Dirt Racing’s Winning Moment: Kyle Larson timed a run across a nasty rut in turn 1 to perfection with four laps to go, gapping Rico Abreu to score his third consecutive win on his High Limit Racing Series tour, this time at Eagle Raceway in Nebraska Tuesday night (June 6).
Abreu and Larson for the second consecutive event dueled for the victory, trading sliders for the entirety of the final 10 laps in a wreck-filled feature event.
2023 HIGH LIMIT RACING SERIES EAGLE RACEWAY RESULTS
Dirt Racing’s Dramatic Moment: That race-winning battle between Abreu and Larson was missing one of its primary combatants, one Brent Marks. Marks, who started on the front row alongside Abreu and led laps earlier, caught the rut in turn 1 and went for a violent tumble while out front inside of 15 laps to go.
Marks walked away from the crash.
What Dirt Racing Fans’ll Be Group Chatting About This Morning
Eagle Raceway hadn’t hosted a 410 sprint car race in over a decade. After the crowd that showed up this Tuesday night, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell it’ll take that long for another one to be scheduled. Make no mistake, Eagle was PACKED.
Even if the race up front hadn’t been a barnburner, the track and series officials deserve credit for an efficient program that was easily the best example of time management the High Limit tour has hosted. Of course, that should be expected from a single-class program, but that absolutely needed to happen on this tour. Midweek programs should never be marathons.
Yes, it’s time for a bounty on Larson.
Another High Limit race, another underwhelming “dice roll.” This week, both front-row starters Abreu and Marks turned down a chance at extra money for starting further back in the field, with Abreu literally driving off on his ATV seconds after dealing before the Flo Racing crew could even try to persuade him.
The rub? Both Marks and Abreu race sprint cars as their only source of revenue. Their self-owned teams need paychecks like the $28,023 that was already on the line before the dice roll badly. That leads to exchanges like the one with Marks, who didn’t even humor the Eagle Raceway crowd when he turned it down, instead approaching the decision with cold rationality. That’s not an indictment on Marks at all, it’s the smart call. If High Limit is going to stay married to this gimmick, they’re gonna have to pony up the type of cash that race teams that literally need the money can’t say no.
Judging from this crowd shot, it’s harder to get an interview with Larson at a dirt track than it is at a NASCAR Cup race. Things you love to see.
Dirt Racing’s Hero of the Day
Abreu may have come up just short Tuesday night, but statistically he has been on literal fire behind the wheel of his sprint car of late. One month out from the Eldora Million these are the type of results any driver would want to be posting.
Dirt Racing’s Victims of the Night (not named Brent Marks)
He didn’t go for a flip this time, but Tyler Courtney yet again found misfortune away from his home on the All-Star Circuit of Champions tour. Courtney made his way into the pole dash Tuesday night, but a mechanical malady forced him into a DNF for that event, then back to the pits again during the feature. It seems ages ago that Courtney was contending for the series points lead.
Fortunately, even though the feature had three flips there was no Big One at Eagle. There were, however, no shortage of drivers involved in the IMCA modified Big One at Beaver Dam Raceway Tuesday night.
Numbers Game
6
Number of dirt tracks to run an oval-track racing program in the U.S. Tuesday night.
84
The nation’s largest car count Tuesday night, the weekly racing program at Beaver Dam.
$28,023
The nation’s largest purse Tuesday night, paid to the winner of the High Limit feature at Eagle (Larson).
Up Next: Frontstretch will be back Friday morning (June 9) with coverage of the opening night of the Dirt Late Model Dream from Eldora Speedway. Coverage can be found on Flo Racing.
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