Kentucky: Jake Hobgood wins in close finish

Jake Hobgood won the 100-mile NASCAR Goody's Dash Series race at the Kentucky Speedway today in a close finish over series points leader Robert Huffman. Huffman led the first two-thirds of the race, but went to the back of the lead lap after a deflating tire caused him to make an unscheduled pit stop during the race's only caution on lap 55.

The race had started in order of driver's points after the Dash series' qualifying was canceled to accommodate a reschedule of other parts of the race weekend, caused by rains on Friday night. The race itself was moved from Saturday night to Sunday when the showers came back again during Saturday's Busch race.

When the green flew, Hobgood took the lead from Huffman into turn one, but Huffman went back out front in turn four of that first lap. Zach Brewer made an attempt at the lead on lap two, but was not successful and fell to the back of the lead pack.

The leaders set up a good draft, and were lapping slower cars by the race's eighth lap. By lap 20, Huffman, Justin Hobgood (Jake's brother), Jake and Cam Strader were in a nose-to tail draft that they maintained for many laps.

On lap 37, the cars all required green flag pit stops, which broke up the lead draft when the top runners used different timing strategies for their stops. Justin Hobgood pitted with his brother on lap 46, but overshot his pit stall, taking himself out of contention for the win. Just a few laps after the field had completed all the stops, the caution waved for a turn-two crash by Brian Lofton. A long cleanup from that crash set up a nine-lap dash to the finish.

On the restart, Jake Hobgood led from Strader, Ned Combs, and Chuck Gafrarar as Huffman tried to work his way up from the back. Huffman passed Gafrarar on lap 62, and a lap later, he and Combs drafted past Strader into the second and third places. On lap 64, Huffman attempted to pass Combs on the inside, starting a side-by-side battle that would last until they crossed the line under the white flag to start lap 66. Huffman got clear of Combs and set off in pursuit of Hobgood, but could not make up the deficit before the finish.

Combs was awarded Drive Of The Race for his strong third place finish, after starting 20th. Gafrarar finished fourth, followed by Strader, Mike Watts, Brewer, Brandon Ward, Scott Krehling and Justin Hobgood, the only cars remaining on the lead lap.