Ryan Repko earned his first CARS Tour victory at Hickory
The portion of the Throwback 276 event held on Saturday at Hickory Motor Speedway for the CARS Late Model Stock Tour belonged to Ryan Repko after he made a late race pass to take the lead. It was the first CARS Late Model Stock Tour win for the Denver, NC driver’s career.
Josh Berry led the way in qualifying as he toured the .363 mile paved oval in 15.286 seconds to better the efforts of Ryan Repko, Mike Darne, Craig Moore, Ryan Millington, Layne Riggs, Ronald Hill, Trevor Ward, Justin Carroll and Matt Leicht.
At the start of the 138-lap main event it was Berry who went to the early lead followed by Repko, Darne, Moore and Riggs. Moore quickly moved around Darne to secure third in the running order on lap 2 while Millington took fifth away from Riggs on that same circuit.
By lap 5 the top-7 of Berry, Repko, Moore, Darne, Millington, Riggs and Hill had sorted themselves out and were running single-file while pulling away from the rest of the pack. However, Repko seized an opportunity to move around Berry for the race lead on lap 10. That, in turn, opened the door as Moore and Darne also swept by Berry to claim second and third in the running order.
The race ran caution-free until a competition yellow flag waved after the completion of 40 consecutive green flag laps.
On the ensuing restart, Moore moved around Repko to assume the leadership of the race. Further back, Riggs passed by Millington to grab fourth on lap 43 while Bobby McCarty continued his climb through the field as he took fifth away from Millington one lap later.
Moore continued to lead with Repko right on his bumper until the next competition caution came out on lap 80.
On the restart, Darne, Riggs and McCarty engaged in a battle for positions 3-5 with Darne holding third while McCarty got by Riggs to take fourth. In the meantime, Moore and Repko had broken away from their closest pursuers as they looked to settle the issue of the race win among themselves.
With just under 30 laps remaining, Repko made his move as he passed by Moore to take the lead. But as those two cars battled among slower cars, third and fourth place runners McCarty and Riggs closed in. Those four machines remained in close formation for the remainder of the race as Repko eventually sailed under the checkered flag to score the victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Ryan Repko, 2. Bobby McCarty, 3. Craig Moore, 4. Layne Riggs, 5. Sammy Smith, 6. Josh Berry, 7. Brandon Pierce, 8. Brody Pope, 9. Mike Darne, 10. Deac McCaskill, 11. Tyler Matthews, 12. Cole Glasson, 13. Adam Lemke, 14. Jacob Heafner, 15. Charlie Watson, 16. Mitch Walker, 17. Justin Carroll, 18. Taylor Gray, 19. Austin McDaniel, 20. Sarah Cornett-Ching, 21. Matt Leicht, 22. Camden Gullie, 23. Terry Brooks, Jr., 24. Mini Tyrrell, 25. Ryan Millington, 26. Gage Painter, 27. Jeremy Burns, 28. Trevor Ward, 29. Ronald Hill
Richard Allen is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association
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