LONG POND, PA -- Harrison Widelitz wrote TASCOR history Saturday, winning the Pocono 300 in his first career eDimensional Cup Series start ever. This outstanding performance puts Widelitz in an elusive list with James Krahula, Chad Laughton and Changyoun Kim who also have won their respective debut races.
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| © 2008 TASCOR Media |
| On the restart with one lap to go, David Topie and Harrison Widelitz battled each other hard, with Widelitz prevailing to get his debut win. |
Widelitz led a race high 73 laps en route to his Pocono 300 victory but had to hold off Changyoun Kim and David Topie in order to get to victory lane. Topie won the eDimensional Pole for the Pocono 300 and had the fastest car of the field at times, but Widelitz kept his cool in a furious fight between the two in the closing laps.
With six laps to go, the day's final of ten caution flags came out for a wreck involving Danny Sanchez, Ricky Hardin and Voffka Bykoff. TASCOR race control announced it would restart the race for a one lap shootout, to determine the winner. Several cars from 4th position on backwards used to the chance to pit for four fresh tires.
The top three, Widelitz, Topie and Ben Fischer stayed out on old tires. When the green flag came out, the drivers on fresh tires had struggle to take full advantage of their fresh rubber as the top three created a multi-car length lead over fourth place finish Ricky Hardin, the first car with four fresh tires.
Coming to the tunnel turn, the race ended as the caution came out again, this time because the cars of Mark Agee and Bill Fields crashed together. In a coincidence, the engine of Agee's No. 27 Advance Auto Parts Toyota exploded just moments before Fields slid into Agee's car from up high.
Topie raced leader Harrison Widelitz into turn one hard on the race's final restart. The two cars were side by side and even touched going through turn one. Topie's No. 5 EMBARQ Chevrolet got slightly loose, but it was enough to lose the lead again and Widelitz never looked back, earning his first ever victory and the first for Lone Star Racing.
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| © 2008 TASCOR Media |
| John Higman Jr. had a promising run end in a spectacular crash on lap 19, when his No. 17 Coors Light Toyota flipped over. |
On another note, this was also Dodge's first win since the 2006 Season, when Daniel Mageste won for Brazil Motorsports at Dover, in the spring race at the "Monster Mile" - meaning the Detroit car manufacturer had to endure a winning drought of more than one year before returning to victory lane this weekend.
Ben Fischer finished third, following up his first win of the season at Dover two weeks ago, with his third consecutive top-five finish. He's now ranked in third in points, as Jeroen Anema suffered a blown engine and an early exit from the 300-mile event.
Hardin was fourth, tightly followed by Daytona 300 champion Tom Splain who said he had a "killer run going" on the final lap, but was unfortunate as the caution flag cut short an aggressive strategy by Splain to maximize on a nightmare day for Changyoun Kim.
Kim, the points leader since the fourth race of the season, who has won already four races this season, left the race with a broken clutch and engine problems on lap 98, after he was present in the fight for the lead all the time and leading 23 laps.
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| © 2008 TASCOR Media |
| Danny Sanchez had the save of the day late in Saturday's Pocono 300, when he got bumped by Bykoff but did not spin out. He still hit the wall, though. In the end he wound up eighth. |
The 26-year old VERTIS Rookie Of The Year contender also was the only car able to pass Widelitz during one of the longest green stints of the race.
It was a very competitive race with green flags in the second half of the event, that tested each driver and pit crew to the maximum. At the end of the day, 16 cars of originally 25 starters were still running at the time of the finish.
Ricardo Pino got the lucky dog award when a caution came out late in the race, to get back to the lead lap. The NEPA Motorsports driver made the best ouf of it and posted a sixth place finish, right behind team-mate and boss Tom Splain in the No. 23 Sirius Satellite Radio Ford.
Voffka Bykoff overcame the late crash and finished seventh. He had a very fast No. 16 Castrol GTX Toyota Camry , easily making for the best Toyota driver in the field on Saturday. His team-mates John Higman Jr. and Mark Agee both failed to finish the race, even though Agee was credited as "Running" at the finish, despite an expired engine.
Danny Sanchez was eighth, Jean Costa ninth and Hyogyun Bang rounded out the top-ten. Costa was the hometown hero, just like Tom Splain as the two Pennsylvanians enjoyed a visit to their hometown crowd. Costa lives nearby the track and is a resident of Pocono while Splain lives in Berwick, Pennsylvania.
"This sure is a special race, anytime we go here. It's just nice to race in front of your hometown folks. Everybody's cheering for you a bit harder on that weekend, so that pumps me up. I think we did a good job today. There were a few mistakes we made on pit road but we came back and finished in the top-ten. We'll take that," Jean Costa said.
With Changyoun Kim scored as 17th and Tom Splain, David Topie and Ben Fischer all scoring top-fives, the points race has tightened up a lot after Saturday's Pocono 300. Kim still holds the points lead, but by now less than 100 points over Splain. Fischer is third, 154 points back.
The eDimensional Cup Series enjoys another off week now, for Memorial Day weekend before returning to action for five straight races leading to the summer break in June and July. The next race is the eDimensional 250 at Michigan. David Topie is the defending race winner and will get to enjoy hometrack advantage.
