Busti, NY (August 27, 2022) by Marc Hoegerl: Fans and racers were once again blessed with beautiful weather, and another night of action-packed racing, to close out the 2022 campaign at The New Stateline Speedway.

John Mease would pick up win #2 of 2022 in the Challengers. William Reeves would once again find victory lane in the Pro Stocks. Ryan Card would finally find victory lane in the Sharp Mini Late Models. Dennis Lunger continued his dominance in the RUSH Pro Mods bagging win #9 of the season. Dave Hess Jr. would once again use some late race heroics to pull off win #6 in the Super Lates. Troy Johnson won a thriller in the UMP Modifieds, and David Parker closed out the season by winning the RUSH Crate Late Models main.

2022 Points Champions were Dave Hess Jr. winning consecutive titles in the Super Late Models. Jason Genco was crowned 2022 Champion in the RUSH Crate Late Models. Greg Johnson won a tight points battle in the UMP Modifieds. Dennis Lunger coasted to another title in the RUSH Pro Mods. John Boardman showed that consistency pays off by being crowned champion in the Pro Stocks, and veteran Chris Horton took home the season championship trophy in the Challengers.

The night would start off with the stout 21 car field of Challengers. John Mease would fend off many late race charges from 2022 champion Chris Horton, to go on to win his 2nd feature of the season. Horton pulled even with Mease on many occasions in the later part of the race, but would come up a half car length short at the line. Horton would settle for 2nd, Fredonia’s Dan Bittinger would ride home 3rd, as previous weeks winner Pete Volpe, and Domingo Echevarria would round out the top 5.

Next to hit the surface would be the heavily competitive Pro Stocks. Jason Black would lead the first 4 laps, until William Reeves would overtake Black going down the backstretch, to lead the remaining 11 laps to post win #3 of the 2022 season. A great race went the entire distance for the runner-up spot, between Black, and Jason Covey, with Covey finally overtaking Black for the position on lap 11. With Covey securing the 2nd spot. Black, David Baker Jr., and John Boardman after starting12th, rounded out the top 5.

The SHARP Mini Late Models would be up next for their 15-lap main event. The dominant Whyte family would make up the front row, getting the green, from chief flagman Spanky Hall. Chris Whyte would show the way at the outset, putting many car lengths on the rest of the field. It was looking like it may be another easy victory for the Whyte posse, until race long leader Chris Whyte would get loose in turn 4, spinning out on lap 9, bringing out the caution. This would give the lead to Spring Creek, PA’s Ryan Card. Card would lead the remaining 6 laps to go on to pick up his first win of the season. Kyle Coons, Jack Black, Ken Owens, and Treyton White rounded out the events top 5.

In the RUSH Pro Mod main, it would only take 2022 champion Dennis Lunger 3 laps to grab the lead, to go on to post win #9 of the season. Lunger, who had a dream season in the division, winning 9 out of the 10 scheduled events. The only set back Lunger had, was having a DNF on August 20th. Lunger remains the winningest driver in the division’s history at Stateline. Zain Harvey initially came home 2nd, but was disqualified for a post-race incident, giving 2nd to Tyler Oakes. Chad Carlson, Victor Earle Jr., and Nathan Hill rounded out the top 5.

Next up would be the headlining Super Late Models. The popular Mike Knight would jump out to lead from his front row starting position to take control at the outset. The first 3 laps would see a great four car battle, that you could throw a blanket over, between Knight, Hall of Famer Chub Frank, Dave Hess Jr., and Wyatt Scott. As the laps clicked away it became a cat and mouse race between Knight, and Hess Jr. Hess tucked down low on many occasions, but could not overtake Knight, who was running Hess’s preferred line. Hess would dog Knight for the next 15 circuits, until Hess would use his signature slider going into turns 1 & 2 to finally grab the lead from Knight on lap 17. Hess would go the remaining distance unchallenged, to pick up his 6th win of the season, as well as his 38th career Super Late Model victory at Stateline, holding down the 5th spot on the divisions all time win list. Knight would settle for 2nd, Wyatt Scott after fading in the earlier part of the race would finally find his groove to pick up 3rd. Chub Frank, and Jason Genco that had a race long battle going on, would round out your top 5.

