By Marty Czekala
MALTA, N.Y. – There’s a reason why Dillon Paddock is nicknamed “The Show Stopper.”
Paddock came out of a restart past the halfway point and charged from eighth to first on the high side in what could be considered the restart of the year to score his third win of the season and extend his points to four over Zach Sobotka at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
“I went to the top one time and drove through and went off the backstretch,” said Paddock in victory lane. “If I ripped the top, where no one could enter as high as I could. Drove it as hard as I could. That was win or lose and had to get back into it.”
Entering the night, Paddock held a one-point lead on Sobotka. Both drew in the same heat race, with Sobotka beating Paddock by a spot, meaning the points were tied entering Friday night’s feature.
Billy VanInwegen, recording three straight seconds, lined up on pole next to Bailey Boyd. Out of the gate, VanInwegen’s No. 56V had a fast car. Behind him, taking second immediately was Chad Miller, making his first CRSA start of 2025.
Miller kept his No. 88 on the tail of VanInwegen and on a lap five restart went underneath Billy V to throw a slider, but as he took the lead into turn three, the caution flew for Darryl Ruggles, Mark Taylor, Aaron Shelton and Jerry Sehn Jr. colliding in turn two.
VanInwegen kept pace, but behind them, championship implications developed as Paddock went over the banking in turn, dropping down the leaderboard to ninth. At the same time, Sobotka stayed ahead in third, looking like he would take the points lead back.
“That put a fire under my a**,” Paddock said.
The race’s longest run was underway as VanInwegen was in lapped traffic until the caution flew for Dustin Sehn spinning in turn two.
On the restart, VanInwegen kept the lead, but Paddock was able to get his No. 8 to the top, charging from eighth to second, edging Sobotka by three-thousandths. Then, “The Show Stopper” threaded the needle three-wide and put a slidejob on VanInwegen to take the lead. Sobotka was able to move up to second a few laps later and set his sights on Paddock.
With six to go, Sobotka threw a slider for the lead in turn one, but a caution for Jordan Hutton stopping reset everything.
The No. 38 threw everything he had for Paddock, but the latter answered back from Sobotka’s win at Woodhull, scoring his third win of the season by a second.
“He ran me very hard in those last few restarts,” said Paddock. “Gave me room. Great, hard racing with Zach. Didn’t touch at all.”
With the win, Paddock has recorded seven consecutive podium finishes dating back to July 3 at Land of Legends.
In addition, Paddock won an FK Shock package by 87 Speed and a Smith Ti Brake set as part of the Loyalty Giveaways. He ran at Utica-Rome last June and Albany-Saratoga and his name was picked out in a drawing.
For Sobotka, looking to go back-to-back in victory lane for the second time this season fell short. However, consistent efforts continue for the No. 38 scoring top 10s in all races, and 12 top fives in the 13 races. On a positive note, Sobotka remains the leader in the I-90 Pit Stop Challenge by 10 points on Paddock.
“I felt like we had a good enough car to beat him,” Sobotka said. “I thought I had a few cars between me and him and thought it was going to be just me and Billy and be gone and saw him. It’s been a lot of fun with Dillon. We’ve been going back and forth. That’s just how it’s been in the last few weeks.”
Rounding out the podium was Jeff Trombley. The No. 3A got past VanInwegen with six to go. Compared to the top two working the high groove, Trombley had the bite downstairs to gain him spots.
“Got a couple good restarts on the bottom and gained a little bit of ground,” said Trombley, a six-time modified winner at “The Great Race Place.” “If we had a later restart, yes. But after a lap or so and we got wound up, I wouldn’t have caught them.”
A shoutout to Upstate Acoustical Corporation and Ferris Coin & Jewelry for presenting the night. In addition, Ferris paid an extra $200 for heat race winners Mark Taylor, Jeff Trombley and Bailey Boyd.
The Ruggles World of Autobody & Graphics Hard Luck award went to Dustin Sehn after his two spins late in the race.
Spencer Burley won the Powdertech Powdercoating Hard Charger award, gaining 12 spots to finish 11th.
29 drivers signed in this evening.
“The Future Stars of Sprint Cars” now set their sight on Brewerton Speedway Friday night for another edition of the I-90 Pit Stop Challenge.
