Jimmy Phelps Endures Cautions to Win Double Gators on Night 5 of Super DIRTcar Nationals & Pit Notes

Jimmy Phelps used a flawless night of racing and a little bit of luck to endure a tire abusing track and collected his first gator win as well as winning the “Big Gator” points championship.  Phelps started the night out by qualifying as quick qualifier and starting his heat from the pole position.  A heat race win put Phelps in the redraw were he pulled the pole position.  In the feature he led all 50 laps and held on through 12 right rear tire cautions to take his first gator win of his career.  He also won the Big Gator for the points championship and posted a rare double gator winning night.

The track produced 12 cautions which most were for right rear flats.  At about lap 18 the track locked down into a rubber down single lane bottom track as teams struggled keep tires under their cars.  

Larry Wight was able to manage his tires to a 2^nd place finish from a 16^th starting position on a locked down bottom lane track.  Wight used the top line while it was there until lap 18 and then managed his tires in the bottom grove to make it to the lap 50 checkered flag and his best finish of the week.

Stewart Friesen results were almost identical to Wight’s as Friesen finished 3^rd and started 17^th to finish his DIRTcar Nationals on a high note.  Both Friesen and Wight selected the harder compound tire and they were able to drive past the 12 cautions for flat tires.

Mike Mahaney’s redraw luck finally changed on night 5 and he posted a 4^th place finish which was his best finish of the week.   Mahaney just missed the redraw three nights in a row. But on night 5; he broke through into the redraw and got a 5^th starting position that he turned into a 4^th place finish.

Rich Scagliotta had his best finish of the week with a 5^th place finish from a 14^th starting position.  The 8S team qualified for all 5 features and bookended their week with 5^th place finishes for a career best DIRTcar Nationals week for Scagliotta and team.

Steve Bernard just missed qualifying in the last chance race by one position; but was able to get a provisional and started the feature in 28^th position.  He came into the pits around lap 40 for a tire change but still managed to finish in 6^th position for his best finish of the week.

Matt Williamson was running in 2^nd but a flat tire on the final lap dropped him to a 7^th place finish on the final lap.

Michael Parent posted an 8^th place finish his 24^th starting position for his best finish of the week.  Michael qualified for 4 of the 5 features and had an 8^th and 10^th place finish which made the trip from Canada a worthwhile.

Danny Creeden finished 9^th from his 21^st starting position and also posted his best finish of the week on final day of racing.  Danny qualified for all five features with a 10^th, 13^th and 9^th place finish.

Matt Sheppard, Demetrios Drellos, Jack Lerner, Justin Haers Max McLaughlin, Kyle Coffey and Adam Pearson fell out of the top ten due to flat tires.

UP NEXT
The Super DIRTcar Series starts its championship season during its debut at Atomic Speedway on March 25-26.

RESULTS
DIRTcar Nationals Feature #5 (50 Laps):

1. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[1]; 2. 99L-Larry Wight[16]; 3. 44-Stewart Friesen[17]; 4. 35M-Mike Mahaney[5]; 5. 8S-Rich Scagliotta[14]; 6. 54-Steve Bernard[28]; 7. 88-Mat Williamson[4]; 8. 25P-Michael Parent[24]; 9. 16X-Dan Creeden[21]; 10. 21A-Peter Britten[7]; 11. 3J-Marc Johnson[9]; 12. 19-Tim Fuller[19]; 13. 35LJ-LJ Lombardo[23]; 14. 111-Demetrios Drellos[8]; 15. 1K-Rick Laubach[10]; 16. 3H-Justin Haers[11]; 17. 8H-Max McLaughlin[6]; 18. 118-Jim Britt[25]; 19. 14-CG Morey[26]; 20. (DNF) 88D-Olden Dwyer[20]; 21. (DNF) 215P-Adam Pierson[2]; 22. (DNF) 2L-Jack Lehner[18]; 23. (DNF) 30W-Joseph Watson[15]; 24. (DNF) 23C-Kyle Coffey[12]; 25. (DNF) 9S-Matt Sheppard[3]; 26. (DNF) 12S-Darren Smith[22]; 27. (DNF) JS98-Rocky Warner[13]; 28. (DNF) 83-Brian Swartzlander[27]

DNQ: Jeff Taylor, Dave Rauscher, Marcus Dinkins, Jimmy Zacharias, Andrew Smith, Corbin Millar, Scott Huber, Francois Bellemare, Jeffery Lapalme, Darwin Greene