Cadre of Cabres As Cole Triumphs in Monday Night Racing at Talladega

Cole Cabre outlasted the Monday Night Racing field from the virtual Talladega Superspeedway and fended off DJ Cummings in the trioval on the final lap to win the Mach10 Digital 250. Cole Cabre and his brother Chase Cabre were a constant factor at the front of the field for much of the evening. This is Cole Cabre’s first Monday Night Racing win.

Cummings, who was underneath the rear wing of Cabre from the backstretch all the way to the trioval, peaked to the outside of Cabre just before the finish line. Cabre responded with a block. Cummings checked the inside but with too much momentum lost from his attempted move to the top, it was Cabre who cruised to victory with a margin of 0.097 seconds.

Dale Tanhardt was third, Bailey Turner was fourth, and Matt Stallknecht rounded out the top five.

As so often happens with superspeedway racing, the true story of the race begins with under ten laps to go when drivers begin to look for lanes to improve their on-track position. The first and most decisive move came from Corey Heim who moved from eighth to first in two corners, slicing up both Cabre brothers en route to the point of the field.

Heim’s time out front lasted as long as it took him to get there, however, as an uneven bump from Cole Cabre sent Heim spinning on the backstretch. No other cars were involved in the crash with ten laps to go but the field would not be safe for long.

With under five laps to go the pack found itself three wide for the lead when Turner gave series rookie Joe Zollo a big shove heading into turn one. Zollo was already on the back bumper of Stallknecht, leading to the momentum from Turner’s push being shot through Zollo and into Stallknecht who went spinning in front of the field.

That crash collected the likes of Heim, Leighton Sibille, Dylan Connolly, Joseph Gregory, and Monon Rahman. The crash also set up what would be the race’s sole green-white-checkered.

A jumped start from leader Zollo would briefly promote Tanhardt to the lead of the race but Cabre, with help from Cummings passed him just before the field took the white flag. Into turn three on the final lap, Adam Boyles, who was running fourth, looked to the inside of Taylor Burris but without enough room, the two collided and slid into the outside wall, bringing much of the field with them.

“I was just looking in my mirror, I wasn’t too worried about what was in front of me because what was in front of me was just the pavement,” Cabre said after the race. “I was more worried about what was going on behind me and when I saw them get turned I was shocked because I was thinking that I was going to get turned in the whole deal.”

That left Tanhardt in third as the seas parted in front of him and Cabre and Cummings on an island 1.215 seconds clear of Tanhardt.

Monday Night Racing goes to the virtual Fontana in the iRacing NASCAR Gen4 cars before beginning the one-race playoffs for the NASCAR NextGen cars at the 2007 version of Daytona International Speedway. The MNR Summer Series ends at Homestead-Miami on August 14 with the championship round for the Gen4 cars.