A Main (25 Laps): 1. 8-Dillon Paddock[10]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka[8]; 3. 3A-Jeff Trombley[7]; 4. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[1]; 5. 88C-Chad Miller[3]; 6. 48A-Alysha Bay[12]; 7. 33-Scott Landers[11]; 8. 3-Bailey Boyd[2]; 9. 10VC-Vince Chicklets[9]; 10. 13-Keith Granholm[14]; 11. 121X-Spencer Burley[23]; 12. 18-Timmy Lotz[16]; 13. 12-Tyler Chartrand[20]; 14. 66-Jordan Hutton[4]; 15. 61-Johnny Scarborough[13]; 16. 29-Dalton Herrick[6]; 17. 121-Steve Glover[15]; 18. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[21]; 19. 77-Matt Rotz[24]; 20. 5T-Mark Taylor[5]; 21. D9-Dustin Sehn[22]; 22. 22M-Aaron Shelton[19]; 23. 54-Fred Proctor[17]; 24. 28-Ron Greek[18]; 25. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[25]
B Main (10 Laps): 1. 22M-Aaron Shelton[3]; 2. D9-Dustin Sehn[6]; 3. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[5]; 4. 121X-Spencer Burley[7]; 5. 12-Tyler Chartrand[4]; 6. 77-Matt Rotz[8]; 7. 19C-Mark Connoly[9]; 8. 55-Michael Hart[10]; 9. 21VT-Mia Koponen[11]; 10. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[1]; 11. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[2]
Elab Smokers Boutique Dash (4 Laps): 1. 10VC-Vince Chicklets[2]; 2. 8-Dillon Paddock[1]; 3. 33-Scott Landers[4]; 4. 48A-Alysha Bay[5]; 5. 61-Johnny Scarborough[3]; 6. 13-Keith Granholm[6]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5T-Mark Taylor[2]; 2. 29-Dalton Herrick[4]; 3. 88C-Chad Miller[5]; 4. 13-Keith Granholm[1]; 5. 33-Scott Landers[6]; 6. 48A-Alysha Bay[8]; 7. 12-Tyler Chartrand[3]; 8. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles[10]; 9. 121X-Spencer Burley[9]; 10. 21VT-Mia Koponen[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 3A-Jeff Trombley[1]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka[4]; 3. 8-Dillon Paddock[5]; 4. 66-Jordan Hutton[8]; 5. 18-Timmy Lotz[2]; 6. 121-Steve Glover[7]; 7. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[3]; 8. D9-Dustin Sehn[6]; 9. 77-Matt Rotz[9]; 10. 55-Michael Hart[10]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 3-Bailey Boyd[3]; 2. 61-Johnny Scarborough[1]; 3. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr[8]; 4. 10VC-Vince Chicklets[7]; 5. 54-Fred Proctor[2]; 6. 28-Ron Greek[4]; 7. 22M-Aaron Shelton[5]; 8. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[9]; 9. 19C-Mark Connoly[6]
Hot Laps 1: 1. 18-Timmy Lotz, 00:15.163[16]; 2. 61-Johnny Scarborough, 00:15.186[22]; 3. 33-Scott Landers, 00:15.229[15]; 4. 88C-Chad Miller, 00:15.276[17]; 5. 8-Dillon Paddock, 00:15.307[18]; 6. 3A-Jeff Trombley, 00:15.317[28]; 7. 29-Dalton Herrick, 00:15.369[12]; 8. 3-Bailey Boyd, 00:15.435[2]; 9. 48A-Alysha Bay, 00:15.477[1]; 10. 38-Zach Sobotka, 00:15.490[26]; 11. 66-Jordan Hutton, 00:15.559[13]; 12. 10VC-Vince Chicklets, 00:15.699[5]; 13. 121X-Spencer Burley, 00:15.705[3]; 14. 30-Kirsten Dombroski, 00:15.815[7]; 15. 13-Keith Granholm, 00:15.858[9]; 16. 77-Matt Rotz, 00:15.878[20]; 17. 56V-Billy VanInwegen Jr, 00:15.894[29]; 18. 5T-Mark Taylor, 00:15.990[27]; 19. D9-Dustin Sehn, 00:16.017[23]; 20. 28-Ron Greek, 00:16.017[10]; 21. 121-Steve Glover, 00:16.030[8]; 22. 21VT-Mia Koponen, 00:16.046[14]; 23. 12-Tyler Chartrand, 00:16.087[4]; 24. 55-Michael Hart, 00:16.090[11]; 25. 48JR-Darryl Ruggles, 00:16.137[21]; 26. 54-Fred Proctor, 00:16.215[19]; 27. 19C-Mark Connoly, 00:16.376[6]; 28. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr, 00:16.388[24]; 29. 22M-Aaron Shelton, 00:16.462[25]