AJ Winstead in his SunTrust Mortgage and Commonwealth Environmental Associates sponcered car was victorious at this weekend’s RTM race at Dillon Motor Speedway located in South Carolina. The 2007 Series Champion held off a hard-charging Aubrey Thurston and the reigning ISCARS Series Champion Danny Bagwell to capture his second victory of the season.
Visiting Bagwell earned the pole with a 16.29 qualifying time with Winstead 2nd with a 16.38 time for the 4/10 mile track. The race was televised on Comcast Sports Southeast and Cox Sports New England which reached out to 50 different markets; which put quite a stir in the air. Due to RTM rules the Alabama driver of the #10 would be inverted to the 6th starting position and Winstead would start 5th.
The first six laps were intense as the top eight ran side to side and nose to tail until the 2x of Larry Penny spun coming off of turn 4. The Palm Beach, FL based driver was able to continue and rejoined the field at the rear. On the restart, the #34 machine of Ted Montaque lead the field with Ronnie Davis close in tow. The top five were Montaque, Davis; Strutmasters sponsored Aubrey Thurston, Winstead, and Doug Paash.
Thurston and Winstead worked their way past Davis and set sail after the 34 car. The three battled for 15 laps, until Winstead made the pass on the 21 car of Thurston for second place. The yellow flag waived once again as the #80 of Wisconsin driver Damian Jenks spun in turn 2. When the green flag flew it was Montaque, Winstead, Thurston, Paash, and Davis as the top five. Winstead contined to apply the pressure and was able to race under Montague coming out of turn 4. The two raced side by side for one complete circuit unit the #99 car took the lead. Thurston continued his strong run and passed the #34 car as well for second place.
Thurston put in valiant effort stalking Winstead over the last 35 laps of the race; at times pulling to the inside of the #99 machine, but in the end in was Winstead taking the win. The win for Winstead makes him the only other repeat winner on the tour this year other than Joe Scarborough who ended up finishing 4th in Saturday night’s event.
Results:
1. #99 AJ Winstead
2. #21 Aubrey Thurston
3. #10 Danny Bagwell
4. #30 Joe Scarborough
5. #14 Ronnie Davis
6 #19 Darrel Bryson
7. # 77 Hunter Slayton
8. #06 Gary Wheaton
9. #9 Tony Ingram
10. #7 Tony Ingram II
11 #2 Doug Paasch
12. #2x Larry Penny
13. #34 Ted Montague
14. #80 Damian Jenks
15. #66 Marlin Gunter
16. #47 Johnny Davis
Pole: #10 Danny Bagwell
