Anthony Macri on the winning streak at Lincoln Speedway. (Photo by Trent Gower)
ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. – Anthony Macri’s reputation rests almost entirely on his ability to hit the boards.
“The Concrete Kid” further reinforced that reputation Wednesday night at Lincoln Speedway.
Macri saw one last shot at victory on the final corner of the Gettysburg Clash. A chance to rip the pad better than he had in the entire race. He took the opportunity and sped past points leader Brent Marks, who was riding in the low lane at the end of the fourth corner.
The Pennsylvania crowd roared as the checkered flag waved. Macri switched off the pad on the exit of turn four and passed Marks as the two crossed the finish line.
“He peeled down and I saw an opportunity to pound up,” Macri explained. “I kind of expected him to go to the front in (turns) three and four as well. When he took turns there, I probably sailed in there just as hard as I had all along, and I was ready to either throw the thing away or emerge victorious. It paid off. That feels pretty badass.”
The win marked Macri’s third win with The Greatest Show on Dirt. The entire trio has arrived in their home state of Pennsylvania after winning last October’s Nittany Showdown at Port Royal Speedway. But winning a World of Outlaws race in Lincoln as the 27th different driver had added meaning for Macri, who has traditionally not done well at the three-eighth mile course.
“Outlaw victories are really hard to come by,” Macri said. “Everyone probably expected it from us at Port Royal last year, but to come here and get an Outlaw win at Lincoln is quite shocking to me because this track isn’t really my wheelhouse. But Joe (Mooney) just got us rolling on smaller tracks and we had a good car. I don’t know. That’s just amazing.”
Macri’s road to victory began off the second row as he finished fourth for the 35-round feature. Early on, polesitter Marks comfortably pulled forward.
Marks’ lead continued to grow, in large part due to the war unfolding behind him. While he rode a smooth line with the top spot every lap, Chad Trout, David Gravel, Macri and Brad Sweet Heumacher threw out for second through fifth.
Finally, Macri controlled second just before halftime and focused on chasing his own line. The gap between him and Marks gradually began to narrow.
As the laps got shorter, Macri began to lose Mark’s lead significantly. Macri hit the top while Marks rolled onto the bottom. As it looked like the battle for top spot in traffic was heating up, the yellow flag flew – and it was a six-lap lead to the finish.
When racing resumed, Marks chose to change his line up, so Macri had to search down. Working the bottom line is something Macri has strengthened in his repertoire this year and so he pounced without hesitation when the No. 19 took the top from him.
Once he found a rhythm, Macri started catching up with Marks again. When he got to the white flag, Macri nosed him, enough to get Marks to change his line on the final lap. The grades went down. Macri went up. And the result was a finish you won’t soon forget.
“I took off because my ass started curling because the wall was coming,” Macri said with a laugh over the final turn. “As soon as I got into the wall I crushed the gas and after that I don’t think it came from the floorpan.”
Anthony Macri (Photo by Paul Arch)
The win was also Joe Mooney’s first at World of Outlaws since he became Macri Motorsports crew chief. Mooney joined the team after winning the championship as chief of vehicles in Brad Sweet’s #49 Kasey Kahne Racing. After leading the entire race down to the last few hundred feet, Marks was a little disappointed with the result.
“Our car changed really a lot there in the last ten or so laps, it just started to slide and lost traction and it just didn’t feel very good,” explained Marks. “No matter where I was on the track, I didn’t feel that great. Anthony showed his nose here in (Turn) 3 and 4 and that’s how I beat him here at the Dirt Classic race last year when he was rolling around down there. I went down to try to protect it but we just slipped out and couldn’t get back from the bottom to keep the lead.”
Rounding out the podium was World of Outlaws’ top-ranked full-time player, David Gravel, who prevented a possible podium finish for the posse.
“I felt like we had a really fast race car up front,” Gravel said. “I felt like we were as quick as everyone else at the front but Anthony was really good at the end of (Turn) 3 and 4 so he got past me and won the race. I think we did had a really strong car. We weren’t very good on the hot laps and in qualifying. To be honest, we weren’t very good in the heat race. We did the car really well in the dash. I think we had a really good car in the feature too, but had to get better when the track slowed down and was at its lowest point.”
Danny Dietrich and Brad Sweet completed the top five. Sweet’s fifth place finish helped him extend his lead to 24 points at the top of the standings.
The end:
Feature (35 rounds): 1. 39M-Anthony Macri[4]; 2. 19 Brent mark[1]; 3. 2-David Gravel[3]; 4. 48-Danny Dietrich[10]; 5. 49-Brad Sweet[5]; 6. 5-Spencer Bayston[11]; 7. 1X Chad Trout[2]; 8. 13-Justin Peck[8]; 9. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[12]; 10. 5E-Brandon Rahmer[9]; 11. 15-Donny darling[7]; 12. 8-Freddie Rahmer[13]; 13. 99M-Kyle Moody[26]; 14. 23-Devon Borden[19]; 15. 1S-Logan Schuart[18]; 16. 44-Dylan Norris[6]; 17. 11-Cory Eliason[24]; 18. 41-Carson Macedo[16]; 19. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[21]; 20. 11T-TJ Short[14]; 21. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[17]; 22. 2D Chase Dietz[22]; 23. 1M-Landon Myers[23]; 24. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[20]; 25. 7S-Robbie Price[15]; 26. 16-Matt Campbell[27]; 27. 1A-Jacob Allen[25]
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