HANOVER, Pa. (8/18/19): Cory Haas has felt pretty good about the overall speed and performance of his car over the last couple of weeks.
The only thing that was missing was wins, but that changed Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway and continued Sunday at Trail-Way Speedway.
Like Friday, Haas put himself in good position through his heat race and pulled the pole for Sunday’s A-Main. From there, he shook off a bad start and got back out front in time to claim the rain-shortened Armin Hostetter Memorial.
Haas held a narrow lead over Danny Dietrich when the caution was displayed on Lap 24 for Joe Trone Jr. Rain hit the speedway during the caution period, and cars were sent to the pit area. Track crews tried to run in the surface, but more rain hit the speedway, and the race became official.
“I think we’ve had speed, but we’ve just been a fifth to 10th-place car,” Haas said. “We’ve changed a few things, and I think we’ve gotten over the hump. Not saying we got a lot better, but I think we are capable of running up front. It’s just a matter of making the right choices, track position, pill draw, and things like that.
“The last couple of weeks, I felt we were as good as anybody else, except for maybe the 48 or 51, at times. I just feel like our car is good right now, and we will just work to get better.”
Chase Dietz got the jump on Haas from his outside-pole starting spot. Haas fell in behind, with Todd Gracey and Danny Dietrich following close behind.
The frontrunners started to encounter lapped traffic on the eighth circuit. Dietz held a narrow lead, but Haas was starting to challenge in the corners on the bottom of the speedway and trailed by .136 seconds.
Haas made his move on Lap 9. He muscled his way past Dietz on the bottom in Turns 1 and 2 and went to the top at the other end of the speedway to put Barry Shearer a lap down.
“It’s a little bullring, and Chase didn’t seem like he could get off the corner,” Haas said after the $3,500 victory. “He had to stick in the center and drive off.
“I was kind of biding my time. The start of the race, the bottom was kind of slimy, and I didn’t get a good start. Danny gets around this place really well, so I wanted to get to the lead and make my own holes.
“I was fortunate to get around Chase there. He kind of got behind lapped cars, which happens at Trail-Way, and I made some good decisions in lapped traffic.”
Haas opened up a 1.039-second lead by Lap 11. Meanwhile, Dietrich was starting to surge to the front. He passed Gracey on the high side of Turn 4 on Lap 12 and started to reel in Dietz.
Up front, Haas was slicing through traffic. He led by .885 seconds on Lap 15 and increased it to 1.313 seconds three laps later.
Dietrich worked over Dietz and took second on the outside of Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 21. He closed to within .651 seconds by the time he hit the flagstand and was within .285 seconds with 23 down.
Haas cleared a couple of lapped cars, but his lead was wiped out when Trone Jr. spun and hit the wall in Turn 4. Rain hit the speedway during the caution, and the cars were pulled off the speedway.
“Danny was coming at the end,” Haas said. “I just made a nice move in lapped traffic, and I thought it bought me enough time that he was going to be in trouble.
“You never know how that is going to play out with rain coming. It took away from the fans, but it didn’t look like we were going to race on it. We were just capable of starting where we did, staying there, and coming out with a win.”
Dietrich settled for second, with Dietz finishing third. Kyle Moody and Ryan Smith completed the top five.
“It is what it is,” Dietrich said. “We had 23 laps, and then the rain came. That’s racing. We were just happy to have a solid weekend with top-five finishes.”
Brett Michalski, Gracey, and Haas were heat winners for the 19-car field.
In Central Pa. Legend action, Seth Kearchner, Tim Shabram, and Chris McKinney were heat-race winners for the 28-car field. Brent Marquis won the consolation. The Legend feature will be made up at a later date.
