Gracias Takes Home Win in 2nd Beer Street Journal Star Spangled Bash

Jason Gracias picked up his 3rd win of the season in the second Beer Street Journal Star Spangled Bash, this time at USA International. The tricky short-track conditions resulted in 13 cautions of the 136 laps that ended up being clocked in the race. It ended in a Beer Street Journal Last call which saw Gracias hang on to the lead he had held the last 40 laps.

Jason Gracias takes the checked flag at USA International

The race also saw 9 lead changes, with Gracias, Trey Whitehead, Mike Tellier, Matt Donnelly, Philip Scott, Martin Plute and Brock Whitehead all leading laps. The race did not see one driver show dominant pace, rather many drivers come and go from the front of the field. Trey Whitehead, winner from a few weeks ago at Talladega, started on the pole for the event, his first career pole in the series. Philip Scott showed the strong short-track pace he has become known for this season in spurts, but incidents and pit strategy saw the 99 come and go from the front of the pack.

The points battle for the lead has tightened up significantly after the 12th race of the NSRA Beer Street Journal Grand National Series season. Adam Pettet, after being absent from USA International, now only commands a 16 point lead over Philip Scott in the regular season standings. With only 5 races left in the regular season, the pressure is going to start ramping up on drivers to get those final regular season points before the playoffs begin.

Next week the series goes to Atlanta for the NexDiag 120. WRN is not aware at this time if the new or old Atlanta will be used, but either way the NSRA Beer Street Journal Grand National Series drivers will put on a show live on WRN at 9 pm (est) Thursday night.

On a personal note, I apologize for not writing a recap last week. I was out of town (huge thank you to Patrick Morrison for filling in for me) and have been super busy and haven't had the time to go back and rewatch the previous week. Thank you all for your patience and myself and the World Racing Network are very excited to continue our coverage of the NSRA Beer Street Journal Grand National Series throughout the remainder of this season.