All Mintz has to do is show up and drive at Speedway
Craig Mintz capped off his vacation Saturday with a thrilling 410 sprint win at Fremont Speedway on Roots Poultry Night.
The three time Fremont champion and current point leader nipped defending track champion DJ Foos by .020 seconds for his third win of the season at Fremont.
After Bobby Elliott led the first lap of the 30-lap Fort Ball Pizza Palace 410 Sprint feature, veteran John Ivy took over, leading until Mintz rocked off the high side of Turn 2 to gain the top spot on the 11th circuit. Mintz, who was out of the country the week of the race, watched Foos slip by on the white flag lap.
When Foos slid a lapped car in the final two turns, Mintz turned under both and the drag race to the checkers was on. Mintz edged Foos, followed by Ivy, Jamie Miller and Dan McCarron.
“If you don’t like that, you are in the wrong sport," Mintz said. "DJ and I banged wheels, there wasn’t anything there. We banged wheels again. That’s just going for the win. That’s a blast. Hats off to my guys. We have to get better early on.
"These guys have been busting their tails all week. I haven’t even been in the states and they worked on it all week and I showed up this morning and everything was ready to go."
He had to worry about only the finish.
“Two or three laps before the end I tried to slide up in front of that lapped car and he didn’t give me room," Mintz said. "If he’s going to slide up, I’m going to arch it the other way and slide DJ as best I could. I knew it was going to be close."
In a caution-filled Steel Block Late Model Series feature, Corey Delancey led the first eight laps before encountering mechanical woes. Lyons' BJ Gregory was the only top-five car to utilize the top groove and he drove into the lead on lap 13.
Gregory later got a fantastic restart and drove to the win over Seth Daniels, Zach Milbee, Pete Crum and 16th starter Carter Murday.
The victory is the second of Gregory's career at Fremont, who also won the Steel Block Late Model Series event at Fremont last year. It came after a crash Friday in Michigan forced the No. 56 crew to work through the night to rebuild.
"It’s been a tough weekend and a tough season," Gregory said. "We’ve run pretty well this year but had some tough luck and difficult things happen. Last night was no exception. We were running good in the feature but late in the race we got caught up in a wreck and tore up almost every panel on the car, junked a bumper.
"It was a long night and long day. Got home at 3 in the morning and started again at 7. I have to thank my brother Brandon. All year long he’s the set-up guy and makes this thing fast and I just drive it."
Fremont's Jamie Miller nursed a smoking truck to Victory Lane, leading all 20 laps of the Burmeister Trophy Dirt Truck A-main for his fourth win of the season in the division. Miller has 35 career feature wins at the track, putting him 14th on the all-time win list.
The victory also vaults Miller into the division point lead.
"Something went wrong with the brakes that last lap and I had to really get out of the gas and nurse it through the last two corners," Miller said. "The motor is tired but it held out for the win."
Speedway is host Saturday to 410 and 305 sprints and dirt trucks. Johnny Auxter Day for vintage cars is Sunday.
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Miller takes division point lead with dirt truck victory at Speedway
