Rico Abreu won in his first WoO start of 2023
Making his first start with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series in 2023, Rico Abreu took the lead away from four-time series champion Brad Sweet during the second half of the feature then sailed on to his 10th career series win on Saturday night at Lincoln Speedway. The St. Helena, CA native beat out a strong field of both WoO Sprint and Pennsylvania Posse drivers at the Abbottstown, PA facility.
The sixth race of the season for the tour was the first of 2023 held outside the state of Florida. It was shown live by DirtVision.com.
A total of 49 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results:
Group A Results- 1. Carson Macedo(13.286), 2. Danny Dietrich, 3. David Gravel, 4. Matt Campbell, 5. Sam Hafertepe Jr., 6. Brock Zearfoss, 7. Landon Myers, 8. Anthony Macri
Group B Results- 1. Freddie Rahmer(14.513), Brad Sweet, 3. Devon Borden, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Billy Dietrich, 6. Spencer Bayston, 7. Michael Kofoid, 8. Tim Glatfelter
Heat 1 Results: 1. David Gravel, 2. Logan Schuchart, 3. Carson Macedo, 4. Brent Marks, 5. Landon Myers
Heat 2 Results: 1. Danny Dietrich, 2. Rico Abreu, 3. Matt Campbell, 4. Jacob Allen, 5. Anthony Macri
Heat 3 Results: 1. Freddie Rahmer, 2. Devon Borden, 3. Michael Kofoid, 4. Billy Detrich, 5. Kyle Reinhardt
Heat 4 Results: 1. Brad Sweet, 2. Spencer Bayston, 3. Justin Peck, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Tim Glatfelter
C-main Finish: 1. Troy Wagaman Jr., 2. James McFadden
Last Chance Showdown Finish:1. Giovanni Scelzi, 2. Sam Hafertepe Jr., 3. Lucas Wolfe, 4. Dylan Norris
Provisional Starters: James McFadden, Brandon Rahmer, Sheldon Haudenschild, Kyle Moody, Donny Schatz, Kasey Kahne
WoO Sprints Dash Race Finish: 1. Brad Sweet, 2. Freddie Rahmer, 3. Rico Abreu, 4. Devon Borden, 5. Logan Schuchart, 6. David Gravel, 7. Danny Dietrich, 8. Spencer Bayston
Feature Re-cap: At the start of the 35-lap main event it was Sweet who charged to the early lead ahead of Rahmer, Abreu, Borden, and Gravel. Gravel moved by Borden to take fourth briefly but Borden regained that position one lap later.
Sweet began to pull away from the pack by lap 4. Meanwhile, Borden would later pass Abreu to take over the third position. Both Rahmer and Borden closed in on the race leader on lap 7 as slower traffic became a factor.
Rahmer pulled right to the rear of Sweet’s machine on lap 8 as Sweet worked to lap cars. Rahmer made slight contact with the rear of sweet which sent the second=place driver spinning to bring out a yellow flag.
On the lap 8 restart, Gravel jumped to third sending Abreu to fourth with Schuchart rising to fifth, Sweet again looked to pull away but his lead would be erased when Norris stopped on track to bring out a caution on lap 12.
The lap 12 restart saw Macedo move into the top-5 pushing Schuchart back a place. As the race passed the halfway mark, Borden was keeping Sweet in his sights along with Abreu, Gravel and Macedo. The top-2 cars passed by the flag stand side-by-side on lap 20.
Abreu joined the fray and took second away from Borden. The No. 24 car then drove by Sweet to grab the race lead on lap 23. Further back, Macedo, Gravel, Schuchart and Peck were staging a fierce battle for positions within the top-5.
The leader stretched his advantage as the laps clicked away. In the end, it was Rico Abreu who would claim the victory.
“I’m thankful for my guys,” Abreu declared in his post-race interview with DirtVision.com. “They do an unbelievable job on the communication side of things just working through things. This a new learning curve for everybody being on this tire. I didn’t even know we were changing tire compounds until tonight when we pulled into the race track.
“I’m not used to this kind of weather,” he added. “I’ve never been to Pennsylvania in March.”
Feature Results: 1. Rico Abreu, 2. Brad Sweet, 3. Devon Borden, 4. Carson Macedo, 5. Justin Peck, 6. Danny Dietrich, 7. Logan Schuchart, 8. Giovanni Scelzi, 9. Brent Marks, 10. David Gravel, 11. Spencer Bayston, 12. Michael Kofoid, 13. James McFadden, 14. Chris Windom, 15. Anthony Macri, 16. Sheldon Haudenschild, 17. Matt Campbell, 18. Sam Hafertepe Jr., 19. Brock Zearfoss, 20. Donny Schatz, 21. Kasey Kahne, 22. Jacob Allen, 23. Billy Dietrich, 24. Tim Glatfelter, 25. Kyle Reinhardt, 26. Kyle Moody, 27. Lucas Wolfe, 28. Dylan Norris, 29. Freddie Rahmer, 30. Landon Myers
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