By Ben Deatherage
(4/15/23 ) Tulare, California … Front row starter Justyn Cox put together a near flawless performance and pocketed $18,383.00 for winning the final night of the Dennis Roth Classic with the NARC 410 Sprint Series. Racing the Bates-Hamilton Racing/Benefit RFP/Lippert Construction #42X Kistler/Maxim, Cox lead wire-to-wire in the 30-lap NAPA Auto Parts feature at Thunderbowl Raceway to score his first career series victory.
Cox took command of the race from the initial green flag running high up on the cushion, inches from the wall. On the eighth-circuit he was presented with his first dose of lapped traffic, something he had to deal with on throughout the headliner. However, he managed to stay calm, cool, and collected as he zigged and zagged through slower cars, while banging the outer wall as he let it all hang out. Four total stoppages occurred, but Cox mastered all the restarts to hold off his competition.
Corey Day, running for car owner Jason Meyers and piloting the Meyers Constructors/Four C’s Construction/Autry Plumbing #14 Kistler/KPC, challenged Justyn numerous times but couldn’t make it stick. Day had two opportunities with just five laps remaining to overtake Cox, but Cox answered the call.
“I’m in disbelief!” stated the very excited and emotional winner. “I forgot to believe in myself last year, and I can’t believe I’m up here! I’ve worked my entire life to do something cool, and we did it tonight. To win at Tulare is awesome, and anyone who knows me knows this track scares me, so to do that is simply amazing.”
Corey Day finished in a respectable runner-up and pocketed $9,000 for his efforts. He was chased to the checkered by tenth starter Justin Sander, racing for Demo Mittry in his Farmer’s Brewing/North County Plastering/MittryConstruction.com #2X Speedway/Maxim. The rest of the top five consisted of the Works Limited #57W Speedway/EMI of Shane Golobic and Chase Johnson in the Toyota of Marin, Walnut Creek, and Sunnyvale/Price Family Dealerships #24 Kistler/Maxim.
Rounding out the top ten was Chase Johnson, Washington driver Trey Starks, Bud Kaeding, Corey Eliason, Tim Kaeding, and defending series champ Dominic Scelzi.
The Shane DeWald Trucking/NexGen Diesel Exhaust Fluid/RTR Diesel Performance #18T Rider/Maxim of Tanner Holmes earned the Williams Roofing Hard Charger Award after starting 20th and finishing 11th.
NAPA AUTO PARTS FEATURE (30 laps): 1. 42X-Justyn Cox[2]; 2. 14-Corey Day[3]; 3. 2X-Justin Sanders[10]; 4. 57W-Shane Golobic[9]; 5. 24-Chase Johnson[4]; 6. 4R-Trey Starks[8]; 7. 69-Bud Kaeding[12]; 8. 83-Cory Eliason[16]; 9. 0-Tim Kaeding[6]; 10. 41-Dominic Scelzi[1]; 11. 18T-Tanner Holmes[20]; 12. 88A-Joey Ancona[18]; 13. 16A-Colby Copeland[17]; 14. 88N-DJ Netto[15]; 15. 22-Ryan Bernal[14]; 16. 21-Cole Macedo[5]; 17. 83T-Tanner Carrick[19]; 18. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[21]; 19. 36-Craig Stidham[22]; 20. 12B-Dawson Faria[24]; 21. 37-Michael Pombo[23]; 22. 83JR-Kraig Kinser[13]; 23. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt[11]; 24. 2K-Kaleb Montgomery[7]
METTEC TITANIUM LAP LEADERS: Justyn Cox 1-30
WILLIAMS ROOFING HARDCHARGER: Tanner Holmes from 20th to 11th
ARP FAST QUALIFIER (27 CARS) Justyn Cox, 14.299
SUNNYVALLEY BACON TROPHY DASH (6 Laps): 1. 41-Dominic Scelzi[2]; 2. 42X-Justyn Cox[1]; 3. 14-Corey Day[4]; 4. 24-Chase Johnson[5]; 5. 21-Cole Macedo[6]; 6. 0-Tim Kaeding[3]
B&M RACING SOLUTIONS HEAT ONE (8 Laps): 1. 0-Tim Kaeding[1]; 2. 4R-Trey Starks[2]; 3. 2X-Justin Sanders[3]; 4. 69-Bud Kaeding[5]; 5. 21-Cole Macedo[4]; 6. 16A-Colby Copeland[6]; 7. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[8]; 8. 12B-Dawson Faria[9]; 9. 115-Nick Parker[7]
KIMO’S TROPICAL CAR SHOW HEAT TWO (8 Laps): 1. 41-Dominic Scelzi[1]; 2. 57W-Shane Golobic[3]; 3. 24-Chase Johnson[4]; 4. 83JR-Kraig Kinser[5]; 5. 22-Ryan Bernal[7]; 6. 88A-Joey Ancona[6]; 7. 36-Craig Stidham[8]; 8. 18T-Tanner Holmes[2]; 9. 75-Bill Smith[9]
BEACON WEALTH STRATEGIES-RAYMOND JAMES FINANCIAL HEAT THREE (8 Laps): 1. 42X-Justyn Cox[2]; 2. 2K-Kaleb Montgomery[1]; 3. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt[3]; 4. 14-Corey Day[4]; 5. 88N-DJ Netto[7]; 6. 83-Cory Eliason[5]; 7. 37-Michael Pombo[8]; 8. 83T-Tanner Carrick[6]
KAEDING PERFORMANCE CENTER B FEATURE (10 Laps): 1. 83T-Tanner Carrick[2]; 2. 18T-Tanner Holmes[1]; 3. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[3]; 4. 36-Craig Stidham[4]; 5. 37-Michael Pombo[5]; 6. 12B-Dawson Faria[6]; 7. 75-Bill Smith[8]; 8. (DNF) 115-Nick Parker[7]