Next on the schedule would be the UMP Modifieds. This caution marred event would have a lot of excitement, with seven lead changes, amongst three drivers. 2022 Champion Greg Johnson would lead the first 3 laps, until Zach Johnson would take the point for the next 7 laps. At this point, veteran Troy Johnson was working the outside groove to track down Zach Johnson, and would finally grab the top spot on lap 11. Troy Johnson would hold that point until lap 13, when Zach Johnson using the hub would grab the lead back for the next 2 laps. Troy Johnson would once again take the lead on lap 14, holding the lead down until the caution would fly on lap 15. It was noticeable that Zach Johnson was better on the restarts, as Troy Johnson needed a few laps to gain momentum. Zach Johnson would lead laps 15 & 16, as Troy Johnson would once again grab the lead from Zach Johnson on lap 17. Troy Johnson while holding the lead, looking for the checkereds, would see the caution fly once again lap 19. This is not what the elder Johnson wanted to see, as Zach Johnson was noticeably better on the restarts. As the race came down to a one lap shootout. Troy Johnson would get a good jump on the restart to hold the lead for the remaining lap to pick up win #3, in the thrilling 20 lap event. Zach Johnson settled for 2nd, Tim Peterson, Butch Southwell, and Greg Johnson rounded out the top 5.

The final event of the 2022 season would be the RUSH Crate Late Models. Damian Bidwell would lead the first 6 laps, until David Parker who was all over the bumper of Bidwell, would grab the lead on lap 7. Parker would fend off many challenges from season champion Jason Genco to go on to post his 2nd win of the season, after a long dry spell. Genco would settle for 2nd, as Bidwell, Matt Sipes, and Dennis Lunger rounded out the top 5.

CHALLENGERS (21 Entrants)

Heat 1: 1) Chris Horton 2) Dan Bittinger 3) Bryce Anderson 4) Joe Foiti 5) Jess Harvey 6) Mark Winans 7) Jon Seekings

Heat 2: 1) Domingo Echevarria 2) Andrew Proper 3) Mark Lawrence 4) Brandon Huffman 5) Rachel Moller 6) Kasey Markham 7) Kayla York

Heat 3: 1) John Mease 2) Pete Volpe 3) Phil Powell 4) Bryson Hill 5) Tammy Watson 6) Tyler Peterson 7) David Moller

Feature: 1) Mease 2) Horton 3) Bittinger 4) Volpe 5) Echevarria 6) Proper 7) Lawrence 8- Hill 9) Huffman 10) Powell 11) Anderson 12) Seekings 13) R. Moller 14) Harvey 15) Pearson 16) Foti 17) Winans 18- D. Moller 19) Markham 20) York 21) Watson

Lap Leaders: Mease (1-12)

PRO STOCKS (19 Entrants)

Heat 1: 1) David Baker Jr. 2) Dave Shagla 3) William Reeves 4) Bill Applebee 5) Tanner Ramsey 6) Grant 7) Rickard

Heat 2: 1) Jason Covey 2) Shane Applebee 3) David Tower 4) Carl Marcy 5) Gary Fisher III 6) Dana Maybee

Heat 3: 1) Jason Black 2) Tyler Dynys 3) Joe Stajnrajh 4) John Boardman 5) Paul Nelson 6) Cody Rickard 7) Mikael Beaver

Feature: 1) Reeves 2) Covey 3) Black 4) Baker Jr. 5) Boardman 6) Shagla 7) B. Applebee 8- Ramsey 9) S. Applebee 10) Marcy 11) Richard 12) Fisher III 13) Rickard 14) Beaver 15) Maybee 16) Dynys 17) Stajnrajh 18- Tower 19) Nelson

Lap Leaders: Black (1-4), Reeves (5-15)

SHARP MINI LATE MODELS (9 Entrants)

Heat: 1) Chris Whyte 2) Treyton Whyte 3) Jack Black 4) Ryan Card 5) Kyle Coons 6) Holdyn Whitmire 7) Dale Haines 8- Ken Owens 9) Eric Hastings

Feature: 1) Card 2) Coons 3) Black 4) Owens 5) T. Whyte 6) Hastlings 7) Whitmire 8- Haines 9) C. Whyte

Lap Leaders: C. Whyte (1-9), Card (10-15)

RUSH PRO MODS (21 Entrants)

Heat 1: 1) Dennis Lunger 2) Nathan Hill 3) Tyler Sutton 4) Donald May Jr. 5) Dalton Bradley 6) Chad Ramsey 7) Ian Degolier

