New Egypt closed out their 2021 racing season with the “legends of the fall” season finale with a legendary finish between active Legend of the fall Frank Cozze and current 2021 track champion Mike Gular.
Frank Cozze took the modified 50 lap win in a side by side photo finish with a margin of victory of .028 on a final lap over Mike Gular. Gular dominated the majority of the race lapping up to 5th place with a lead of nearly 8 seconds when caution came out on lap 48 which setup the two lap side by side shootout with Frank Cozze.
Ryan Simmons held off a charging Justin Grosso to take the 602 Crate 25 lap feature event.
On the opening lap there was a scary hard crash into the pit entrance by PJ Oliver bringing out the red flag. PJ was shaken but walked away while the 13XXX required extensive effort to roll into the trailer tonight. After two opening lap cautions Danny Bouc took the early lead over pole setter John Aumick. On lap 10 Gular passed Danny Bouc in lapped traffic for the lead and separated from the field. Gular methodically weaved his way through lapped traffic to build a nearly 5 second lead over second place Frank Cozze by lap 25. As the race continued to stay green; Gular lapped up to 5th place car of Cole Ross when caution flew on lap 48 bunching the field up for a final 2 lap dash and taking away Gular’s nearly 8 second advantage over second place Frank Cozze. On the lap 48 restart; Cozze and Gular were side by side for the final two circuits and took at the checkered flag it was too close to call. Frank Cozze took the win on the final lap pass in a photo finish with a margin of victory of .028 to drive into the Legends of the fall victory lane for his first win of 2021.
In victory lane Cozze stated “He (Mike Gular) was way out there and I just figured no sense pushing it if I wasn’t going to catch him. With lapped cars all over the place you got to understand they are trying to race and don’t want to move over. I got that caution and I went I don’t know man it don’t usually happen this way but I got a pretty good car. I got in there right in the middle of the corner and laid the wood to her and it just drove off of there and Mike gave me plenty of room. Mike is a good racer and I beat one of the good guys right there. I’m only 66 years old and I ain’t that old yet. This is the closest that I’ve seen the track to the way it was back in 2003 and 2004; you could get up on the outside or roll the middle or bottom. I got to thank my car owner David Renaldo and all my guys that work so hard on the car. We have had a tough year but things are starting to turn around here at the end of the year. I’ll take it anytime we can get it and I’m thankful we are in victory lane.”
The top ten was rounded out by Mike Gular in second followed by David Van Horn, Brandon Grosso, Cale Ross, Louden Reimert, Danny Bouc, Dominick Buffalino, Jack Butler and John McClelland in 10th place.
The heat races were won by John McClellan, Brandon Grosso and Jack Butler. No consolation race.
Modified Feature Results (50 Laps):
1.) Frank Cozze 2.) Mike Gular 3.) David Van Horn 4.) Brandon Grosso 5.) Cale Ross 6.) Louden Reimert 7.) Danny Bouc 8.) Dominick Buffalino 9.) Jack Butler 10.) John McClelland 11.) Ryan Godown 12.) Bucky Kell 13.) Kory Fleming 14.) John Aumick 15.) Chris Grbac 16.) Steve Young 17.) Dean Metzger 18.) Ron Kline 19.) DJ Hunt 20.) Ryan Forte 21.) Ryan Krachun 22.) Bill Unglert 23.) Wade Hendrickson 24.) Tim Apgar 25.) PJ Oliver
DNS: Frank Venezia
Legends of the Fall – Pit Notes
Frank Cozze left the “Legends of the Fall” autograph table and went for a drive in the modified feature where the active legend won a two lap shootout with the current 2021 NES points champion Mike Gular by a photo finish .028 margin of victory for his first trip to victory lane in 2021.
Postrace back at the trailer Frank commented “Mike started 5th; he got a good shot right on the start and got up front right away. I started 7th; it took a couple of laps to get going and then I had to pass a couple of guys who run NES weekly and they are always tough to pass. Once I got going we had a good car but Mike (Gular) was already gone. I could see Mike coming off of 2 coming down the front straightway and I knew I wasn’t going to catch him. So I just tried to weed my way through the lapped cars and not make any mistakes. Without a caution we were 2nd place and that was OK. When the caution came out I thought this can’t be happening but we’ll give this one good shot. On the restart he could have slide me; but he didn’t and he raced me dead clean and that’s a good racer. When we came across the line I really didn’t know who won. You can never give up in racing because you never know.”
Mike Gular had a dominate run for 48 green flag laps with an 8 second lead on 2nd place Frank Cozze and he lapped everyone except the top 5 but on lap 48 yellow flew. Postrace Mike noted “We had a dominate car and I screwed up on the last lap. I probably should not have pushed it quite as hard in lapped traffic to let the tire cool a bit. I don’t know if they got hot; but they should had cooled down during the caution. Frank just outdrove me and is a hell of a racer but that’s no consolation. It is what it is.”
Cole Ross had a solid 5th place finish from his 3rd starting position. In the trailer Cale stated “Our car was good enough to stay on the lead lap but we didn’t have anything for Cozze and Gular. I had a good car but make a mistake late in the race when I got parked and held up in lapped traffic which cost me 3rd and 4th place. We were really happy with the car in the heats but still made a lot of changes for the feature to try things for next year. The car was tight in the beginning but became balanced as the race progressed. We’ll take a top 5 and learned some stuff for next year too.”
Louden Reimert finished 6th from a 6th place starting position. Louden noted “We had a really good car all night and wanted to get 50 laps on the car to see what it would do at NES since I got knocked out on lap 30 of the 100 lap All Star race earlier this month. I also got a lot of experience dealing with lapped cars tonight. We use to go to Eastern States but I feel like we gained in a lot of knowledge as far as how the track changes and how the car reacts during a long distance race at New Egypt and it was worth missing the Eastern States Weekend.”
Danny Bouc finished 7th from a 2nd place starting position. The 2020 defending champion had a strong heat race with a 2nd from 5th starting position. Postrace Danny noted “In the feature we tried some things for next year and missed the setup a bit which both contributed to the car fading a bit later in the race.”
Jack Butler finished 9th from a 4th starting position. Jack commented “We overheated at the All Star race and wanted to return for a second shot at this track. We made some new changes in the feature. Starting up front in the heat and feature helped take the pressure off of us since I haven’t ran here very often. It was a great night for us to finish all 50 laps and put the car in the trailer straight.”
Ryan Krachun had a solid top 10 run going in 10th place when he had to pull off on lap 39. Back at the trailer Ryan noted “We had a left rear shock come apart and the oil pressure was jumping all over the place so I decided to pull in tonight.”
On Friday & Saturday October 29 & 30th New Egypt Speedway hosts the Monster Trucks for their final event of the 2021 season.
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