Hudson Edges Kirby for Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks Four Crown win at Anderson Speedway
Salem, IN (August 12, 2019) – After watching a comfortable lead eliminated by late caution periods, Owensboro, Kentucky driver Brett Hudson held on to win the Murat Temple 200 Presented by Star Financial and AERCO Heating and Cooling, Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks Powered by JEGS Four Crown event number three at Anderson Speedway Saturday night.
Hudson posted the second quickest time Saturday and started seventh in the field as a result of the eight car inversion drawn by Allstar Performance Fast Qualifier Chuck Barnes Jr., who just beat Hudson for the Fast Qualifier Award. The top 28 qualifiers for the event were separated by less than a second.
Andrew Teepe grabbed the early lead at the drop of the green flag. James Kirby III challenged Teepe on a lap 40 restart to lead one lap on the outside before Teepe went back out front. Meanwhile Hudson and Barnes Jr. were working their way to the front but being patient to take care of their tires.
Former series Triple Crown Champion Jason Atkinson moved to challenge Teepe for the lead, making the pass on lap 52. Atkinson would continue to lead and take the field to the halfway break at lap 100.
Atkinson kept his lead at the drop of the green flag after the break, but Hudson was ready to take control as he moved past Atkinson for the lead on lap 108. Hudson started to pull away from the rest of the field while Atkinson, Barnes Jr., James Kirby III and 2018 Five Crown Champion Jake McElfresh fought for the second position.
The third caution flag of the event waved on lap 182 when Cory Adams and Dallas Frueh spun on the front straight, bunching up the lead lap cars. Hudson was able to maintain the lead over Atkinson on the restart but the race was red-flagged on lap 197 when McElfresh’s car erupted in flames while the Elwood driver was running fifth setting up a three lap shootout.
Hudson grabbed the lead at the drop of the first green flag after the late caution, but a quick yellow came out after Atkinson spun on the front stretch. That put Kirby III in second on the outside of Hudson for the next restart.
Everyone expected Hudson to just pull away to grab the lead, but Kirby III would have no part of just giving up. The pair raced side by side for two- and three-quarter laps before Hudson was able to pull away coming out of turn four coming to the checkers to grab his first series win of the 2019 season. For holding off Kirby, Hudson was awarded the KRJ Race Products Sweet Move of the Race Award
“I was saving the car for the end,” Hudson said in the Star Financial Winner’s Circle. “I knew there could be some late race cautions. I appreciate that James (Kirby) raced me clean at the end, I’ve won this race before when the final 100 laps went all green.”
Kirby III would finish in second and picked up the AR Bodies Cool Move of the Race Award for his late race charge after running in the top five through out the event.
“We had a fast car all day,” remarked Kirby. “At the end the outside groove was a little slicked up and I couldn’t get the grip I needed to make the pass, but man that was a lot of fun and some great racing!”
Atkinson would finish in third place and take the lead in the Four Crown point standings heading into that series Four Crown Championship event. Josh Poore would make a late rally to get a fourth-place finish. Barnes Jr. would nurse his car to a fifth-place finish with an engine that was starting to lay down towards the end of the race. Jason Thompson would finish in sixth place. Scotty Tomasik was seventh, Brian Hopkins eighth, Jordan Hahn ninth and Danny Smith in tenth.
The next Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks Powered by JEGS event will be Saturday, August 24th at Shadybowl Speedway, the 200 lap Championship event for the Four Crown Series. More information on all the CRA Series is available at www.cra-racing.com.
