Racing under the lights at Kingsport Speedway on Friday turned out to be a night of firsts, with four competitors capturing their first-ever feature wins at “The Concrete Jungle.”
Justin Fontaine of Fletcher, N.C., drove a flawless race in the first of twin NASCAR Whelen All-American Series “First Kingsport Credit Union” Late Model Stock Car features to record his first career victory, while divisional point leader Ronnie McCarty of Kingsport drove to his fifth win in the second 35-lap event.
Joey Trent and Fontaine led the field to green from the front row. The duo raced side-by-side the opening seven laps before Fontaine moved ahead when Trent got loose racing up off (turn) two. Before Trent could reel his mount in, Kres VanDyke shot by into second place with Trent settling in the third spot.
With the race running clean-and-green and receiving the five laps remaining signal from the flag stand, the 17-year-old Fontaine looked like a veteran pacing the field out front with defending track champion VanDyke riding in his rearview mirror.
Fontaine recorded the victory over VanDyke, Trent, McCarty and Zeke Shell.
McCarty and Shell started the second race from the front row, and they battled over the first eight laps before McCarty surged ahead for the lead. But Shell stayed glued to McCarty’s rear bumper and they began to put some distance between themselves and their closest challengers VanDyke, Wayne Hale, Trent, Fontaine and Austin Peters, with the top seven cars all on the same straightaway.
With Fontaine and Hale battling for real estate around the .375-mile banked concrete oval, on lap 20 with Fontaine running on the outside and Hale to his inside, Hale came across Fontaine’s nose on the front straightaway and momentarily climbed up over Fontaine’s hood onto the concrete wall. With sparks flying from the grinding crash, the two cars came to a halt near the turn one pit gate to bring out the red flag for emergency personnel to rush to the scene. Thankfully both drivers were able to climb uninjured from their badly damaged rides to cheers from the crowd.
Back under green following the caution period, McCarty and Shell dueled for the lead over six circuits before once again McCarty flexed his muscle to pull ahead. While Shell stayed right on McCarty’s back bumper, he wasn’t able to mount a charge to overtake him for the lead.
McCarty captured his fifth Late Model Stock Car win, with Shell, VanDyke, Peters and Trent rounding out the top five finishers.
Jared Broadbent of Bakersville, N.C., led flag-to-flag in capturing his second Street Stock win of the season, with the legendary veteran Paul Shull, Royce Peters, John Harrell and Mark Christian rounding out the top five at the finish.
Dylan Bates jumped out to the lead at start of the 25-lap Pure 4 feature and never looked back, impressively rolling to apparently his first-ever victory. But the win was nullified when his car failed post-race technical inspection due to a ride height infraction, thus moving Tim Abelseth of Bristol up one position to get his first career Pure 4 victory over Billy Ketron, Keith Helton, Kenny Absher and Jason Ketron.
Rocky Yates of Abingdon, Va., arrived late to the track and missed both practice and qualifying, which put him starting at rear of the field for the 25-lap Mod 4 feature. Kirby Gobble took the lead at the start over Chris Amburgey and Hershell Robinette. But Yates was up-on-the-wheel charging forward, getting around Robinette for third on lap 5 and one circuit later overtaking Amburgey for second.
Yates quickly closed to Gobble’s back bumper and made the pass for the lead on lap 10, and went on to record the victory over Billy Duty, Gobble, Robinette and Amburgey.
Ben Barker of Bluff City impressively rolled to his first Rookie Pure 4 win over Dwayne Banks, Chris Wilhelm, Larry Stapleton and Dennis Stanley.
Hannah Ottinger of Rogersville got her first-ever Legend victory over Derek Lane, Alexcia Ray, Les Ottinger and Trey Lane.
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