Santos Dominates Budweiser 150

Bobby Santos was fastest in practice, won the pole, and dominated the Budweiser King of Beers 150 on a chilly night at Thompson International Speedway. Santos led 134 of the 158 laps that were run, but he had to defend his lead on two green-white-checkered restarts, but in the end he held off Donny Lia’s Mystic Missile to take the victory.

Santos jumped out to the early lead, but his gap was erased when the first caution came out on lap 14 for a spin by Brian Schofield in turn three. Santos took the outside lane on the restart and once again got the jump on Ryan Preece.

As Santos stretched his lead over Preece the yellow flag flew for the second time for a crash on the backstretch involving Bryon Chew, Rob Fuller and Ken Heagy. The race was red-flagged to clean up the mess.

Todd Szegedy restarted in fourth and used the outside lane to his advantage to get by Preece and Donny Lia to move his way in second.

The race went green for the next 81 laps and Santos stretched his lead over Szegedy to the length of a straightaway before it was erased when John Beatty Jr. spun off of turn two. Justin Bonsignore restarted 14th on the lap 27 restart but made his way to fifth when the caution came out on lap 108.

The whole field came down pit road to change tires under the caution. Santos came in with the lead but came out of the pits in sixth. Szegedy moved from second to the lead with a two-tire stop. Bonsignore was the big gainer moving from fifth to second.

Szegedy took the outside lane on the lap 117 restart with Bonsignore to his inside. Szegedy locked up the front tires going into turn one and went straight up the banking which allowed Bonsignore to take the lead off of turn two.

The yellow flag was displayed once again just three laps later when Ted Christopher spun Mike Stefanik on the exit of turn four. Christopher attempted a slide-job pass, but over shot his entry to turn three and went wide in the corner. He then came out of the turn and hooked Stefanik who spun around and backed into the wall at the start-finish line.

Six laps after the restart, Preece spun out in turn four due to a flat right-rear tire to bring the caution out once again.

Bonsignore took the outside line on the restart with Ron Silk on his inside. Santos moved from fourth to second just two laps later. On lap 135 Santos drove it deep into turn three and body-slammed Bonsignore while fighting for the lead. The contact dropped Bonsignore from the lead back to ninth. Santos apologized for the contact after the race saying he was frustrated with himself and he took it out on Bonsignore.

“It’s pretty frustrating honestly,” said Bonsignore after the race. “You wouldn’t expect that from Bobby. He’s got the far superior car, he dominated by over a straightaway all night long and you come in and have a bad pit stop and you say you lose your head over the loud speaker and run me to the fence. It’s just frustrating.”

A spin by Richie Pallai Jr. set up a 10-lap dash with Santos leading Silk, Lia, Eric Goodale and Doug Coby. Santos rocketed to the lead and Goodale followed on the outside to take second. Just two laps later Lia made his way back by Goodale for second.

A spin by Ron Yuhas Jr. in turn one on lap 147 set up a green-white-checkered finish. Santos once again took the outside and had Lia in second, Rowan Pennink third, Goodale in fourth, and Silk in fifth.

Before the field got to turn one on the restart Pennink was hooked in the right rear and the car rolled over on the frontstretch. Pennink’s car came back down on all four tires. The red flag was displayed immediately. Pennink got out of the car under his own power and walked to the ambulance.

Santos took the outside again on the second attempt at a green-white-checkered. The running order was the same as the last restart, but Goodale moved up to third, Szegedy moved to fourth and Silk moved back to fifth.

Santos got a great jump on Lia and took off down the backstretch. Lia appeared that he would have a shot at Santos in turn three on the final lap but the caution came out for a spin by Preece in turn one to halt Lia’s final charge. Christopher was also collected in the crash with Preece.

“As long as I didn’t miss a shift or over drive one then I felt like we had a car to win,” said Santos. “We didn’t turn a bolt all day. We just did our normal procedures. It was probably one of the better cars I’ve ever had here.”

The unofficial top ten consisted of Santos, Lia, Goodale, Coby, Woody Pitkat, Silk, Jimmy Blewett, Jaimie Tomaino, Todd Szegedy, and Yuhas.

There were three lead changes among three drivers. Santos, Szegedy and Bonsignore were the leaders… The race saw eight cautions for 37 laps… The margin of victory was 0.126 seconds… The race took one hour, 16 minutes, and 48 seconds to complete.

Photos are available at: http://www.racerhub.com/photos/index.php?cat=2172

Budweiser King of Beers 150 Results:

1. (1) Bobby Santos

2. (10) Donny Lia

3. (16) Eric Goodale

4. (15) Doug Coby

5. (11) Woody Pitkat

6. (14) Ron Silk

7. (20) Jimmy Blewett

8. (21) Jamie Tomaino

9. (7) Todd Szegedy

10. (13) Ron Yuhas Jr.

11. (9) Mike Stefanik

12. (23) Ed Flemke Jr.

13. (2) Ryan Preece

14. (8) Eric Berndt

15. (24) Wade Cole

16. (18) Cole Powell

17. (3) John Beatty Jr.

18. (4) Rowan Pennink

19. (26) Gary McDonald

20. (17) Justin Bonsignore

21. (19) Richie Pallai Jr.

22. (12) Ted Christopher

23. (22) Glen Reen

24. (27) Ken Heagy

25. (6) Rob Fuller

26. (5) Bryon Chew

27. (25) Brian Schofield

 

Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam