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Cementing his legacy

Dewease wins seventh 50 for 115th win

Sentinel photo by MIKE GOSS
Lance Dewease leads the field at the 53rd Annual Tuscarora 50 on Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway. Dewease’s victory paid him $53,000 and was his seventh in the history of the event at Port Royal Speedway.

PORT ROYAL — Once again, the Tuscarora 50 belonged to Lance Dewease.

For the seventh time during his Hall of Fame career, Dewease was in victory lane following Port Royal Speedway’s most prestigious Sprint car race of the season. It was career win No. 115 for Dewease at the track.

He earned $53,000 in the Don Kreitz Jr.-owned 69K with Davey Brown Sr. turning the wrenches.

“My guys work really hard,” Dewease said. “We probably weren’t as good as we were (Friday) night. The track was really tricky. We didn’t know how tight to make it to hook it up. Normally, we get too tight. They did a wonderful job. I could drive it and that was the key.”

The Fayetteville, Pa., driver now owns Tuscarora 50 wins in four decades. Those victories include: 1994 in the Walter Dyer 461; 2001 in the Joe Harz 88H; 2002 in the Al Hamilton 77; 2006 in the Pete Postupak 25; and 2016, 2017 and 2020 in the Kreitz Racing 69K.

“When I started, I just wanted to race,” Dewease said. “When I was younger, I was kind of like Kyle (Larson). It didn’t matter; I just wanted to race. That’s what blows me away with him. He could be sitting around, picking and choosing and not racing as much as he does. He loves racing.”

“Winning in four decades means two things: I’m old. And, we’ve been pretty good and pretty successful for a long time with all the great owners I’ve drive for. This team I’m with right now is so much fun.”

Dewease started on the pole in front of an enormous crowd and raced into the lead over Rico Abreu. TJ Stutts was running third when flames shot from under the car and it began smoking. Anthony Macri raced by him into third.

“You can have the fastest car and not win it if you don’t catch some breaks,” Dewease said. “We caught the breaks tonight. It seemed like it was meant to be. I’m happy for the team – Donald and Davey, all the crew guys, and all of our sponsors. It’s a whole team effort. Everybody works so hard at it. It’s wonderful to be here.”

The yellow flew with four laps completed when Stutts finally slowed. Kyle Larson went from 22nd to 12th in the first four laps.

Dewease controlled the restart as Tyler Courtney raced fourth and Kerry Madsen fifth. His lead was 1.6-seconds with 10 laps completed.

Abreu stayed with striking distance as they reached slower traffic. Abreu took the lead in turn one, but Dewease passed him back off turn two on lap 15.

As they negotiated heavy traffic, Abreu drew even with Dewease down the frontstretch and grabbed the lead again racing off the top of turn two.

“I got a little too conservative in those lapped cars and let Rico get back by me,” Dewease said. “I thought we’d get back at him with some lapped cars again. I don’t know what happened to him, but you have to make all 50 laps. This is a longer race than people realize it is.”

Dewease was set to retake the lead again with Macri a close third, but a caution interrupted the battle on lap 20 when Brian Brown stopped on the backstretch.

Abreu controlled the restart over Dewease and Macri. Tyler Courtney raced into fourth and Dylan Cisney into fifth.

At the half-way point of the 50-lapper, the cars were stopped allowing teams to refuel and make minor adjustments.

Abreu led Dewease, Macri, Courtney and Cisney for the restart. Abreu stayed on the cushion as Dewease searched for a faster line. Cisney tried to take fourth from Courtney and Larson raced up to seventh.

Abreu had a comfortable lead with 18 to go, but they were approaching slower traffic. Dewease maintained a similar advantage over Macri.

Abreu started lapping cars with 15 to go. Dewease continued searching lines in the middle and low side of the track. He began closing and then Abreu slowed abruptly due to driveline issues with 13 laps to go.

Cisney raced into third on the restart and Larson took fifth from Madsen.

Dewease pulled away from Macri as Cisney closed on him with 10 to go, but the yellow for defending race winner Aaron Reutzel brought the field back together.

The restart was controlled by Dewease as Cisney went after Macri for second. He ducked under him in turns one and three, but couldn’t clear the pass.

They raced side-by-side down the frontstretch. They swapped the spot again at both ends of the speedway as Dewease cruised away.

Cisney tried more sliders and stayed inside Macri as they raced down the backstretch. Macri finally secured the spot and charged after Dewease cutting more than a second off the lead in the final laps, but it was Dewease scoring his seventh Tuscarora 50 victory by 1.154.

“There at the end, I felt like I was hitting some pretty good marks except for the last two or three laps,” Dewease said.

Macri and hometown hero Dylan Cisney completed the podium. Larson and Cory Eliason completed the top five.

Logan Wagner, who started 19th, Tyler Courtney, Spencer Bayston, Kerry Madsen and Freddie Rahmer rounded out the top 10.

Macri set a blistering quick time of 15.271 in the first flight of cars. Madsen set quick time in the second flight with a 15.478. A field of 51 cars were on hand.

