Devin Steele scored the victory in Sunday’s Industrial Floor Systems Spring Sizzler at Franklin County Speedway in a wild last lap. Steele inherited the victory after a dramatic sequence of events on the final lap of the race involving Kyle Dudley, Brian Sutphin and Bobby Gillespie.
Dudley, who was leading the race, was holding off challenge after challenge from Sutphin in the closing stages of the race but it appeared Sutphin had saved his best for last. On the final lap, Sutphin drove to the inside of Dudley and the two made contact taking Dudley out of the race and causing heavy damage on Sutphin’s car. That allowed Gillespie to inherit the lead but he sustained heavy damage to the right side of his race car as he passed the two wrecking cars. Gillespie went up the track in turns three and four allowing Steele to get past to score his first career Late Model Stock Car victory in his first ever start at Franklin County Speedway.
“It’s an awesome place,” Steele said. “The car got loose at the beginning and continued to get looser as the run went on. I had to move up the racetrack and change my line a little bit to save the rear tires for the end of the race. I started coming back to them, had a little mix-up and had to go back to the back. During that last run, we pulled the right moves and got up to the front and that’s what counts.”
Steele commented on the incident between Dudley and Sutphin.
“That’s just two guys battling real hard,” Steele remarked. “They both want to win and that’s just racing and that’s the way it goes. I hate it, they tore up both their cars. It was certainly good for us.”
The last lap incident left Dudley fuming.
“You all saw it,” Dudley said about the wreck. “He just took me out.” It’s obvious. He knows it, we know it. It is what it is.”
Sutphin said the incident was not intentional.
“We just got together and got hooked, Sutphin said. “I tried to get off of him, just couldn’t. ” I’ts just one of those things. We had a pretty good car today. Kyle did too. It’s just bad for both of us. If I wanted to dump him, I could have done it five laps before that. We went in the corner and just got together. I mean, that’s all there was to it. It’s just racing.”
Josh Hale finished second while Bobby Gillespie, Johnny Cash and Brian Sutphin rounded out the top five. Wesley Thomason finished in sixth over Kyle Dudley, Daniel Crews, Nathan Wheat and Kevin Parker making up the top-10.
Jimmy Humblet, who boasted the fastest car since the time he unloaded, scored the victory in the Inaugural Moonshine Modified feature. Humblet took the lead from Josh Corbridge on the seventh lap of the 35 lap race and held off a late challenge from Joe Scarborough to score the win. Scarborough finished second while Tim Maxey, Corbridge and Lauren Edgerton rounded out the top five.
Tony Housman passed Chad Ricker in the 20th lap of the U-CAR feature to score the victory over Ricker and Altizer. After the race, Housman thanked WJ Altizer for letting him race his old car and was glad to be back behind the wheel after an accident in practice destroyed his Street Stock two weeks ago.
Buck Mitchell (Mini Cup), Chris Amos (Street ModZ) and Danny Bush (Street Stock) all scored wins in their respective divisions to remain undefeated after two races. John Parrow scored the overall victory in the East Coast Flathead Ford Racing Association feature while James Rogers won in the Sportsman class.
The next race at Franklin County Speedway will be on Saturday night, May 10th with the Old Dominion Auto Salvage 300 featuring the Moonshine Classic Vintage Nationals.
For more information on Franklin County Speedway, visit the track website at www.fcspeedway.com
