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Brent
Nelson Wins Wild SCSCS 2016 Opener at Midvale Speedway
Midvale,
Ohio (June 5, 2016) – During Saturday’s Hilltop General
Store 75 presented by Frontier Tool and Equipment Rental, the field
of competitors were not only evading impending storms in the sky but
also within the abundance of action on the track.
Petersburg, West Virginia’s Brent Nelson dodged and
survived numerous close calls to come away with his third career
Super Cup Stock Car Series victory.
It was his first at Eastern Ohio’s Midvale Speedway.
“We thought we had it won three
different times and still had to fight for it,” Nelson said,
adding that he could not recall being part of a more eventful
conclusion to a race.
Some dramatic altercations set up by
a yellow flag with only two laps to go resulted in four
green-white-checkered attempts on the 3/10-mile, but the turning
point to the race came even earlier.
A long green flag run during the middle stages of the 75-lap
event began to get interesting as 2015 Midvale winner Larry Berg was
tracking down the leader and teammate Stephen Cox, who set a track
record earlier in the evening with a lap time of 14.758 seconds.
When a caution flag flew for a spin
by Brian Harrison on the frontstretch with 11 circuits remaining,
Berg got together with Cox in turn four of the ensuing restart lap
and Cox went around. Due
to initiating the contact, Berg
was sent to the rear meaning the two
fastest cars throughout most of the distance had to climb their way
back through the field.
“I just went down into the corner
the first time, he checked up, and I just bumped him a little
bit,” 
Berg,
who ended the night with a fourth place finish, recapped.
“Didn’t mean to, and of course we got sent to the back
and from that point our car was pushing badly.”
Avoiding it all was Nelson, who had
come back to third place at the time after spinning out earlier in
the going.
“Everything closed up and then it
opened up,” Nelson explained.
“We were able to weave our way through it.”
Cox, making his first SCSCS
appearance since 2012, was involved in another close call during one
of the green-white-checkered attempts.
Nelson slowed up in the first two turns, allowing both Cox
and 2014 series champion JJ Pack to get a run under him.
Down the backstretch, the two ran out of real estate, spun
toward the infield, returned up the track in turns three and four,
and tagged two other cars in the process.
Without a green flag lap being
completed the running order was reset, giving Nelson the lead once
again. With some
additional restart mishaps among others in the field, Cox would
rebound to end the night in second place.
“My question is how many times do
you have to win the race?” Cox inquired.
“We came out and were lapping the whole field.
I had the race won; got taken out.
Came back, got all the way back up front, was passing (Pack)
on the inside, and he comes right down and takes us both out.
I won it twice and couldn’t win it three times.”
Despite the disappointment from
finishing runner-up with a fast car, the Indianapolis, Indiana
driver making his return behind the wheel after recovering from a
fiery incident in late February was certainly grateful.
“There are a lot of guys that get
hurt really bad and are never the same driver again,” Cox
commented. “It’s
kind of emotional for me. I
feel like I’m still a race car driver, and I hope everybody at
Boschett Timepieces, Impact Race Products, and McGunegill Engines
knows it too, because everybody up in the stands knows we were
there.”
Pack also returned toward the front
after the altercation and finished in third.
The Nokesville, Virginia driver’s view of the late race
incident differed slightly.
“Brent actually pushed up in the
corner and I went to capitalize,” Pack documented.
“I felt Stephen getting on my side.
I was already sideways, he was pushing me, and we went for a
slide.”
Brian Harrison recovered to finish
fifth. After the top six
qualifiers redrew, series veterans Kevin Kromer and Harvey Harrison
started from the front row. Each
led laps during the event, but unfortunately their end fate would
not be successful.
Harvey Harrison would suffer sheet
metal damage in an early incident, but an issue with the radiator
would ultimately end the Renick, West Virginia driver’s night a
third of the way through while running in second.
Kevin Kromer made hard impact with the lapped car of Trent
Gossar with two laps remaining, initiating the aforementioned series
of green-white-checkered restarts.
Kromer was shaken after the accident, but was okay after
being checked out by the track’s medical team.
Although starting off the season with
a win was exciting, Nelson expressed being fortunate to go on to the
next one unscathed with his Airtek Inc. / Precision Auto Collision
No. 80.
“Thank the good Lord above,”
Nelson remarked. “We
got a little damage but we’ll fix it and go to Columbus, and we
can roll it and drive it into the trailer.”
The Super Cup Stock Car Series
marches on in two weeks for their annual stop at Columbus Motor
Speedway. This visit
will be a special one with it marking the final time in which the
1/3-mile hosts the series as the track will shut their doors for
good at the conclusion of 2016 after 71 seasons of competition.
The Hilltop General Store 75
presented by Frontier Tool and Equipment Rental will air at a future
date on MAVTV and LucasOilRacing.TV.
Please visit the official web site at www.supercupstockcarseries.com,
Super Cup Stock Car Series Facebook
at www.facebook.com/SCSCSRacing,
or Twitter
@SCSCSRacing
for an announcement of dates and times.
Sponsorship and marketing
opportunities remain available for the 2016 season.
Organizations interested in learning more information should
contact brucescscs@gmail.com.
Click
here for Race Results...
Click
here for 2016 Point Standings...
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