ANDERSON, IN – There were distinctly races during the first visit of the Champion Racing Association to Anderson Speedway for the Spring Fling.
It was the opening event of the 2025 campaign for the competitors.
Defending track champion Jeff Marcum too advantage of the luck of the draw and started on the pole position for the 75-lap feature which saw Chad Richardson set fast time.
Marcum jumped into the lead chased closely by Nathan Greene and Cassten Everidge.
After 30 laps with Marcum in the lead he continued to be chased by Greene and Everidge.
The only caution flag waved on lap 47 when Richardson stopped on the front straight wiping out a significant lead for Marcum.
Everidge moved into the second spot on the restart but just two laps later was forced to retire with smoke pouring from the race car.
Marcum scored this all-time leading 17th feature win with the CRA Late Model Sportsman Series with Jason Shively and rookie contender Nathan Engdahl rounding out the top five.
“Crew chief told me these guys are fast, drive it like you stole it,” Marcum said in victory lane. “I did that every lap.”
He said the team didn’t qualify well and he was not happy with the car.
“Literally at the start of the race, I didn’t know what kind of car I was going to have,” Marcum said. “The car got better and stayed the same after ten laps.
“I learned something in qualifying,” he laughed. “Hit the invert and start on the pole.”
Shively said the team keeps finishing behind Marcum every week, so they have to make a change.
“Pretty good run,” he said.
Engdahl was making his first start at Anderson Speedway and started 11th in the field and worked his way to a podium finish.
He plans to run the entire campaign in a car owned by Billy Hutson.
“I drove the car at Winchester last year and spent all winter preparing the car,” Engdahl said. “We had a hot rod today, but didn’t qualify very well, but we didn’t make a lot of changes.”
He said racing at Anderson was wicked and felt like he was turning eight-second laps.
“It’s a really fun track, cool to finally get to race here.”
