Mike Marlar earned the win at Eldora
Mike Marlar had never won a Castrol FloRacing Night in America feature until Tuesday night when he scored what might have appeared to be a dominating win. But a deeper look into the race shows that the No. 157 car led the vast majority of the opening event on the 2023 series schedule but Hudson O’Neal took the lead late only to have the victory slip through his fingers when a tire went flat with just three laps remaining.
The Longhorn Chassis driver from Winfield, Tennessee earned $23,023 for his efforts on the Rossburg, Ohio track in a race shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 54 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results:
Group A Results- 1. Mike Marlar(15.223), 2. Bobby Pierce, 3. Hudson O’Neal, 4. Ricky Thornton Jr., 5. Kyle Larson, 6. Shannon Babb, 7. Kyle Bronson, 8. Tyler Erb, 9. Tanner English, 10. Ricky Weiss, 11. Brandon Overton, 12. Jason Jameson
Group B Results- 1. Nick Hoffman(15.470), 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Daulton Wilson, 4. Garrett Smith, 5. Brandon Sheppard, 6. Kent Robinson, 7. Tim Mccreadie, 8. Earl Pearson Jr., 9. Spencer Hughes, 10. Austin Kirkpatrick, 11. Jason Riggs, 12. Cory Lawler
Heat 1 Results: 1. Mike Marlar, 2. Ricky Thornton Jr., 3. Kyle Bronson
Heat 2 Results: 1. Bobby Pierce, 2. Kyle Larson, 3. Brandon Overton
Heat 3 Results: 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Shannon Babb, 3. Tanner English
Heat 4 Results: 1. Nick Hoffman, 2. Tim McCreadie, 3. Austin Kirkpatrick
Heat 5 Results: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Brandon Sheppard, 3. Earl Pearson Jr.
Heat 6 Results: 1. Daulton Wilson, 2. Stormy Scott, 3. Spencer Hughes
B-main 1 Finish: 1. Ricky Weiss, 2. Devin Moran
B-main 2 Finish: 1. Ross Robinson, 2. Kent Robinson
Feature Re-cap: At the start of the 50-lap feature it was Marlar shooting to the early lead ahead of Hoffman, Davenport, Pierce and Wilson. McCreadie moved forward on lap 3 when he passed by Wilson for fifth just one lap before a yellow flag was displayed when Pearson slowed on the track.
On the lap 4 restart, Davenport moved into the runner-up position behind Marlar while babb took sixth from Wilson. Both McCreadie and Babb got around Pierce for fourth and fifth on lap 8. McCreadie continued his march toward the top of the leaderboard when he took third away from Hoffman on lap 12.
By lap 15, Marlar’s lead was stretched out to more then two seconds over Davenport and McCreadie. At the same time, O’Neal pushed Hoffman outside the top-5. O’Neal then passed by Babb for fourth on lap 19.
As the race approached the halfway mark, Marlar began to encounter slower traffic while continuing to extend his advantage. Further back, Overton grabbed sixth away from Hoffman.
O’Neal moved by McCreadie for third on lap 34. He then wrested second away from Davenport one lap later. At the 10-to-go mark, O’Neal began to rapidly cut into Marlar’s lead. On lap 43, the No. 1 machine took the lead away from the race-long front runner.
A lap 47 yellow flag waved when leader O’Neal banged the wall and cut down a right front tire.
Marlar went back to the lead on the restart followed by McCreadie and Davenport then came a fast rising English. Over the final circuits, Marlar would control the pace and eventually sail under the checkered flag to capture his first ever FloRacing Night in America feature victory.
Feature Results: 1. Mike Marlar, 2. Tim McCreadie, 3. Tanner English, 4. Jonathan Davenport, 5. Brandon Sheppard, 6. Ricky Thornton Jr., 7. Brandon Overton, 8. Ricky Weiss, 9. Bobby Pierce, 10. Kyle Larson, 11. Devin Moran, 12. Hudson O’Neal, 13. Shannon Babb, 14. Kyle Bronson, 15. Nick Hoffman, 16. Stormy Scott, 17. Daulton Wilson, 18. Austin Kirkpatrick, 19. Earl Pearson Jr., 20. Ross Robinson, 21. Kent Robinson, 22. Spencer Hughes
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