For the first time in league history, the Kentucky Motor Speedway would host an event for the NEO Racing News Legends League when they visited the track for a 60 lap feature on the Legends Oval. Coming into the event, Ryan Borges held a 42 point lead in the standings and was looking to expand on that.
In qualifying, it was Stan Bragg who grabbed the pole with a lap time of 15.097 seconds, and he would lead the field to the green flag. But his lead was short lived as he entered turn one and slid up the track, allowing Borges to sneak under neath him and would come around to lead the first lap. Parker Traves would quickly get in line behind the leader, and it became apparent very early in the race that there would be a dogfight for the lead as the race went on.
Borges would get loose coming to the line on lap 3, and Traves would dive his car to the inside entering turn one, then came out of turn two with the lead. But Borges wouldn’t let him go easy as he fought right back and dove back to the bottom the next time around. The two drivers would run side-by-side for a couple laps, but once Borges regained the lead, he slid up once again giving the lead right back to Traves. They would swap the lead four times within the first ten laps of the race, which also allowed Matt Rolfe to catch them and was in the mix of things as well.
Once Traves regained the lead, he would settle in a bit and stretched his lead out, but a caution on lap 15 would bunch the field back up. On the restart, Traves used the outside lane to jump back into the lead, but Borges would quickly pull back up to his bumper, and the fight continued for the top spot. Borges would look to the outside on lap 25, but then pulled a crossover move to get to the inside for the lead. But again Traves would battle back on the outside, hanging onto the lead, before Borges would pull ahead. Then Traves used a crossover move of his own to grab the lead right back.
The two drivers were putting on a show at the front of the field, until lap 27 when Traves entered turn three, and he would get tagged from behind from Borges. Traves would end up in the infield, Borges had to check up, and both drivers would continue on but not without losing the lead. Their contact would allow Rolfe to get by them and he would grab the lead on lap 28. Patrick hehe would also get by to move into 2nd, while Borges fell back in line in 3rd, just ahead of Bragg and Kyle Wood. Traves would fall back to 6th.
Rolfe would pull out to a ten car length lead, but Borges was quickly reeling him back in after moving into the 2nd spot. He would pull up to Rolfe’s bumper and retook the lead by lap 34. As the run continued, Traves was also able to start picking his way back up through the field. It took him until lap 42 before he moved all the way back up to 3rd, but by then the top two had a pretty large gap on him. Borges had pulled out to a large lead, but on lap 51, Traves would get the break he needed as Rolfe would get loose entering turn one, and would go around and ending his shot at a runner up finish.
The caution led to the lap 57 restart, with Borges on the point and Traves right there with one last shot. Borges jumped out to the lead, and pulled it out to about five car lengths, but Traves would close the gap over the last couple of laps. He closed onto the rear bumper of the leader with one to go, and gave it one last shot in the final corner, but Borges was too strong at the end and would come around to the checkers.
Borges would hang onto the lead for the win, after an exciting battle for the top spot throughout the race. This was his 3rd victory of the Legends season, and his 4th career SARA win. Traves would finish 2nd, Hahe ended up on the podium in 3rd. Wood and Ken Belanger rounded out the top five.
With the victory, Borges would indeed extend his points lead at the top of the standings. But new this season, drop weeks are factored in during the course of the season which set Borges’ points lead at 24 points after 10 races of the season. Next time out, the Legends will visit Thompson in two weeks.