Justin Haley was patient all night at Greenville Pickens Speedway … until it was go-time.
The 16-year-old from Winamac, Indiana, cleared the dominant car of Kyle Benjamin with seven laps to go and sailed to his first career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East victory. It was Haley’s 23rd career NASCAR K&N Pro Series start. He nearly picked up the win in Phoenix last fall in the K&N Pro West, but late contact while leading cut a tire and ended his night six laps short of the win.
Haley ran second most of the night before making his late move.
“The first run I was holding back but the second run, I ran all out,” Haley said. “We had a good gap from second to third so it was just me and him kind of just racing and it didn’t matter if I used up our tires.
“It was a two way race, so no not really, I didn’t save. I was just trying to go with the pace of the race and be there at the end.”
Benjamin settled for second, followed by Ronnie Bassett Jr., championship points leader Spencer Davis and Dillon Bassett.
Benjamin, from nearby Easley, South Carolina, was fastest in practice and winner of the 21 Means 21 Pole Award presented by Coors Brewing Company. He led a race-high 122 laps. Haley used lapped traffic to wrestle the lead away early in the race. But Benjamin took it back just before halfway and led until the closing laps when Haley edged by him to claim the checkered flag.
“I had a lot of fun racing tonight. I’m honestly a little disappointed because I thought we had a real shot at it for a while, but finished for second isn’t bad either,” Benjamin said. “We had a good short and long run car. But so did he and we just came up short at the very end. But maybe I fought just a little too hard to keep control of the race. We had a little rain on the windshield and needed to stay up front. I would try to watch the mirror and keep his pace, just leave him two carlengths back. We probably both just wound up running too hard for those last laps.”
“We played it safe and used the first 75 laps as a judge for the last 75”, Haley added. “I felt like we had a better car than the 40 [Benjamin] all day and it showed. For the second run, we were pretty much all out. We got a pretty good gap back to third so it didn’t really matter; we could just race each other. We just went the pace of the race and were there at the end.”
Reid Wilson finished sixth, followed by Noah Gragson, Tyler Dippel, Kaz Grala and Hunter Baize. The race was slowed just twice by cautions, including the halfway break.
Davis maintained a three-point lead over Benjamin, while Haley moved into third. Haley is one point behind Benjamin and one ahead of teammate Dippel. Ronnie Bassett rounds out the top five in points.
The Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet 150 will air on NBCSN on Saturday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will be back in action on April 16 with the PittLite 125 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Benjamin is the defending race winner.
The complete results from the race can be viewed below.
- Justin Haley
- Kyle Benjamin
- Ronnie Bassett Jr.
- Spencer Davis
- Dillon Bassett
- Reid Wilson
- Noah Gragson
- Tyler Dippel
- Kaz Grala
- Hunter Baize
- Collin Cabre
- Jairo Avila, Jr.
- Sarah Cornett-Ching
- Austin Theriault
- Harrison Burton
- Dominique Van Wieringen
- John Holleman IV
- Ali Kern
- Ruben Garcia Jr.
- Trey Hutchens
- Christian Celaya
