By Brett Rose

HAGERSTOWN, MD – Kyle Larson has been using his time back racing Sprint Cars on a regular basis to his advantage of late in collecting quite a few wins over the last few weeks.

Larson, out of Elk Grove, California drove the Paul Silva No.57 to victory at Hagerstown Speedway on Thursday night in a dominating drive to win the Johnny Grum Memorial in Round 7 of Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek.

Larson out powered Brock Zerafoss from the pole to maintain the lead coming off of turn two. As the laps clicked down, Larson masterfully navigated through traffic using every groove possible.

As Larson pulled away, Zearfoss, Sammy Swindell, and Brent Marks battled for second, while Danny Dietrich had his hands full racing with Rico Abreu.

Swindell and Marks swapped spots in the runner-up position, and Marks settled in around Swindell before the only caution flag waved on Lap 23 for the spun car of Zearfoss.

On the restart, Larson pulled away from Marks over the final seven laps to take his first career win at Hagerstown. Swindell finished third, followed by Abreu and 2019 Grum Memorial winner Freddie Rahmer in fifth.

“My car was really good……….I could go mostly wherever I wanted to and that helps, especially racing in lapped traffic”, said Larson. “I felt like I lapped a lot of people, so I wanted it to stay green. I felt like I had a big enough gap over second, but I didn’t want to see that caution because I didn’t know where Brent (Marks) was running behind me.”

Notes: Thirty-two teams were pit side on a very warm July evening for the fourth running of the event to honor Grum, the 1966 and 1969 Super Modified/Sprint Car champion.

Out of those 32 cars, Larson was the quickest turning a lap of 15.593 seconds around the Hub City half-mile oval. Larson just missed the weight limit era record of 15.580 seconds set by T.J. Stutts in 2017.

The overall record is still held by Mark Kinser with a 14.945 lap time that has stood since 1999.

Heat winners were Kyle Reinhardt, Marks, Ryan Smith, and Swindell. Robbie Kendall was the B-Main winner.

Feature Results

410 Sprints (30 laps) – 1. Kyle Larson, 2. Brent Marks, 3. Sammy Swindell, 4. Rico Abreu, 5. Freddie Rahmer, 6. Anthony Macri, 7. Ryan Smith, 8. Danny Dietrich, 9. Chase Dietz (Hard Charger), 10. Mike Wagner, 11. Brock Zearfoss, 12. Kyle Moody, 13. Kyle Reinhardt, 14. Logan Wagner, 15. Chad Trout, 16. Brett Michalski, 17. Robert Ballou, 18. T.J. Stutts, 19. Jared Esh, 20. Justin Whittal, 21. Brandon Rahmer, 22. Lucas Wolfe, 23. Dylan Cisney, 24. Robbie Kendall.

 

2020 RED ROBIN SPEEDWEEK POINTS
1. 57 Kyle Larson  1091*
2. 48 Danny Dietrich 979*
3. 51  Freddie Rahmer 899*
4. 72 Ryan Smith  873*
5. 24 Rico Abreu  777*
6. 5 Brent Marks  775*
7. 3z Brock Zearfoss 754*
8. 39M Anthony Macri 725*
9. 39 Sammy Swindell 640*
10. 69K Lance Dewease 588
11. 24 Lucas Wolfe  552*
12. 99M Kyle Moody  461*
13. 1 Logan Wagner 440*
14. 91 Kyle Reinhardt 416*
14. 87 Aaron Reutzel 416
16. 55 Mike Wagner  357*
17. 75 Chase Dietz  295*
18. 87 Alan Krimes  286
19. 11 T J Stutts  281*
20. 1x Chad Trout  276
21. 21 Brian Montieth 260
22. 21 Christopher Bell 254
23. 5 Dylan Cisney  219*
24. 26 Cory Eliason  200
25. 55K Robbie Kendall 198
26. 12 Robert Ballou  177*
27. 45 Jeff Halligan  158
28. 33 Jared Esh  146*
29. 12 Blane Heimbach 127
30. 88 Brandon Rahmer 123
31. 19 Troy Wagaman Jr 122
32. 15 Adam Wilt  115
33. 25 Tyler Bear  102
34. 69 Tim Glatfelter  100
35. 5E Tim Wagaman 99
36. 59 Jim Siegel  96
37. 14T Tyler Walton  90
38. 20 Ryan Taylor  86
39. 47K Kody Lehman  85
40. 1W/16 Matt Campbell 78
41. 37 J J Grasso  77
42. 67 Justin Whittall 75
43. 19M Landon Myers 74
44. 0 Rick Lafferty  63
45. 2 A J Flick  57
46. 39 Cale Thomas  54
46. 2w Glenndon Forsythe 54
48. 44 Dylan Norris  53
49. 73B Brett Michalski 50
50. 17B Steve Buckwalter 48
51. 8 Billy Dietrich  47
52. 19 Curt Stroup  33
52. 38 Mark Smith  33
52. 33W Michael Walter II 33
55. 91 Tony Fiore  30
56. 9 Dalton Dietrich 25
57. 59s Steve Wilbur  22
57. 35 Chad Layton  22
59. 5 Tyler Ross  21
59. 27G Jay Galloway  21
61. 27s Adrain Shaffer 19
61.. 7 Trey Hivner  19
63. 75 Nicole Bower  16
64. 35 Tyler Reeser  15
64. 880 Drew Ritchey  15
66. 49H Bradley Howard 14
67. 14c Dave Carlberg 13
68. 16a Aaron Bollinger 10
68. 21T Scott Fisher  10
70. 15c Kurt Conklin  8
71. 12 Brent Shearer  7
72. 85 Ricky Dieva  6
73. 66 Doug Hammaker 4
73. 12W Troy Fraker  1
73. 24B Dustin Baney  1
76. 97 Brie Hershey  0

 

*indicates driver has competed in every event