By KEN BRUCE
Friday night at Big Diamond Speedway saw a determined and fast Duane Howard win the feature and title in the Modified division. Not to be outshined, Brandon Edgar promptly went out afterwards and pulled off the same feat, cementing his 2022 USS Achey Inc Crate 602 Sportsman title with a win. Although Edgar had already clinched the title by just taking the green flag, he wanted to put an exclamation point on his accomplishment with a win and did just that. For Edgar, Friday night’s win was his 13th career win (8 Open Sportsman, 5 Crate 602) at Big Diamond.
“I really wanted to win this race tonight,” said the happy Edgar reflecting on his win afterwards. “I thought when the caution came out there when I had the No. 20 (Danny Buccafusca), I was ready to scream and even did a little bit. I thought that was it because Danny is so good on the bottom and has been all year, I wasn’t expecting him to move. We have been good at restarts, and I was able to get up alongside of him and once I did and was able to clear him, I just wanted to take his line away going into turn three. After that there was no way he was going to get around me unless he got me out of shape or something.”
NASCAR had its version of the big three a few years ago and in the Crate 602 division this season at Big Diamond, I like to think the big three were Edgar, Danny Buccafusca and Logan Watt. These three drivers have accumulated a total of 11 wins out of the 15 Crate 602 features run so far in 2022 and more than not it was whoever got to the lead first winning the race.
“It seemed like that is the way it went all year, my goal was to just get the front the quickest out of us three,” explained Edgar. “I would like to say that Danny won a bunch of races by starting in front of me, but he also won a bunch of races starting behind us too. Danny and Logan are very good here and that was what it was every week because once one of us got to the front, it was going to be hard to pass whoever it was for the lead. It felt good to be able to pass Danny tonight, because he is so good here. It was a perfect way to cap off the night.”
It has been a good year for Edgar all around, after getting married to his pretty wife Brittany back in 2021 the two are expecting a little girl in December and with that happening this might be the swan song for Edgar as far as chasing points.
“I would assume that this was my last time chasing points in any racing division ever,” mentioned Edgar. “Finishing this season out on top is awesome. I’ve been losing sleep over it; I’ve been sweating it and overthinking it. I was fortunate the last two times that we were running for points that I was second going into the final night so there was no pressure at all but coming into tonight as the leader, I just wanted everything to go right, and it did. I couldn’t ask for a better way to finish it. No matter what happens down the line and if I don’t ever race again, I will always be in the record books here at Big Diamond Speedway and that is pretty darn cool!”
Rochinski came into his own this season at Big Diamond
This season was the third season that Nick Rochinski has called Big Diamond Speedway his home for Friday night’s. The past two years, Rochinski had struggled but you could see flashes of what was to come as the small family team built a notebook and learned. This season at Big Diamond, all that hard work paid off as Rochinski was able to win his first ever modified feature at Big Diamond and backed that up with a very respectable third place finish in the points.
“It was a good season here, we had some ups and some downs trying some stuff with this car,” cited a happy yet somewhat disappointed Rochinski after losing the lead to Duane Howard with only a few laps to go. “We have been trying to beat these guys consistently and it seems like we are pretty consistent, but we are here to win, and I am generally a little bit hard on myself and having a tough time giving up the win tonight. We had a good car, but Duane was just a touch better. I thought I had a chance to get back at him there in lapped traffic, but it didn’t quite work out.
“We knew what we had to do tonight, we had to win our heat and win the feature to have any chance at winning the points, but we didn’t win our heat or the feature, but we did end up finishing third in points with some pretty big names in PA Spec racing. We all work hard to get these cars faster and this year it has paid off for us. These races are won in the shop and with hard work and preparation and I have one of the best crew chiefs around in my brother (Kyle) and a darn good car owner in my dad (Brian). We are a family run and oriented team and I am happy for them.”
Kressley comes up five points short of title
Brett Kressley knew what he had to do coming into tonight’s points finale, just stay ahead of Duane Howard. That was the goal for the driver of the No. 19K. He came into the championship night with a 30-point lead over Howard. Finish ahead of Howard or even just one spot behind him and the title was his. Unfortunately for Kressley he came up one spot short by finishing two spots behind Howard and ultimately losing the track championship by a mere five points.
“We were off just a hair tonight, what are you going to do, it’s racing,” said an obviously disappointed Kressley after the race. “I think I showed them the top there and then I got pinned on the bottom and the last restart didn’t go our way and ultimately that is what got us. We had to put a different engine in this car after hurting our other motor, which was not the one we wanted to use up here. There were a couple of things that led up to us not being as stout tonight as we usually are, but we gave it our best shot. We had a good year here, had a couple of wins but should’ve probably been three of four wins and that is why we are back here instead of out there celebrating.”
Big Diamond Notes:
26 Modifieds signed in for championship night with Brett Kressley, Ken Eckert Jr and Kevin Beach Jr winning the three heats. Shawn Fitzpatrick won the consi…
It was a bad night for Louden Reimert. Reimert came into championship night fourth in points with a shot to win the title. Unfortunately, Reimert had what appeared to be rear end problems in his heat race that manifested itself once again in the feature, resulting in a DNF and a fifth-place finish in the points…
Craig Von Dohren who has been arguably the hottest driver the past few weeks at Big Diamond came into the night with a good chance at winning another Big Diamond title. Von Dohren was advancing through the field and up to fourth when Rick Laubach got into the back of the No. 88X causing Von Dohren to spin in turn four. After running a few more laps, Von Dohren called it a night and pulled off…
After a hard wreck caused a lot of damage to the No. 14W last Saturday at Bridgeport Motorsports Park, Ryan Watt opted to bring the repaired car to Big Diamond on Friday night to make sure all was good. Watt was fast all night and ended up finishing in seventh…
With Watt running his own car, Shawn Fitzpatrick was back behind the wheel of his No. T102 for the night…
Ironically, all three drivers that won on Friday night, Duane Howard (Modifieds), Brandon Edgar (Crate 602 Sportsman) and Alex Schoffstall (Roadrunners) respectively were crowned champions…
The season at Big Diamond finishes up next Sunday September4th with the running of the Jack Rich, Inc. Coalcracker 72. The track at Big Diamond has been awesome all season and we can expect the same on Sunday which should give us a barnburner of a race all looking for that big $17,000 payday…
Jordan Henn who has competed in the Crate 602 Sportsman division all year in the Reber No. 4R was back in his own No. 77 modified on Friday night to try and get some laps before the Coalcracker 72 next Sunday…
It was good to see Eddie Strada back up front once again after struggling most of the summer. Strada finished a strong fifth in the feature…
If you have any questions or comments. I can be reached at dirtracefan25@hotmail.com or on Twitter @dirtracefan25.
