By Ken de la Bastide
CNHI News Service
ANDERSON, Ind. —
If rubbing is racing, the fans at Anderson Speedway witnessed some of the best as they watched Scott Hantz hold off Brian Johnson Jr. over the final 11 laps to win the Welch & Wilson Redbud 300 on Monday.
Hantz took the lead at the halfway break by taking only two tires and held off defending Champion Racing Association champion John VanDoorn for 125 laps.
Johnson did a classic bump and run to slip past VanDoorn on Lap 275 and set his sights on Hantz.
The 14th and final caution flag waved on Lap 287 when Jason Shively and J.R. Roahrig got together in Turn 3, which set up an 11-lap shootout.
Several times Johnson attempted the same bump and run move on Hantz to no avail and, after looking to the outside, fell back in line.
With five laps remaining, Rick Turner moved into third with an inside pass of VanDoorn, and he looked to the outside of Johnson to challenge for the win.
On the final lap, there was contact between Turner and VanDoorn coming off the second corner. Turner spun to the inside, and VanDoorn went toward the outside wall and collected Chase Elliott.
Hantz beat Johnson by .695 of a second with Terry Fisher Jr. claiming third and Tommy St. John and Ken Schrader rounding out the top five.
“I wasn’t the fastest car, but I was steady,” Hantz said. “I gave them the outside line, and they couldn’t get it done. I was able to keep the car under me.”
Hantz dedicated the win to his former car owner Dick Poe, who passed away on July 17.
It was a tough second half of the race for Elliott after taking the lead on Lap 119. The team elected to change four tires at the break and restarted in ninth as several teams opted to change only two or three tires.
He was twice sent to the rear of the field for making contact with Jim Crabtree Jr. and causing J.R. Roahrig to spin while battling for position.
The complexion of the race changed 180 degrees on Lap 114 when Jeff Lane spun coming off the fourth corner in an effort to stay on the lead lap. The lapped car of Brandon Fagin went high and collected leader Kyle Busch on the front straight.
Busch parked his Toyota on Lap 118 with a rear end problem.
The race was slowed 14 times by cautions, nine of them in the second half for 65 laps and featured four lead changes among four drivers.
Busch set the fast time during qualifying and started seventh following the inversion which put Ross Kenseth and Hantz on the front row.
Kenseth jumped into the lead at the start, chased by Hantz and Elliott. Busch was the driver on the move, moving into the top five after 10 laps and up to third three laps later.
On Lap 30, Elliott took the lead from Kenseth, and on Lap 35, Busch moved into the second position with an inside pass of Kenseth. Busch took the lead on Lap 57 when he got inside of Elliott entering Turn 3.
Kenseth slowed dramatically on Lap 50 and pitted on Lap 64 with an engine problem.
From there, Busch was pulling away from Elliott when he was caught up in the accident in front of him.
With Busch out of the race, it appeared the remaining 12 drivers on the lead lap turned it up a notch with plenty of rubbing through the corners. There was a good battle between Hantz and VanDoorn for second and Tommy St. John, Rick Turner and Mario Gosselin for the seventh position.
There was an excellent field of cars on hand as evidenced by the practice and qualifying times.
During the practice sessions, Busch posted the fast time at 12.142 seconds followed by VanDoorn with a time of 12.170 seconds. The fastest 24 cars during the practice session were within a half-second of Busch’s quick time.
Busch captured the pole position with a time of 12.129 seconds, edging out Johnson, who turned a lap at 12.153 seconds and VanDoorn at 12.161 seconds. The fastest 20 cars were separated by three-tenths of a second.
Ken Schrader won the last chance qualifying race with Aaron Pierce finishing second to make the Redbud 300 field.
Kenny Tweedy and Tony Dager traded paint on the front straight on Lap 3 with Dager making Turn 1 wall contact. Joey Baird spun on Lap 9 and hit the outside retaining wall in Turn 3.
