by Ken De La Bastide, Anderson Speedway.
ANDERSON, IN – Muncie driver J.P. Crabtree was ready to pack up and head home during practice for the CRA JEGS All Stars Tour Great Clips 100 at Anderson Speedway.
But the crew worked all day on a miss, Crabtree qualified sixth and elected to start on the tail for the feature race.
After making several pit stops, Crabtree was running fourth just past the halfway point on Saturday.
He passed Chris Shannon for third on lap 56 and closed on the front running cars of Logan Beardon and Keegan Sobilo.
The last of four caution flags waved on lap 81 for a spin by Avery Demland.
On the restart Crabtree got underneath Sobilo and closed on the rear bumper of Beardon.
He used a bump and run move to get inside of Beardon on lap 86 and turned back several attempts by Beardon to reclaim the top spot.
Crabtree became a first-time winner with the series by two-tenths of a second over Beardon with Sobilo, Billy VanMeter and Shannon rounding out the top five.
“It was a heck of a race,” Crabtree said in the winner’s circle. “We had a miss all day and I was ready to pack up and head home. The crew worked on the car all day.”
Crabtree said once he took the lead he concentrated on hitting his marks and protecting the low groove.
He joined Eddie VanMeter and Hunter Jack as the only Indiana drivers to win a JEGS All-Stars race at Anderson Speedway in the past decade.
“It was a lot of fun,” Sobilo said.
“I wanted to win, but I wanted to win the right way,” he said of a move to get underneath Crabtree in the closing stages of the race. “It was close racing.”
Beardon said his car was tight the entire race.
“He (Crabtree) what he had to do,” he said. “I was doing everything I could to stay out front.”
Jimmy Tucker set fast time during qualifying but failed to lead a lap as Sobilo took the lead at the start.
Billy VanMeter worked his way from the fourth starting spot to take the lead on lap 22, but six laps later surrounded the point to Sobilo.
Beardon led from lap 31 after making inside pass of Sobilo entering turn three.
Tucker’s night ended on lap 27 with an oil leak.
Race Statistics: Time of race: 54:17.645; Winning margin: .2-seconds; Lead changes: 6 among 4 drivers; Lap leaders: Sobilo, 1-21; VanMeter, 22-27; Sobilo, 28-30; Beardon, 31-85; Crabtree, 86-100; Cautions: 4; Red flag: 1
