8.16.19 Empire Super Sprints Results
BREWERTON, NY– In the second 25-lap A-Main Jeff Cook jumped out to the lead on Sammy Reakes IV from his outside pole starting spot. On lap two the pair were joined by Paulie Colagiovanni with a three-wide battle for the lead developing. They remained together several laps before Cook maintained the edge.
Josh Pieniazek slowed on lap five to bring out the yellow. When action resumed another yellow was necessary as Barney clipped a tire on the bottom of the track sending him up the race track into Shawn Donath. They both got into the outside wall off of turn four. Tommy Wickham was also involved.
Cook benefitted from the single-file restart to keep the lead of the race. While he was motoring out in front, Preston was making his way to the forward after starting sixth. On lap 11 he broke into the top three, a lap later he was running second behind Cook.
Preston stalked Cook for three laps before finally making his move. Preston went low in turns one and two to pull even with Cook off the corner as they raced onto the backstretch. He completed the pass through turns three and four to take the lead on lap 15 after the pair exchanged slide-jobs.
“That was a riot,” stated Preston about the battle with Cook. “I wouldn’t want to race against anyone else. They are all great guys, Cook and them. I kind of feel bad, I know it’s been a while for him, but what are you going to do.”
Preston opened up the advantage on the field from this point. Cook had another challenger emerge in Matt Tanner. Tanner, who started 11th, found some moisture off the extreme bottom of turns one and two allowing him to go by Cook for second on lap 17.
Tanner searched over the final eight laps looking for something to get to Preston to no avail. At the checkered flag it was Preston claiming the clean sweep of the night.
After not finishing in the top five in the first main, Tanner was pleased with his efforts in the second race as he finished in second. He also made up ground on those in front of him in the point standings.
“At the beginning everyone moved up immediately based on the first race,” mentioned Tanner. “That left the bottom open. It started to wear out late. You had to get up there in the middle to make speed and that’s where Jonathan was. Those guys had a hell of a night. I guess it’s not too bad finishing second to the guy that won two in one night.”
Cook was disappointed with his third-place finish. The team is getting closer and closer to getting that first win of 2019.
“It’s not where we wanted to be,” commented Cook. “I was hoping we were going to close this thing out. She started getting loose in the end. The top was just too far out. I already had the wing in the trunk so there wasn’t much I could do. I was just a sitting duck on the top.”
Lucas Oil ESS/Mach 1 Chassis A-Main #2 Brewerton – Jonathan Preston ($2,000), Tanner ($1,000), Cook ($800), C. Hebing ($630), Pieniazek ($530), Reakes IV ($470), Peebles ($430), K. Hebing ($420), Cartier ($410), C. Hebing ($400), Colagiovanni ($360), Barney ($320), Donath ($300), Holcomb ($300), Axton ($300), Flint ($300), Richardson ($300)
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