Barnes Jr. Wins Fischer’s Keystop 200 at Kentucky Motor Speedway
Salem, IN (July 17, 2017) – Chuck Barnes Jr. came into Saturday night’s Lawrence Towing CRA Street Stocks Powered by JEGS event as the defending winner of the Fischer’s Keystop 200 at Kentucky Motor Speedway, the third event of the 2017 CRA Street Stock Four Crown Series, and successfully defended his event crown with a big win Saturday night.
“It’s great to win again here at Kentucky Motor Speedway,” remarked Barnes Jr. in victory lane. “As always this event attracts a great group of cars and is always a tough place to win. We had a little luck on our side tonight, our car was really good at the end. I have to thank my car owner Scott Holbert and my crew for all their hard work to get us to victory lane!”
The Fischer’s Keystop 200 once again featured tight competitive racing throughout the field with a great mix of CRA regulars and local talent in front of a great crowd of Kentucky race fans. The event had 10 total cautions with two red flags.
Chris Harmon looked to have the car to beat by leading a lot of laps in the first half of the event and was the leader at the lap 100 halfway break, but rear-end issues kept him from starting the second half of the event.
2014 event winner Brett Hudson, who was on a two race CRA winning streak, plus a big win in the Salem Speedway Firecracker 200, looked to be on his way to the win Saturday night until bad luck struck with a broken wheel on lap 157 that ended his night.
Barnes Jr. had just passed Hudson for the lead when Hudson’s bad luck struck. From there Barnes Jr. was able to hold off Owensboro native Blake Hillard to get the win. Josh Poore finished in third place. Danny Smith finished in fourth from his 15th place starting position. James Kirby III came from his 13th place starting position to finish in fifth place. 2015 event winner Mason Keller finished in sixth place, the last car on the lead lap.
The win was Barnes Jr.’s fourth of the season with the Lawrence Towing CRA Street Stocks and his second Four Crown win, he also won the Four Crown opener at Shadybowl Speedway on April 15th. Hudson won the second Four Crown event at Anderson Speedway on June 17th. With the win and Hudson’s bad luck, Barnes Jr. takes over the Four Crown points lead with the Four Crown Series Championship event at Winchester Speedway up next for the series on Saturday, August 5th.
For more information on all the CRA series go to www.cra-racing.com.
