Dirt Racing’s Winning Moment: Capitalizing on a late-race restart with seven to go, Rico Abreu snookered polesitter Robbie Price and stole the High Limit Racing Series feature at Huset’s Speedway in South Dakota Tuesday night (Aug. 15), his second tour win of the year.
Price led the opening 28 laps of the event and had both Abreu and runner-up Buddy Kofoid in check as the two traded slide-jobs for the second and third positions. However, the caution flag coming out for a slow Corey Day bunched up the field and left Price vulnerable to the race-winning pass.
2023 HIGH LIMIT RACING SERIES AT HUSET’S RACE RESULTS
Dirt Racing’s Dramatic Moment: While Abreu’s winning move was arguably the most dramatic moment of Tuesday’s race, Abreu was also involved in the most dramatic crash of the evening a couple laps into the event, tagging Brendan Mullen and triggering a nasty crash that also collected Sam Hafertepe Jr.
Hafertepe’s crash continued a rotten streak of luck that saw the driver plagued with trouble all through the past week’s Knoxville Nationals.
What Dirt Racing Fans’ll Be Group Chatting About This Morning
Thank God that race sorted itself out, because the opening few laps of Tuesday’s feature event resembled the many county fair demolition derbies going on coast to coast far more than an elite sprint car event.
The High Limit Series scored a win with the field of sprint cars they drew to Huset’s Tuesday night, landing 47 410s that included several World of Outlaw regular outfits. As for the at-track crowd? Jury’s out. Huset’s has one of the larger grandstands in dirt racing, so the empty seats may have been less jarring than they appeared, but Huset’s is starting to feel like Eldora in that the sport may be going to the same wells a bit too much.
Watching a little girl have to roll her “dice” three times to complete the dice roll gimmick leads me to make my scheduled comment for the High Limit events – put this pointless practice to bed already.
He wasn’t present at Huset’s Tuesday night, but the sprint car world got great news that Tyler Courtney will be returning to competition this weekend with the All-Star Circuit of Champions after being out for over a month after incurring a back injury at Eldora.
More breaking news in what has been the silliest season sprint car racing may have ever seen, WoO regular Jacob Allen has opted not to return to the cockpit of his family-owned Shark Racing team for the remainder of the 2023 season after taking a personal leave of absence from the team shortly after teammate Logan Schuchart won the Eldora Million.
Allen’s replacement was not expected, with West Coast prospect Tanner Holmes being announced as the driver for the rest of the year. This is a story worth watching, as Holmes being teamed with Schuchart and veteran owner Bobby Allen has real potential.
Dirt Racing’s Hero(es) of the Weekend
No, this didn’t turn into a career-making victory for Price, but his performance Tuesday night, which included a dash win and a third-place finish, was by far his best drive of 2023, his first top-five result in 55 starts this season.
Dirt Racing’s Victim(s) of the Night
The one person that has a valid reason for feeling bad about Courtney’s return to the Clauson Marshall Racing team is Anthony Macri, who had a rough debut in the Indy Race Parts No. 71 that he will call his ride for the foreseeable future. Macri’s heat race landed him in a C-main, where he transferred only to finish a distant 16th in the B-main.
In the 51 races that Macri’s run in 2023 available on MyRacePass, Tuesday marked the first event that he missed an A-main.
Numbers Game
5
Number of dirt tracks in the U.S. that contested an oval-track racing program Tuesday night.
104
The nation’s largest car count Tuesday night, the Captain of the Creek race at 141 Speedway in Wisconsin.
$23,023
The nation’s largest purse Tuesday night, paid to the winner of the High Limit Racing Series feature at Huset’s (Abreu).
Up Next: Frontstretch will be back Monday morning (Aug. 21) with coverage of the Jackson Nationals in Minnesota. Streaming coverage can be found on DirtVision.
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