Burt Myers wins Hayes 200 after leaders Tangle with 10 to Go

Tim Brown led the first 190 laps of the Hayes Jewelers 200 at Bowman Gray Stadium but a run-in with Danny Bohn ensured that neither would win the annual Tour Type Modified season opener.

Enter, literally, Burt Myers.

Bohn got to the inside of Brown on the 14th restart of the race, taking the lead, before getting shoved in kind up the groove in Turns 3 and 4. That created a hole for Myers to fill, which he did, before driving away to his 89th career victory at The Madhouse.

That’s the second most all-time — only to Brown.

https://twitter.com/FloRacing/status/1649965405027594240

“This might be one of the sweetest ones I’ve gotten,” Myers told NASCAR Roots. “I’ve lost races that way, so to finally win one that way feels really good. We had the best car tonight, but Tim was in the catbird’s seat to win the race. I saw it coming, and I was hoping we’d come out on the best end of it and we did.”

But Brown, the defending champion, was denied a chance to win his first race at the Stadium since July 2021 and it stung having waved off a reporter at the track on Saturday night and again declining the chance to speak about the incident via text.

He did post a statement of sorts on Facebook the next morning.

“On to next week, don’t count us out. We’ll be back and ready to try to bring home the win,” he wrote.

Bohn went on to finish second and told the Greensboro News Journal that he was simply going for the win in the biggest race of the year.

“When I gets down to 15 (laps) or so you gotta go,” said Bohn, defending winner of the Hayes 200. “I moved him off like you do at Bowman Gray and he tried to wreck me in (turn) three and neither of us won. I guess that’s part of it.”

Bohn shared no remorse when asked about it by the journal.

“I’m here to win,” Bohn said. “With no outside you aren’t going to pass anybody on the restarts. He was tight so I moved him up in (turn two) and drove underneath him and he went down there in (turn three) and never lifted and it cost us the win. He’s the one that has to explain to his sponsors that he can’t win a race over here, not me.”

Myers would easily accept winning an 11th championship but these big wins are even more sweeter.

“We hang our hat on [these big races],” Myers told NASCAR Roots. “It makes us proud as a team to know that we are not out there just running a 25-lap sprint. We’ve won the big one and this is our Daytona 500. [It was great to] win this tonight in the exciting fashion we did. I think you could see I had them on their feet.”

The race took place in front of a sold out crowd of 13,500.

OTHER RESULTS VIA NASCAR ROOTS:

• In the 40-lap Sportsman feature, polesitter Chase Robertson had to come from the 10th starting position following a full field redraw. It did not take long for Robertson to make his way up through the field before passing Zack Ore to open the 2023 season with a victory at Bowman Gray. He then quickly departed the track to attend his high school prom.
• There were two races for the Stadium Stock division. Isaac Harris took home the checkered flag in the first feature while Blaine Curry claimed the second event.
• A chaotic Street Stock feature wrapped up an eventful season opener at Bowman Gray Stadium. Brad Lewis took home the checkered flag.

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