By T.J. Buffenbarger
ROSSBURG, Ohio (July 16, 2022) — ROSSBURG, Ohio (July 16, 2022) – Brent Marks went from having a great season to having one for the ages after winning the 39th Kings Royal Saturday night at Eldora Speedway. Marks became the first driver in history to win the $100,000 to win Historical Big One and the $175,000 Kings Royal in the same season.
“I don’t know if this is a dream or what, but it’s definitely been a dream come true and this is a this has been an amazing week,” said Marks. “I am honestly speechless about how awesome this is and such an accomplishment I’m just so proud and honored to be sitting here and be the winner of this race to be the winner of the historical big one and it’s just amazing and the obviously the payout is just unreal and just so thankful just absolutely thankful for this.”
The victory was the Myerstown, Pennsylvania resident’s 12th of the 2022 season and propelled him into rare air in the sprint car world.
Kerry Madsen took the lead at the start of the 40-lap Kings Royal finale with Brian Brown and Carson Macedo racing for second position. Macedo was able to get a look under Brown but could not make the pass.
An unusual caution period took place due to smoke from the fireworks before the main event with only two laps complete. On the ensuing restart Madsen held onto the lead with Brown in tow. Behind them Marks was making his presence felt from sixth starting position driving around Macedo for the third position.
One lap later Brown was pressuring Madsen for the lead. Brown looked under Madsen inside of turns three and four but ended up losing ground.
Just as Madsen was starting to close in on slower traffic the caution flag came out for Brad Sweet slowing in turn four with a shredded right rear tire. Sweet’s Kasey Kahne Racing team was able to get the tire changed for him to join the tail of the field.
Brown got the jump during the double file restart and took the lead on lap nine with Marks moving into second position, leaving Madsen to race with Macedo for the second position. Madsen was able to maintain the spot and briefly challenge Marks for second before dropping back.
On lap 13 Brown started to overtake the back of the field with all the slower cars running the same line he was utilizing on the bottom of the racetrack. This allowed Marks to close in quickly on lap 15. Behind them Madsen, Macedo and Schatz were dicing for the third position.
Marks began pressuring Brown for the lead on lap 19. Brown changed his line moving up the racetrack once Marks made his presence known. On lap 21 Marks setup a slide job on Brown to take the lead. Brown was able to counter, but Marks got the lead back on lap 21 and pulled away with Schatz quickly closing on the lead duo in third position.
While overtaking slower cars Marks got held up by Dave Blaney at the top of turn four while Schatz started pressuring Brown using the middle of the track in turns three and four. Schatz had another run at Brown in turns one and two on lap 26 and was able to take away the second position, only to have Brown take it back on lap 28.
Schatz and Carson Macedo moved Brown back to fourth on lap 30 with Macedo also passing Schatz for second. Macedo was starting to close on Marks in slower traffic when the caution flag appeared with nine laps to go for Sheldon Haudenschild stopping in turn two.
Marks had a tremendous restart and pulled away as Schatz moved by Macedo for second with seven laps to go and started to challenge for the lead, but Marks was up for the task pulling away over the final five laps for the victory.
Afterwards Marks explained he had saved some of his stuff to pull away at the end of the race.
“I had a little bit left there,” said Marks about being able to pull away at the end. “We were just so buried on the right gear there in the first 15 laps I was afraid that we blistered right rear, so I was just trying to save my tire as much as I could and make sure nothing went awry there at the. Once we had that last restart, I picked it up there and was able to cruise around the top. I had a nice car that was amazing and felt like I could go anywhere on the racetrack and pass race cars. Amazing car, amazing team, so like I said, I’m just so thankful”
Schatz was pleased with his second place run after having to change engines after the daytime show and his team taking some risks with the setup that paid off which Schatz being able to drive through the middle of the racetrack in a manner, he has not been able to in recent years.
“Obviously that’s what we strive to do, to get things where we be,” said Schatz of trying to get the desired feel in his team’s race cars. “Times have change obviously, but Scuba took a huge swing at it tonight. Unfortunately, our go to motor that we’ve had for the last couple of weeks, we hurt it in the day show so put something else in and I wasn’t super optimistic because every time we change motors we seem to have to chase the car a little bit with what we have but man you just got to swing a big bat and he did he did a great job.”
39th Kings Royal
Eldora Speedway
Rossburg, Ohio
Saturday, July 16, 2022
A-Main (40 Laps)
1. 19-Brent Marks[6]
2. 15-Donny Schatz[7]
3. 41-Carson Macedo[1]
4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[3]
5. 57-Kyle Larson[10]
6. 21-Brian Brown[4]
7. 71-Cory Eliason[5]
8. 39M-Anthony Macri[22]
9. 2-David Gravel[11]
10. 83JR-Kerry Madsen[2]
11. 49-Brad Sweet[8]
12. 24-Rico Abreu[14]
13. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[13]
14. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[16]
15. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[15]
16. 5-Spencer Bayston[20]
17. 83-James McFadden[24]
18. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[12]
19. 13-Justin Peck[19]
20. 11-Parker Price Miller[9]
21. 10-Dave Blaney[18]
22. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[17]
23. 101-Lachlan McHugh[21]
24. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[23]