Ryan Repko picked a fine time for his breakthrough CARS Tour
Late Model Stock victory, defeating Craig Moore in the Throwback 276 on Saturday
night at the Hickory Motor Speedway.
Repko, who has enjoyed success in weekly competition at ‘The
Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars,’ trailed the veteran Craig but wasn’t able to
make the pass until Lap 111 – 70 laps after Moore himself took the lead from
Repko on a restart.
But once Repko retook the lead, he would not relinquish it
and was crowned winner by the legendary Dave Marcis with the throwback
open-faced helmet given to the winner of the prestigious CARS Tour event.
Even more special was that Repko was driving a paint scheme
made famous by Marcis in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“I would say that’s the biggest win of my career, definitely the most memorable for sure” Repko said in Victory Lane. “It’s an honor to be able to honor Dave Marcis and run his throwback paint scheme. Any win here is special. There’s a lot of history at this place and it’s kind of my backyard, my home track, so I’m really thankful to get my CARS Tour win here. I just can’t believe it.”
SLM 276: Matt Craig beats Bubba Pollard | Pollard punches Jeff Craig
Josh Berry led the race from the pole for the first 11 laps
and the current CARS Tour championship leader quickly faded from contention and
finished a distant sixth driving a retro Dale Earnhardt Jr. Late Model Stock wrap.
For Repko, the win was special because it came in a Marcis
inspired car and against Moore — a mainstay of Mid-Atlantic short track
racing.
Repko raced like a veteran himself on Saturday.
“I think it was a pretty good battle for the fans because
you could throw a blanket over those two cars,” he said. “They were so close. I
think I was saving a little bit more than him and that is what paid off in the
end.”
Moore brought a new car to Hickory and was proud of the way
it performed, even in defeat.
“I put together in like nine days before this race,” Moore
said. “We only got about two hours of test time on it. It bit us a little bit.
I’m stocked with how it ran, man. I’m pumped up. It gives us a lot of momentum
going into the last two races of the year. I really am thinking about going to
Martinsville. With that run and sponsor money, we might consider it. We got too
free off. Everybody was too free, but Ryan was better than we were.
“Some lapped cars got in the way there at the end, but to
bring a new race car to this place and this being a hard track to get around,
I’m really thankful everything happened the way it did.”
Defending CARS Tour champion Bobby McCarty finished third, with
Layne Riggs and Sammy Smith rounding out the top-five.
The complete results can be found below.
- Ryan Repko
- Craig Moore
- Bobby McCarty
- Layne Riggs
- Sammy Smith
- Josh Berry
- Brandon Pierce
- Brody Pope
- Mike Darne
- Deac McCaskill
- Tyler Matthews
- Cole Glasson
- Adam Lemke
- Jacob Heafner
- Charlie Watson
- Mitch Walker
- Justin Carroll
- Taylor Gray
- Austin McDaniel
- Sarah Cornett-Ching
- Matt Leicht
- Camden Gullie
- Terry Brooks, Jr.
- Mini Tyrrell
- Ryan Millington
- Gage Painter
- Jeremy Burns
- Trevor Ward
- Ronald Hill
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