt Goshen. Goshen would then collect pole sitter Fleischauer forming a massive debris field. Fleischauer, Goshen and Yaczik would all retire to the garage area with mangled race cars.

Out front on the restart on Lap 340 would be Tim Handler. Handler had had a very rough race which was shown by his battered and bruised race car. With Peyton making a green flag pit stop that left Handler, Packard and Huhn jJr as the only cars on the lead lap. A few laps later Strohl and Yaudes would find themselves hugging during a combined spin on the front stretch bringing out yet another caution. Peyton would use this caution to get on the tail end of the lead lap and restart the race in front of leader Tim Handler. Peyton’s plan would backfire as he would end up spinning Corey Bradley a few laps later, to bring out the caution and to re-lap himself. Peyton would then spin himself around again just a handful of laps after retaking the green.

During the yellow the leaders would be the only ones to stay off pit road leaving 18 lap cars with much fresher tires than the three lead lap cars. Several cars would get laps back while under the green run, including the hard charging Matt Peyton, and all would begin to drive away from leader Scott Huhn Jr. The strongest display of this was John Gamboa who would pass Huhn to make himself one lap down, and then would catch him under the green flag run to put himself back on the lead lap.

With 25 laps remaining the final green flag stops would be made with Matt Peyton being the first to come in. He would come back out on the track running two seconds a lap faster than the leader. While running through traffic however, Peyton would get into the back of second place runner Packard and turn him into the turn three wall. That would bring out the caution with just twenty laps remaining and would end Peyton’s hopes of victory for the day. The lead lap cars remaining to duke it out for the win were Huhn, Handler, Packard, Yaudes and John Gamboa and they would take the green with fifteen laps remaining.

Matt Peyton would see his frustrating day finally end in a cloud of smoke as his engine let go while driving away from the leaders on the restart. As he pulled on to pit road for the final time the five leaders flew by all nose to tail. Back in the pack however an incident was brewing and finally culminated with twelve to go as Andy Watkins and Chris Wetz would make contact heading into turn one. The field became bunched up causing Josh Chin and Jory Fleischauer to make contact coming out of turn two, spinning themselves to the apron.

The top five drivers would take the green with just six laps remaining and seeing as it was a single file restart, all the leaders would be nose to tail once again. With the green flag coming out Huhn Jr jumped out to an early advantage, but Packard would close up on him heading into turn three. Packard would then over drive the car, slamming the outside wall coming off of four and would drop back to the fifth position. Four to go now found Jack Yaudes in second over a second behind leader Huhn. Three to go saw Yaudes cut that deficit in half and as they came to the line for two to go Yaudes was right on his bumper. John Gamboa would run up on both drivers as Huhn took the white flag. Gamboa pushed Yaudes high coming off of two to take second allowing Scott Huhn Jr to take the victory.

---- Russ Wheeler, AP