Richmond, Virginia - The frustrations and miscues that caused 18 cautions behind pole sitter Brandon Hawkin should have been the perfect distraction.
Except he didn't really need it. Leading 199 of 214 laps including three overtime periods: Hawkin dominated 4 Wide Racing's cup race at Richmond Wednesday, winning his second consecutive race in season seven. The driver of the number 98 'Suckerpunch' Camaro was the stand out car in all facets: securing pole by nearly a second, fending off all challengers on the short run and maintaining his lead on the long run. The only other driver to lead laps was all time wins leader Lawson Peel who grabbed the lead on a strategy call for a mere 14 laps before Hawkin reclaimed it.
RELATED: Race results | Standings
Of race strategy Hawkin said "Once I realized the tires were good I just stayed out, Steven [Stempien| was really good on the restarts and I had to try and get as good of a launch as I could to hold off [the field]. With the win he confirmed he would try and qualify for the season 7 playoffs.
TOP 3 FINISHERS
"He was just too quick" 2nd place driver AJ Green said regarding his effort to challenge Hawkin on the final overtime restart: "Once he was he was out of [turn 2] it was time to worry about guarding second from [Jayden] Porter". Green, who has not won a 4 Wide race in 44 points paying races, moved into the top three on the initial restart and held that position for the entirety of the early 54 lap green flag run.
WATCH: Race Replay (Part 1) | (Part2)
Green remained stoic through out the race, only dipping as low as 7th when cars behind him stayed out on old tires on lap 91 and securing 2nd on the first of the three green flag restarts. "The momentum is huge" he said on his 2nd place finish, "A lot of the tracks I do like [are coming up] specifically New Hampshire and Charlotte: I'm really good at those".
STAT REPORT
Points Leader Jayden Porter once again expanded his points lead at Richmond, bagging a third place finish after qualifying 28th in the 34 car field. Driving all the way up to eight place on the early long run, he found himself again in the lower third of the field: bringing out the caution, spinning after fighting for the bottom lane with the number 13 Craig Lautenslager. "I had damage [from the early wreck] and went a lap down repairing it. Got the lap back and drove all the way to third place". "We got a bit lucky with all the cautions" he said, "but we just need to keep doing what we are doing [to maintain the point lead]".
Perhaps nothing encapsulated the chaos and frustration taking place in the middle of the field quite like the contentious battle between car 36 of Tyler Murray and the 57 of season six champion Ethan Fonseca Moreno. The two came together twice, bringing out cautions on laps 156 and 208 and the duo combined for 67 incident points over the 214 lap race.
Two other drivers who suffered disappointing finishes despite having fast cars were the number 51 Steven Maggio and number 88 Mikey Neal. Maggio had a top ten finish going until last lap shenanigans dropped him back to 22nd and Neal, who qualified in the third position: spun on lap 15 and retired from the event on lap 26, finishing 34th.
The 4 Wide Racing League will continue it's regular season at Richmond on Wednesday November 6th (9PM EST, Kbueno Racing Network on YouTube).
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