THOMPSON – A week ago at Thompson International Speedway, Ryan Preece celebrated an SK Modified victory in a mayhem filled victory lane after the second feature for the division that night.
Woody Pitkat took the checkered flag as the winner and went to victory lane, only to be immediately disqualified from the win. Preece pulled his car behind Pitkat’s in the Thompson victory lane.
Thursday Preece got to have victory lane all to himself.
Preece lost the lead to Keith Rocco on a late restart but rallied to regain the lead and win the 30-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature Thursday at Thompson.
“It felt pretty good,” Preece said. “Hard racing definitely. I had fun. This car was the best car I’ve ever had here. It was definitely on rails tonight.”
It was the fifth victory this season at Thompson for Preece, of Berlin.
Rocco, of Wallingford, was third and Ted Christopher of Plainville third.
Rocco went to the lead past Kerry Malone in turn two on lap four, but it was a short advantage, as Preece went below both he and Malone to nab the lead coming off of turn two.
Preece built up a 10-car length lead on Rocco before a caution flew for a spinning car on lap 26. On the ensuing restart Rocco went by Preece for the lead, but Preece tucked in behind him to make his move. On lap 29 Preece got under Rocco going into turn one and came out of turn two with the lead.
“He did good [on the restart],” Preece said. “I knew if tried to stay on the outside of him going into [turn] one he would have drove up into me. I had a really good car so I could pick and choose where I could. I was able to make the hole and get by him and just hold on from there.”
Said Rocco: “We were definitely struggling. We’ll get him next week. We were pretty far off tonight. To finish second, that’s pretty good. … To get the lead back from him and hold him off until two [laps] to go, what are you going to do?”
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