Chase Belcher made it no doubt that he is back to retreive his 2015 championship, climbing through from the back of the field to chase leader Lenny Guy and then take the restart pole when Guy’s race was interrupted by a turn two spin.
Mike Lopes, who ran the race in second place except for the two laps prior to the restart when Belcher caught and passed him lined on the outside pole. Lopes had made life miserable for Guy for 13 laps, fighting alongside and on his tailgate, and after the restart, he was reticent about giving way to Belcher. Belcher edged away into the lead with the stubborn Lopes plugging after him.
At the finish, Chase crossed the strip a full two seconds ahead and Lopes nabbed second for the best finish of his trucks career. Third went to Josh Hedges followed by Mike Cavallaro and Ed Perry.
Guy came off the pole at the start with Lopes glued to his right side and they battled door-to-door. Belcher began his trek to the front from twelfth, outside the sixth row and spent five laps gathering his wherewithal for a thrust at the front. Cavallaro had started the row ahead of him in his old truck with a new body as yet unnumbered and unlettered. He fell back alongside and then both headed forward.
Meanwhile, the Guy/Lopes brawl had become a breakaway run with John Robidoux watching their tailgates pull away. Mike Duarte showed his usual speed and moved rapidly from eighth to fifth where he began a duel with David Lougee which lasted four laps until Duarte fell off.
After twelve laps of intense competition, David Simpson spun out of turn two setting up Guy and Lopes for another run at the green flag. But change was afoot, as Belcher had moved in and was low man in the second row with Perry on his outside.
Guy surged forward and Belcher put his snout under Lopes to steal second. From there on, he was all over Guy’s bumper. Hedges showed the speed he had unveiled opening day and surged up into fifth place and was moving ahead. But Guy, under pressure and looking for relief instead found his back end snapping around in turn two.
Belcher and Lopes lined up with Perry and Lougee behind them while Hedges and Cavallaro occupied row three. Lopes got his nose ahead on the start, but Belcher came back to grab the lead for himself down the front stretch on the next circuit. Perry was working hard below Lougee while Hedges was looking below them both to forge a three-wide but couldn’t slice in. Hedges had Cavallaro alongside behind them and Russ Borges followed.
Belcher began to take command: he was five lengths ahead of Lopes by lap 18. Hedges was still trying to get under the battle between Lougee and Perry when Perry got loose in turn two and Hedges grappled onto his bumper with Cavallaro, in turn, on his.
Belcher’s lead was 12 cars and growing on lap 21, four laps from the finish. Perry pursued Lopes an additional ten cars back. Cavallaro went outside Hedges looking for fourth, but Hedges finally took the underneath move on Perry. Cavallaro looked at three wide, reconsidered and pulled in behind Perry. Hedges wrestled third away from Perry in turn three of the 23rd circuit and Cavallaro took the opportunity to get underneath himself and into fourth.
Sixth went to Lougee, while Duarte, Darryl Church, Simpson and Guy rounded out the top ten.