Ben Deatherage
(6/14/24 ) Cottage Grove, OR …
“Cottage Grove is my favorite track in the country, and I’ve said that for years, and I feel like I have the most laps here out of the whole field,” said the completely ecstatic main event winner. “(Cole Macedo) kind of got out of line to try and do what he needed to do as the leader, and I had one shot, so I got a couple of extra miles an hour faster than him and threw a dive bomb.”
The main event began with the Beacon Wealth Strategies dash winner Cole Macedo jetting out in front in his Tarlton Motorsports mount. The lone race stoppage was for a red flag incident with three laps complete that saw Billy Aton and Gauge Garcia collide. Neither was injured. When green flag action resumed, the Tarlton & Son #21 Maxim of Macedo set a wicked pace and developed a substantial 10-car length advantage.
Things got interesting when lapped traffic came into the mix on the ninth trip past the flag stand. With the race going caution free, traffic got heavier and heavier. Macedo had to make some critical decisions to get around the slower cars. Cox shadowed his every move and began to reel him in aboard his Diamond Plastics #42X Maxim.
Cox carried a lot of speed entering the bottom of turn three to power his way past Macedo to capture the lead with four laps remaining. The new pacesetter was not entirely out of the woods yet, as he had to deal with lapped traffic and a motivated Macedo. Despite Macedo’s best efforts, Cox kept his car out in front and scored the exciting victory.
Macedo would have his hands full in the waning circuits with the Whipple Supercharges #41 Maxim of Dominic Scelzi but managed to beat him to the checkered for second. Scelzi notched his first podium of the week with his third-place result.
Chase Johnson tied his best performance of 2024 with a fourth-place finish in the Toyota of Marin, Walnut Creek, and Sunnyvale #24 Maxim. Tanner Holmes mustered a late race charge to score fifth-place. Holmes is the only driver during the FFDM to score all top five finishes aboard his Builders Outlet Super Store #18T XXX. His charge from 10th earned him the Williams Roofing Hardcharger award.
Tyler Thompson, Justin Sanders, Dustin Bloomfield, ARP Fast Qualifier Tanner Carrick and Bud Kaeding rounded out the top ten.
Carrick set fast time in ARP Qualifying.
Heat winners were Aton, Cox, and Macedo.
HOOSIER RACING TIRES A-FEATURE (30 LAPS): 1. 42X-Justyn Cox [3]; 2. 21-Cole Macedo [1]; 3. 41-Dominic Scelzi [7]; 4. 24-Chase Johnson [5]; 5. 18T-Tanner Holmes [10]; 6. 7-Tyler Thompson [4]; 7. 2X-Justin Sanders [9]; 8. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield [8]; 9. 83T-Tanner Carrick [6]; 10. 29-Bud Kaeding [12]; 11. 121-Caeden Steele [11]; 12. 5K-Kinzer Cox [13]; 13. 10-Dominic Gorden [15]; 14. 9T-Camden Robustelli [17]; 15. 21P-Robbie Price [16]; 16. 15-Nick Parker [19]; 17. 02-Ashton Torgerson [18]; 18. 96-Greg Hamilton [14]; 19. 12J-John Clark [20]; 20. 26-Billy Aton [2]; 21. 2K-Gauge Garcia [21];
METTEC TITANIUM LAP LEADERS: Cole Macedo 1-25; Justyn Cox 26-30
WILLIAMS ROOFING HARDCHARGER: Tanner Holmes +5 (10th to 5th)
BROWN AND MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS HEAT ONE (8 LAPS): 1. 26-Billy Aton [2]; 2. 83T-Tanner Carrick [4]; 3. 2X-Justin Sanders [3]; 4. 121-Caeden Steele [6]; 5. 10-Dominic Gorden [7]; 6. 21P-Robbie Price [5]; 7. 53-Jessie Attard [1]; 8. 2K-Gauge Garcia [8]
KIMO’S TROPICAL CAR WASH HEAT TWO (8 LAPS): 1. 42X-Justyn Cox [1]; 2. 24-Chase Johnson [4]; 3. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield [2]; 4. 18T-Tanner Holmes [5]; 5. 5K-Kinzer Cox [3]; 6. 02-Ashton Torgerson [7]; 7. 15-Nick Parker [6]
SYSTEM 1 PRO IGNITION HEAT THREE (8 LAPS): 1. 21-Cole Macedo [2]; 2. 41-Dominic Scelzi [1]; 3. 7-Tyler Thompson [4]; 4. 29-Bud Kaeding [6]; 5. 96-Greg Hamilton [3]; 6. 9T-Camden Robustelli [5]; 7. 12J-John Clark [7]
BEACON WEALTH STRATEGIES & RAYMOND JAMES FINANCIAL TROPHY DASH (6 LAPS): 1. 21-Cole Macedo [1]; 2. 26-Billy Aton [2]; 3. 42X-Justyn Cox [3]; 4. 7-Tyler Thompson [4]; 5. 24-Chase Johnson [5]; 6. 83T-Tanner Carrick [6]
ARP QUALIFYING QUICK TIME: Tanner Carrick, 11.088 (22 Cars)