410 SPRINT CARS “3RD ANNUAL ARMIN HOSTETTER MEMORIAL”
Feature (23 Laps, Shortened due to rain) – 1. 39-Cory Haas, [1]; 2. 48-Danny Dietrich III, [3]; 3. 75-Chase Dietz, [2]; 4. 99M-Kyle Moody, [6]; 5. 72-Ryan Smith, [8]; 6. 21-Brian Montieth, [7]; 7. 3-Todd Gracey, [4]; 8. 44-Dylan Norris, [9]; 9. 8-Bill Dietrich, [11]; 10. 73B-Brett Michalski, [10]; 11. 1*-Tim Wagaman II, [5]; 12. 93-Mike Bittinger, [12]; 13. 59-Jim Siegel, [15]; 14. 74-Dwayne Gutshall, [18]; 15. 7-Trey Hivner, [16]; 16. 11P-Greg Plank, [13]; 17. 5A-Zachary Allman, [14]; 18. 99-Joe Trone Jr, [17]; 19. 12-Barry Shearer, [19].
Lap Leaders – Chase Dietz (1-8), Cory Haas (9-23)
410 Sprint Car Heat 1 Finish (10 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 73B-Brett Michalski, [1]; 2. 48-Danny Dietrich III, [3]; 3. 75-Chase Dietz, [2]; 4. 8-Bill Dietrich, [4]; 5. 11P-Greg Plank, [5]; 6. 7-Trey Hivner, [6]; 7. 12-Barry Shearer, [7].
410 Sprint Car Heat 2 Finish (10 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 3-Todd Gracey, [1]; 2. 44-Dylan Norris, [3]; 3. 72-Ryan Smith, [5]; 4. 93-Mike Bittinger, [4]; 5. 5A-Zachary Allman, [2]; 6. 99-Joe Trone Jr, [6].
410 Sprint Car Heat 3 Finish (10 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 39-Cory Haas, [1]; 2. 1*-Tim Wagaman II, [2]; 3. 99M-Kyle Moody, [4]; 4. 21-Brian Montieth, [6]; 5. 59-Jim Siegel, [3]; 6. 74-Dwayne Gutshall, [5]
CENTRAL PA LEGENDS
Feature (20 Laps) – Make up date will be announced soon.
Lap Leaders –
Legend Heat 1 Finish (8 Laps/Top 6 Qualify to A Main) – 1. 30K-Seth Kearchner, [1]; 2. 19-Travis Perry, [7]; 3. 95-Alex Schmiedel, [8]; 4. 5C-Josh Schrum, [5]; 5. 41-Chuck Dell Jr, [9]; 6. 43-Brandon Reiblich, [3]; 7. 93-Brent Marquis, [10]; 8. 19R-Roy A Denike, [4]; 9. 91-Benjamin Goldsmith, [6]; 10. 13-Ronald Blizzard Jr, [2].
Legend Heat 2 Finish (8 Laps/Top 6 Qualify to A Main) – 1. 15-Tim Shabram, [2]; 2. 5-Scott Houdeshell, [3]; 3. 51-Travis Mc Clelland, [4]; 4. 64JR-Billy Workman Jr., [7]; 5. 53-Bill Diehl, [8]; 6. 18-Chris Transeau, [1]; 7. 26-Shaun Abney, [5]; 8. 14W-Stephen Wurtzer, [9]; 9. 77-Rick Blizzard, [6].
Legend Heat 3 Finish (8 Laps/Top 6 Qualify to A Main) – 1. 3M-Chris Mc Kinney, [3]; 2. 8-Austin Bellemare, [4]; 3. 75-Chandler Pagnotta, [7]; 4. 8CR-Mason Chaney, [8]; 5. 13X-Joe Osborne, [9]; 6. 30-Alex Robinson, [5]; 7. 99H-Eric Hurst, [2]; 8. 61-Shaun Miller, [1]; 9. 85-Michael Goldsmith, [6].
Legend Consolation (8 Laps/Top 6 Qualify to A Main) – 1. 93-Brent Marquis, [1]; 2. 99H-Eric Hurst, [3]; 3. 14W-Stephen Wurtzer, [5]; 4. 26-Shaun Abney, [2]; 5. 19R-Roy A Denike, [4]; 6. 61-Shaun Miller, [6]; 7. 77-Rick Blizzard, [8]; 8. 13-Ronald Blizzard Jr, [10]; 9. 91-Benjamin Goldsmith, [7]; 10. 85-Michael Goldsmith, [9]