Christian Barnes leads 57 laps, runs down Shawn Hook after the green-flag stops and beats Rick Thompson by 2.870 seconds
| Pos | Driver | Car | # | Started | Laps | Interval | Inc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Christian Barnes2 | 27 | 1 | 170 | -00.000 | 0 | |
| 2 | Rick Thompson | 76 | 13 | 170 | -02.870 | 0 | |
| 3 | Shawn Hook | 88 | 5 | 170 | -03.343 | 2 | |
| 4 | Connor E Cunningham | 84 | 11 | 170 | -03.819 | 0 | |
| 5 | Ethan A Thompson | 98 | 4 | 170 | -03.990 | 0 | |
| 6 | John Williams | 57 | 14 | 170 | -05.943 | 4 | |
| 7 | Zack Domer | 014 | 16 | 170 | -06.181 | 0 | |
| 8 | Chris Cornett | 83 | 3 | 170 | -06.326 | 2 | |
| 9 | Anthony Lee Abernathy | 3 | 8 | 170 | -06.949 | 4 | |
| 10 | Jacob Loesch | 51 | 10 | 170 | -08.346 | 0 | |
| 11 | Harold Tucker III | 79 | 17 | 170 | -08.858 | 0 | |
| 12 | Joseph Essenberg | 10 | 18 | 170 | -12.107 | 0 | |
| 13 | Adam Ramsey | 97 | 6 | 170 | -12.968 | 0 | |
| 14 | Richard Wilson Jr | 28 | 12 | 170 | -15.419 | 0 | |
| 15 | James Beard | 25 | 23 | 170 | -17.440 | 4 | |
| 16 | Trenton Wilken | 23 | 2 | 170 | -18.591 | 4 | |
| 17 | Marc Andre Ciccariello | 89 | 21 | 170 | -18.976 | 0 | |
| 18 | Chris Etchepare | 99 | 15 | 170 | -26.002 | 8 | |
| 19 | Gary May | 9 | 7 | 169 | -1 L | 0 | |
| 20 | Shane Hatfield | 8 | 28 | 161 | -9 L | 6 | |
| 21 | Gregory Vadnais | 24 | 25 | 121 | -49 L | 4 | |
| 22 | Michael L Patrick | 81 | 24 | 111 | -59 L | 2 | |
| 23 | Russell Marciniak | 12 | 19 | 105 | -65 L | 4 | |
| 24 | Max Ford2 | 5 | 22 | 100 | -70 L | 6 | |
| 25 | Mike McCoy Sr | 26 | 26 | 34 | -136 L | 4 | |
| 26 | Joe Konen | 72 | 9 | 8 | -162 L | 0 | |
| 27 | Austin Craven | 31 | 20 | 0 | -170 L | 4 | |
| 28 | Robert T Burke | 22 | 27 | 0 | -170 L | 4 |
"Those last 20 laps I was just hoping and praying no yellow." -- Christian Barnes
Christian Barnes had to pass his way back to the front more than once on Tuesday night at Phoenix Raceway. Once he got there for good, nobody got by him.
Barnes won the opening race of the MLSR C-Open Series Chase from the pole, led a race-high 57 laps and beat Rick Thompson to the line by 2.870 seconds. Shawn Hook finished third, Connor E Cunningham fourth and Ethan A Thompson fifth.
It was Barnes's fourth C-Open win of the season and his first since Richmond Raceway in August. His other wins came at Kentucky Speedway and The Milwaukee Mile. A week earlier at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he started on the pole and finished 19th.
"After early on in the season winning those three races, it's just been kind of like bad luck anytime that I'm up front," Barnes said.
Cornett and Wilken set the early pace
Chris Cornett started third and drove straight to the lead when the green flag flew. Barnes slipped to third behind Trenton Wilken in the opening laps. Austin Craven and Robert T Burke did not complete a lap.
Cornett turned the fastest lap of the night on Lap 2, a 27.341, and controlled the opening run. Barnes worked around Wilken on the outside for second, but Wilken took the spot back after the first caution, which came out when Mike McCoy Sr got loose and made contact with Max Ford.
Wilken then went after Cornett. The two ran side by side for several laps, Cornett holding the high line, before Wilken swung to the outside himself and took the lead.
Hook's early stop
Hook was the first of the front-runners to make a green-flag stop, and Ethan Thompson and John Williams came in with him. When the cycle played out, Hook was out front with a big lead and Ethan Thompson was second. Cornett and Wilken, who had run the first half of the race at the front, both lost ground. Wilken also had a dent in the nose of his truck.
Barnes made his stop with the next group and came back out well behind. He sliced past Wilken and Cunningham to take third, then went down the inside of Ethan Thompson for second.
Barnes took time out of Hook's lead lap after lap, then edged by the No. 88 on the inside to take the lead.
"It takes a lot of patience because you see them that far up and you're like if you got to go you got to go," Barnes said. "You just got to know you're going to catch them."
Restarts reshuffle the field
The second caution erased the strategy. Moments after James Beard ran into the back of Wilken, Gregory Vadnais hit the wall and stopped on the track. Vadnais was out after 121 laps.
Barnes kept the lead on the restart, with Anthony Lee Abernathy, the C-Open regular-season champion, lined up behind him in second. Another caution followed soon after, and the field restarted again with fewer than 40 laps to go.
That last restart turned the race into a fight. Hook moved to second, and Cunningham came after both of them. With 33 laps to go, Cunningham pulled alongside Barnes for the lead, but Barnes kept the high line and never gave it up.
Rick Thompson was coming the whole time. He started 13th and spent most of the night learning how to save his right rear tire. He worked past Abernathy and Ethan Thompson, and inside the final 15 laps he went up the inside of Cunningham and took second.
"I just decided towards the end I was just gonna commit to that middle to high lane," Thompson said. "It got me a really good run off, and it didn't burn off the right rear as much."
Second place was his best C-Open finish of the season.
Behind him, Hook, Cunningham and Ethan Thompson traded positions over the final laps, and Cunningham held off Ethan Thompson by 0.171 seconds at the line.
"I feel like I had second place there. I just couldn't get around Rick," Hook said. "I didn't want to have contact or move him out of the way or anything like that."
Behind the leaders
John Williams finished sixth from 14th on the grid, and Zack Domer came from 16th to seventh. Cornett, who led 52 laps, finished eighth. Abernathy was ninth, and Jacob Loesch completed the top 10. Harold Tucker III was 11th from 17th, Joseph Essenberg was 12th and Adam Ramsey finished 13th after starting sixth.
Eighteen trucks finished on the lead lap. Wilken, who led 36 laps, was 16th. Max Ford was classified 24th, 70 laps down, and Joe Konen started ninth but was out after eight laps.
The C-Open Series heads to Pocono Raceway on October 20 for the second race of the Chase.
Driver of the race: Christian Barnes Barnes started on the pole, led a race-high 57 laps and ran down Hook after the green-flag stops to take control. He won the Chase opener by 2.870 seconds.
Fastest lap: Chris Cornett Cornett turned a 27.341-second lap on Lap 2, the fastest of the race. He led 52 laps and finished eighth.
Best drive: Rick Thompson Thompson started 13th, gained 11 spots and passed Cunningham inside the final 15 laps for second, his best C-Open finish of the season.
Hard luck: Trenton Wilken Wilken started second and led 36 laps after taking the lead from Cornett on the outside. He ran with a dent in the nose of his truck, was hit from behind just before the second caution and finished 16th.