Hometown hero Brandon Emigh, from Ballston Spa, NY, took the checkered flag in a hotly contested DIRTcar Pro Stock Series race at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. He outdueled second-place finisher Kyle Hoard, from Granville, NY, for the victory, with Chris Stalker, out of Hillsdale, NY, keeping them in check from third.
Veteran DIRTcar Pro Stock driver Kim Duell took the early lead, but it wasn’t long until he was locked into a three-way battle with Kyle Hoard and Brandon Emigh on lap twelve. They brought the fans to their fee,t going four-wide with a lapped car. Hoard then took the lead around the outside on lap fourteen.
Hoard held the lead until he made a critical decision to go to the top side of the race track. Emigh saw his chance and took the bottom lane away. From there, the two dueled side-by-side until the final restart, where Emigh came out on top at the stripe.
“The last few weeks, the track has been my style,” said Brandom Emigh. I’ve been running close to the bottom at the inside wall. That came into play tonight.”
The race-changing moment came on a restart with Emigh and Hoard lined up on the front row.
“On that restart, Hoard picked the bottom, and I thought he was going to stay down there, and then about three laps later, he moved to the top, and I think that’s what gave me the win. If he stayed at the bottom, his car was just as good, and he would have won.”
Despite taking the lead and looking like the faster car, Emigh’s work was not complete as several late-race restarts were resolved, and everyone in the Top 5 had a shot at the win.
“The car was so good,” noted Emigh. “I’ve been leading where the car isn’t good, and you’re heart sinks when the caution comes out. But my car was so good that I knew as long as I didn’t hit the inside wall, I’d be alright.”
Kyle Hoard lamented his decision to go high while leading.
“I probably shouldn’t have gone back to the top there when I took the lead,” said Hoard. “I was rolling good on the top, but you had to carry so much speed. You had to be really precise and super aggressive. On the bottom, you could tiptoe around. I feel like I kinda of gave it awa,y which sucks. Second place will be good enough.”
Hoard put on a show as he ripped the top-side track racing for the lead.
“The track was smooth as glass. It was glassy in the middle, but the bottom had grip; you also had to be patient. The top felt like you were going 100 mph faster than the bottom. We were so evenly matched. I threw everything I had at the top because I wasn’t going to get by him.”
In third place, Chris Stalker lived up to his name. He was stalking first and second place for the final third of the race, just waiting for an opportunity to stick his nose in.
“We just did what we do on a regular Friday night here,” said Stalker. We just go where the track is working, and the bottom seemed to be there. Those restarts really worked out.
“Those guys usually don’t make mistakes, but you can always hope. Once we got by the cars that don’t run here regularly, we knew the race was on. We’ll settle for third on the podium.”
Pole-sitter Kim Duell held on for fifth while Marc Lalonde made his way into fourth to finish.
Next up, the DIRTcar Pro Stock Series heads to Land of Legends Raceway on Saturday, September 27, for a rare Canandaigua, NY appearance. If you can’t make it in person, be sure to tune in with DIRTVision.
DIRTcar Prostock Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2-Brandon Emigh[5]; 2. 76-Kyle Hoard[3]; 3. 177-Chris Stalker[10]; 4. 8-Marc Lalonde[2]; 5. 14-Kim Duell[1]; 6. 7C-Caden Dumblewski[7]; 7. X15-Tyler Bushey[6]; 8. 2S-Pete Stefanski[18]; 9. 324-Jason Casey[25]; 10. 54S-Zachary Sorrentino[9]; 11. 4M-Jordan Modiano[17]; 12. 8N-Dominic Stone[13]; 13. 09J-Shawn Perez Jr[21]; 14. 48-Jocelyn Roy[24]; 15. 777-Tommy Lizotte[4]; 16. 112-Christopher Wemple[23]; 17. 9J-Eric Jean Louis[15]; 18. 6C-Brian Carter[28]; 19. 28D-Phillip Defiglio[27]; 20. 2Z-Hugh Page[26]; 21. 12S-Dakota Sharp[11]; 22. 711C-Chris Crane[20]; 23. 08-Doug Sheely[30]; 24. 110-Devon Camenga[16]; 25. 58-Roxanne Roy[29]; 26. 9-Shane Henderson[14]; 27. 04-Jaxson Ryan[19]; 28. 07-Chucky Dumblewski[8]; 29. 322-Jay Casey[22]; 30. 711X-Rich Crane[12]
