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CJ Leary Holds off Mitchel Moles for Circle City Raceway Win

INDIANAPOLIS — Though the box score might show that CJ Leary led every lap to win Wednesday’s (July 30) 30-lap feature at Circle City Raceway, Mitchel Moles gave the California native all he could handle in the fifth night of USAC’s Indiana Sprint Week.

The No. 21 AZ machine remained ahead of Moles as the pair scythed their way through lapped traffic, but a late caution for debris at the top of Turn 4 gave the pair clear track for a three-lap shootout.

Leary held serve on the restart, but had a small mistake in Turn 4 coming to the white flag and that allowed Moles to close up for one more run around the quarter-mile bullring.

“I felt like I ran a perfect race all the way up to coming to the white flag and I nailed the cushion off of (Turn) 4,” Leary said. “It just got so tricky off of (Turn) 4. If you didn’t hit it just right it was detrimental, so I missed it on the last lap and I slid myself both corners, because I felt like I needed to protect. Because coming on the last lap of an Indiana Sprint Week race, it’s no holds barred. Everybody’s out there to win and it’s my mistake. I recovered and we won this thing tonight.”

Moles was in a prime position to take advantage of the 2019 USAC Sprint Car National Champion’s mistake but couldn’t quite complete the pass, finishing second to Leary by .173 seconds.

“I figured he was going to the top because he ran the top every lap and whichever way he wasn’t going to go, that’s the way I was going to go,” Moles said. “He peeled down so I tried to rip around him and it just didn’t work out. Not a bad night for our guys but definitely not what we wanted. We definitely want to win these races and especially when a guy is moving around and not comfortable, you can tell by the tendencies of his race car that I needed to get him there.”

Leary started second but got around polesitter Robert Ballou at the first turn and kept himself in front of Tuesday night’s runner-up. Ballou was involved in a collision with the No. 3P of Kyle Cummins as the pair headed down the backstretch early in the race, knocking both out of contention for the win.

That collision promoted Moles to second, where he was able to tail Leary through the rest of the race. Kevin Thomas Jr. came home third ahead of Shane Cottle, with Logan Seavey rounding out the top five after having run third most of the race.

Indiana Sprint Week continues Thursday night at the Terre Haute Action Track.

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Christopher DeHarde has covered IndyCar racing and the Road to Indy for various outlets since 2014. In addition to open wheel racing, DeHarde has also covered IMSA and various short track racing events around Indiana. Originally from New Orleans, DeHarde moved to the Indianapolis area in 2017 to further pursue a career as a motorsports writer.

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