Heat 2: 1) Zain Harvey 2) Victor Earle Jr. 3) Nick Arnold 4) Stu Rickard 5) John Cline 6) Derek Peterson 7) Kirk Mohawk

Heat3: 1) Chad Carlson 2) Tyler Oakes 3) Brian Mohawk 4) Brendan Warner 5) Vaughn Nystrom 6) Ryan Howard 7) Ryan Sanders

Feature: 1) Lunger 2) Oakes 3) Carlson 4) Earle Jr. 5) Hill 6) B. Mohawk 7) Arnold 8- Sutton 9) Ramsey 10) Nystrom 11) Degolier 12) Cline 13) Peterson 14) Bradley 15) Warner 16) Howard 17) K. Mohawk 18- May Jr. 19) Sanders 20) Rickard 21) Zain Harvey (DQ)

Lap Leaders: Oakes (1,2), Lunger (3-20)

SUPER LATE MODELS (18 Entrants)

Heat 1: 1) Wyatt Scott 2) Dutch Davies 3) Ryan Scott 4) Darrell Bossard 5) Garrett Mott 6) Anthony Marotto

Heat 2: 1) Jason Genco 2) Chub Frank 3) Jake Finnerty 4) Andy Boozel 5) Paul Schreckengost 6) Wendell Pinckney

Heat 3: 1) Dave Hess Jr. 2) Mike Knight 3) Bump Headman 4) Greg Oakes 5) Scott Dellahoy Jr. 6) Allen Haskins

Feature: 1) Hess Jr. 2) Knight 3) W. Scott 4) Frank 5) Genco 6) Bossard 7) Davies 8- Finnerty 9) R. Scott 10) Oakes 11) Headman 12) Boozel 13) Mott 14) Schreckengost 15) Dellahoy Jr. 16) Haskins 17) Marotto 18- Pinckney

Lap Leaders: Knight (1-16), Hess Jr. (17-25)

UMP MODIFIEDS (21 Entrants)

Heat 1: 1) Zach Johnson 2) Greg Johnson 3) Tim Peterson 4) Eric Reinwald 5) Tim Rockwell 6) Bryon Johnson 7) Joe Lanphere

Heat 2: 1) Troy Johnson 2) Al Brewer 3) Jim Diabo 4) Michael Eschrich 5) Andrew Beatman 6) Matt Haskins 7) Rick Sperry

Heat 3: 1) Butch Southwell 2) Dave Lanphere 3) Matt Kosinski 4) Dennis Asel 5) Kirk Bradley 6) Dan Sasso 7) Chris Deponceau

Feature: 1) T. Johnson 2) Z. Johnson 3) Peterson 4) Southwell 5) G. Johnson 6) Brewer 7) Rockwell 8- D. Lanphere 9) Diabo 10) Reinwald 11) Haskins 12) B. Johnson 13) J. Lanphere 14) Deponceau 15) Sasso 16) Kosinski 17) Bradley 18- Sperry 19) Eschrich 20) Asel 21) Beatman

Lap Leaders: G. Johnson (1-3), Z. Johnson (4-10) T. Johnson (11,12) Z. Johnson (13), T. Johnson (14,15), Z. Johnson (16), T. Johnson (17-20)

RUSH CRATE LATE MODELS (21 Entrants)

Heat 1: 1) Dennis Lunger 2) Matt Sipes 3) Ward Schell 4) Joe Long 5) Jimmy Johnson 6) John Haggerty 7) Mason Jaquay

Heat 2: 1) Jason Genco 2) Andy Michael 3) Will Pinckney 4) Scott Gurdak 5) Steve Houser 6) Robert Middleton 7) Kassandra Norman

Heat 3: 1) David Parker 2) Damian Bidwell 3) Randy Hall 4) Draven Kuzminski 5) Chad Clement 6) Steve Blodgett 7) Gary Youngs

Feature: 1) Parker 2) Genco 3) Bidwell 4) Sipes 5) Lunger 6) Gurdak 7) Schell 8- Hall 9) Long 10) Haggerty 11) Youngs 12) Clement 13) Michael 14) Jaquay 15) Houser 16) Kuzminski 17) Norman 18- Johnson 19) Pinckney 20) Middleton 21) Blodgett

Lap Leaders: Bidwell (1-5), Parker (6-20)