From Scott Lockwood
Desoto, FL — (March 23, 2014) — On a night when the Safety-Kleen TBARA Sprint Car series was honoring one of their pioneering drivers, Joey Aguilar made sure that he was honoring his mentor in a proper way with a pass coming to the white flag that allowed him to take his second consecutive win to open the season.
Aguilar – whose last visit to the speedway ended with a helicopter ride to a local hospital after he received burns from an oil line fire – started ninth in the inaugural Larry Brazil Memorial 30-lap event. As pole sitter Tommy Nichols paced the field for the first 15 laps of the race, Aguilar, Shane Butler and Ben Fritz were making quick work of the rest of the field on their way to the front of the field. Fritz, who started sixth, was already up to second by the end of lap one. Butler made his way past Fritz for second at the end of lap 10 and quickly ran Nichols down to battle for the lead. Butler used a diamond maneuver where he went high in the middle of turns three and four and shot to the bottom of the race track coming off the corner. Butler won a drag race with Nichols into the first turn. It looked as if Butler was firmly in control of the closing stages of the race, but Aguilar got by Fritz on lap 18 and started running down the leader. Aguilar closed to Butler’s tail with five to go, but couldn’t complete the pass.
With a lap and a half to go, Aguilar got a run coming off turn two and dove under Butler coming into turn three. With the white flag in the air, Aguilar completed the pass just before the start finish line. As he crossed under the checker flag, Aguilar said he was thinking of Brazil, a man he described as both a friend and mentor. “This win is for Larry and his family…and that’s all,” an excited Aguilar said in victory Lane. Butler finished second while Fritz finished third. Earlier in the evening, Aguilar took the win in the K&N Heat Race 1 and Fritz won the Auto Meter Heat Race 2.