THOMPSON – The first year Sunoco 604 Modified division at Thompson Speedway should be deemed as deeded property for Jon Puleo.
Puleo dominance of the division this season continued Wednesday.
Puleo, of Branford, drove away from Keith Rocco over the final 20 laps to win 50-lap Sunoco 604 Modified feature at Thompson Speedway.
It was Puleo’s fourth victory this season in the five events the division has run.
“This is definitely the best car we’ve got right here,” Puleo said. “This thing is amazing. Thank you TFR. Great chassis. … Nothing short of the best over here. My dad is the best at setting these things up.”
Rocco, of Wallingford, was second Isaiah Newcomb of Plymouth, Mass. third.
“We were debating on pitting there on the last yellow [on lap 28],” Rocco said. “Probably should have. We were just way too free. We definitely should have came in and made some adjustments. We had nothing for [Puleo] at the end of the race.”
At the start it was Danny Cates quickly getting by pole-sitter Josh Carey with Puleo moving up to second.
Rocco went by Carey for third on lap four.
On lap six Puleo made a move under Cates into turn one, with Puleo coming off of turn two with the lead. Cates fought back to regain the lead off of turn four. The same scenario took place again on lap seven, with Puleo edging ahead off of turn two and Cates grabbing the top spot back off of turn four.
On lap eight Puleo once again got by Cates off turn two. Cates tried to make the move to fight back off of turn four, but it was Puleo leading in the side-by-side battle to the flagstand to complete the lap.
With Puleo leading, Cates in second and Rocco in third, caution flew on lap 13 for the stopped car of Derek Ramstrom in the turn two wall.
With Puleo easily holding on out front, caution flew on lap 25 for the car of Zach Leone off track on the backstretch.
On the lap 25 restart it was Carey dashing to second place, dropping Cates to fourth. As Puleo drove away it left Rocco, Carey and Cates fighting for position on the frontstretch on lap 28. Contact sent Cates and Carey hard into turn one wall. The wreck left five of the initial eight starters still running on the track.
On the lap 28 restart Puleo got away easily with Isaiah Newcomb going from fourth to second. Rocco was able to overtake Newcomb and get back to second on lap 29, but he never closed on Puleo’s lead over the final 20 laps.
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