Macri started fourth in the opening heat race and had the lead before one lap was completed and went on to win it over Gio Scelzi and Mike Wagner. Macri’s sprinter blew smoke as he crossed the line and he stopped in turn two. He changed engines afterwards.

Dewease caught a huge break in heat two. After leader Cale Thomas slowed, Dewease inherited the lead and eventual win allowing him to redraw for a top six starting spot.

TJ Stutts held off Freddie Rahmer to win heat race three. Stutts also changed engines after his heat win.

Abreu won heat four over James McFadden. After Abreu took the lead, McFadden slid him back in three and four. Abreu stayed in the gas and they made contact coming off turn four. Both drivers made great saves avoiding what could have been a bad crash. The win was worth $400.

Courtney won the fifth heat race over a fast-closing Eliason. Larson finished fourth and was regulated to the B-main.

Cisney dominated the final heat race as teammates Aaron Reutzel and Ian Madsen raced hard for second with the defending race winner getting the spot.

Shane Stewart won the C-main after making repairs following a heat race wreck.

Three-time track champion Logan Wagner won the B-main that was marred by two nasty crashes at the end. All drivers were reported to be okay.

Tuscarora 50 Sprint Car Feature (50 laps): 1. Lance Dewease. 2.

Anthony Macri. 3. Dylan Cisney. 4. Kyle Larson. 5. Cory Eliason. 6.

Logan Wagner. 7. Tyler Courtney. 8. Spencer Bayston. 9. Kerry Madsen.

10. Freddie Rahmer. 11. Brent Marks.12. Danny Dietrich 13. Tony

Stewart. 14. Mike Wagner. 15. James McFadden. 16. Blane Heimbach. 17.

Ian Madsen 18. Brock Zearfoss. 19. Brian Brown. 20. Gio Scelzi. 21.

Aaron Reutzel. 22. Paul McMahan. 23. Rico Abreu. 24. TJ Stutts. 25.

Jared Esh.

B-main (12 laps): 1. Logan Wagner. 2.Spencer Bayston. 3. Blane

Heimbach. 4. Kyle Larson. 5. Brock Zearfoss. 6. Jared Esh. / 7. Skylar

Gee. 8. Shane Stewart. 9. Brett Michalski. 10. Robbie Kendall. 11.

Curt Stroup. 12. Kyle Moody. 13. AJ Flick 14. Justin Peck. 15. Sye

Lynch. 16. Zeb Wise. 17. Michael Walter II. 18. Kyle Reinhardt.

C-main (8 laps): 1. Shane Stewart. 2. Brett Michalski. / 3. Tyler

Bear. 4. Lucas Wolfe. 5. Greg Wilson. 6. Tyler Walton. 7. Trenton

Sheaffer. 8. Dustin Baney. 9. Brie Hershey. 10. Nicole Bower. 11.

Brent Shearer. 12. Troy Fraker. 13. Alan Krimes. 14. Drew Ritchey.

Non-Qualifiers event

PORT ROYAL – It’s been a long season for Lucas Wolfe, but he got to Port Royal Speedway victory lane Saturday night in the non-qualifiers feature as part of the Tuscarora 50 program.

Robbie Kendall passed Brett Michalski for the lead as they raced off turn two. Michalski returned the pass on lap four as Kendall slowed to a stop.

Former track champion Wolfe threw a big slider at Michalski on the restart. Michalski hung onto the lead as Wolfe tried another pass.

Michalski began to pull away, but the yellow flew on lap seven when Sye Lynch slowed.

They traded the lead again on the restart in turns one and two. Wolfe took another shot entering turn three and this time pulled off the slider taking the lead as they raced off turn four.

He pulled away from there eventually scoring the win by 2.145 over Michalski. He earned $2,000 and a guaranteed starting spot in next year’s Tuscarora 50.

“I was able to get a good restart off the top of four and had a pretty good run,” Wolfe said. “It was hard to beat the momentum off the top. Fortunately, I was able to get the timing right that got to the clear in the lead. Terrible to be in the situation we were in, but good to salvage the night and recoup some money. It’s been a long weekend and a long season. A lot of effort from everybody at Barshinger Racing, but we need to find a lot of pace.”

Michalski earned $1,200 for second. Tyler Walton ($1,000), Curt Stroup ($800), and Tyler Bear ($750) completed the top five. The purse for the non-qualifiers was $15,500.

Non-qualifiers A-main (20 laps): 1. Lucas Wolfe. 2. Brett Michalski. 3. Tyler Walton. 4. Curt Stroup. 5. Tyler Bear. 6. Brie Hershey. 7. Greg Wilson. 8. Trenton Sheaffer. 9. Dustin Baney. 10. Nicole Bower. 11. Brent Shearer. 12. Troy Fraker. 13. Sye Lynch. 14. Robbie Kendall. 15. Drew Ritchey. 16. Alan Krimes. 17. Michael Walter II. 18. Shane Stewart.

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