The first race of the Forzday Racing League's foray into the world of Stock Cars took place on Thursday night with seven FRL drivers taking to the track at the famed Daytona Speedway. Qualifying was led by Nicholas Hargrove, posting a lap fully .400 faster than the rest of the field. The momentum he demonstrated in qualifying would roll him right on into the lead in the early going of the race.
As the Green flag waved, the #85 of Ethan Maestri got a fast start and pulled down to the yellow line heading off into Turn 1. Nicholas in the #88 Nationwide ride would pull in just behind him and set to work looking for an opening to the lead. At the rear, Matthew Smith would swerve hard to avoid getting into the #18 of Travis Billingsley and would lose the car exiting Turn 2. Fortunately he made no contact with the wall and was able to pull back onto the track without incident.
Matthew Smith would have handling problems in the early stages of the race and would be forced to retire
As the field began to settle into the race, the lead two cars of Ethan and Nick would begin to pull ahead of the rest of the pack and soon Nick was moving around trying to find the best place to make his move around the #85 Soundcloud Ford of Ethan's. About lap 8 Nick saw an opening and did finally make a move. From that point on, both the #88 and #85 would run nose-to-tail with Ethan not able to pull alongside the Nationwide Chevy to challenge.
The battle for third place would heat up among the three drivers of Tony Tyree, Drew Dilbeck and Travis Billingsley. All three drivers would make runs in the P3 position. But tough racing conditions led to all three drivers getting against the wall at various times. Eventually, Tony Tyree would put the #47 Frosted Flakes Chevy into the wall and would fade back to P5. Drew and Travis would continue a side-by-side battle for many laps until contact with the wall forced Travis to give up the fight for P3.
After the pit cycle sequenced out, Ethan Maestri found himself in the lead again, just ahead of Nick. By lap 31 Nicholas had once again pulled alongside and passed for the lead. A few laps latter, Ethan would slide up the track a bit and lost the draft on Nick, allowing the #88 a commanding lead all the way to the finish at lap 50. This is Nicholas Hargrove's first victory as an FRL driver. It also gives him the distinction of being the first winner in the FRL's FASCAR series. Ethan Maestri would bring the Soundcloud Ford home in P2.
Drew Dilbeck was able to secure the third place position and posts his first Top 3 finish in his FRL career. Tony Tyree was able to collect himself and charged ahead for the P4 position. Travis Billingsley had a rough go of it and fell back to P5. Owen Henderson made all 50 laps without incident, and although lapped by the front runners, was able to cling to Ethan Maestri's draft and showed that he had the chops to race at the front. He would finish P6 in his #48 Chevy. Matthew Smith would run the first 10 laps but an ill handling race car would force him to retire early from the race in P7.
The series moves from the 2.5 mile tri-oval of Daytona to the sheer bliss of the Watkins Glen short track. The Watkins Glen 120 is coming up Thursday March 2nd.
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