Josh Hedges started inside the third row of the Sport Trucks feature, but it was only five laps later that he was displacing Lenny Guy from the lead he’d taken off the pole. From there, he gave little chance to anybody to steal his position. Although Barry Shaw, Jr. jumped onto his bumper two laps after Hedges grabbed the front, and despite an Herculean effort to get past the leader, Hedges made it clear: nobody was going to steal his victory this evening.
Shaw did finish the race right where he had run most of it: on Hedges’ tailgate for a strong second place, holding off the hard-charging Rob Murphy and gaining a second to Murph’s third. Mike Duarte and Guy rounded out the top five.
Lenny came off the pole and eked out a narrow lead over David Simpson, as outside polesitter Darryl Church found himself going backwards on the outside. Hedges was in third going into lap two and he pressed by Simpson to begin an assault on the lead. Lenny held him off for three laps, but Hedges was generating too much speed to be kept at bay. Ed Gannon, taking a ride after a long absence, worked his way to fifth, ahead of Mike Cavallaro and Duarte. Behind them, Murphy was ramping up with John Robidoux in pursuit.
Lap five saw Guy getting a little bit wide on the turns and Hedges didn’t miss a beat, diving underneath and winning the lead. But the next lap saw Robert Jackson around coming out of turn four. He tried to refire and continue, but the motor didn’t catch quickly enough and caution flew.
Hedges was away from Guy on the restart with Shaw behind him, working under Guy. As Shaw pulled ahead Gannon ran underneath, keeping Lenny on the big freight train going rearward. He was finally able to drop in behind Gannon, ahead of Simpson.
Suddenly, Ed Perry was loose at mid-pack, but major wreckage was avoided as the field split around him.
Gannon went to Shaw’s bumper, trailing Guy, Simpson, Duarte and Murphy just before Robidoux spun out of turn two. Hedges and Shaw lined up to fight it out and Hedges nosed ahead while Shaw gave back as good as he got. Still, Hedges claimed the lead in turn two. Shaw dropped in front of Gannon into second while Simpson got under Guy behind them. Simpson won the challenge as the field stretched out single file.
Hedges was feeling his oats and had a seven-car lead in lap 13. Stretched behind him were Shaw, Gannon, Simpson, Duarte, Mike Cavallaro, and Chase Belcher. Behind them, Murphy was working underneath Guy.
Murphy moved in under Belcher for some wheel-to-wheel as they wound into lap 16, and one more circuit showed Murphy in seventh and Belcher eighth. The entire field was circling the track single file. But Lap 20 saw Murphy look and then go in under Cavallaro and Belcher followed and then dropped under Murphy. They went door-to-door.
Toward the front, Shaw and Gannon banged it out over second and as a result, both got sideways. Shaw recovered, but Gannon couldn’t get the grips back and went around.
It took two tries to get the field moving again on lap 22. But Hedges leapt back into the lead. Shaw got sideways but recovered but Guy was hit from behind and everybody dodged around him without further damage.
Finally, they were moving again and Hedges was again leading the pack. Simpson went to third with Belcher following while Murphy shot underneath to steal Simpson’s spot. Belcher went around Simpson into the white flag lap.
As Hedges was scoring the checkers with Shaw and Murphy in pursuit, Simpson nosed into Belcher, who spun out in turn four to the infield. Duarte shot by into fourth and Guy did the same for fifth place. Simpson followed, but was set back by Race Control for the assist, giving sixth to Darryl Dutch, followed by Doug Rioux, Robidoux, Robert Jackson, Rob Rainville and Gannon.