Finding the white #99 SunTrust Mortgage and Commonwealth Enviormental Associates mod in Victory Lane has become commonplace at RTM events this season. This past Saturday’s race was no exception.
AJ Winstead earned his 6th win of the season in dominating fashion by a leading 5-second margin from the closest competitor. The race results might have been very different if not for an early race caution.
The race began with Chris Hoylman and Thomas Stinson on the front row, as the green flag dropped Stinson, fresh off from a 6th place finish in the NASCAR Whelen Modifieds race earlier in the night managed to get a good start and quickly took over the point and began to pull away from a pursuing Hoylman and Winstead.
The first, and only caution of the night came out on lap 10 when the 21 mod of Aubrey Thurston got loose and spun in turn 4. While Thurston was spinning, AJ Winstead had managed to race down the leader and trying to thread the needle in a very tight pass under Stinson going into turn 3, the 99 car got loose and spun out. However, since the SNRP officials had waved the caution flag seconds before for the 21 car the 99’s spin occurred under caution and he was able to maintain his field position instead of starting at the rear as would normally occur. This would probably be the defining moment of the race.
Once the race went back to green it didn’t take long for Winstead to go after the lead, a few laps had AJ and Stinson battling side-by-side but once AJ was able to get past the red machine of Stinson it was all she wrote. AJ drove off leaving Stinson to defend his 2nd place position against the always-consistent car of Doug Paasch.
After the lap 10 caution, the race ran rather clean with the exception of a hairy moment on lap 35 when Tim Maxey got slightly into Robert Conner almost sending Maxey sideways out of turn 2, but he was able to save it and continue running.
At the end of 50 laps, AJ Winstead brought home another victory along with Thomas Stinson and Doug Paasch finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The next scheduled race is November 17th at Concord Motorsports Park for the Mason-Dixon Meltdown.
Official Results:
#99 AJ Winstead
#4 Thomas Stinson
#2 Doug Paasch
#11 Irvin Bell
#8 Mike Hanbury
#42 Chris Hoylman
#44 Buddy Emory
#34 Ted Montague
#72 Robert Conner
#12 Tim Maxey
#21 Aubrey Thurston
#38 Michael Johnson
#22 Brooks Lawson
#3 David Kendall
#27 Andy Kemp
#43 Warren Lipford Jr.
#91 Dean Slappey
#04 Larry Penny
Pole: #99 AJ Winstead 15:338 sec @ 93.884mph
