Matt Gilbert had been knocking on the door of a second World Short Track Championship Feature win for the last two years and finally found the path back to Victory Lane this year.
Or more so, made the path.
Gilbert, of Slater-Marietta, SC, won his first World Short Track Feature in 2022 with the COMP Cams Monster Mini Stocks and then finished third and second, respectively, the last two years.
He completed the march back up the rankings on Sunday by going where no one else would.
He was given a gift on the first lap when leader Tyler Riddle spun in front of third-place Austin Brown on the first lap in Turn 2, allowing outside polesitter Travis Mosley and Gilbert to move into first and second.
Gilbert followed Mosley on the bottom but couldn’t gain ground and was under attack from Kevin Cooper behind him. Knowing he needed to do something different if he wanted to win, Gilbert entered Turn 1 high on Lap 6, keeping his foot in the throttle through the ruts. The move resulted in a new head of steam and a charge to Mosley’s rear bumper.
He maintained the same line the next lap and pulled even with Mosley down the backstretch. The two drag raced toward Turn 3, but when Mosley had to lift to turn to the bottom, Gilbert stayed in the throttle as he held his No. 117 car on the high line. The difference in speed took seconds to see as Gilbert cleared Mosley before they exited Turn 4.
“I didn’t want to go through them ruts, this is a brand new car and I didn’t want to tear it up, but I knew I had to if I was going to win the race,” Gilbert said. “It was worth it.”
He then went uncontested, leading the final half of the car.
Mosley faded after being passed, losing second to Cooper and third to Enzo Dillon.
“We work so hard to get up here to run this race and be able to compete, and to pull off a win with the competition these days is great,” Gilbert said. “I just can’t thank everybody enough who’s helped us along the way and made this all possible.”
Feature (15 Laps) 1. 117-Matt Gilbert[4]; 2. X-Kevin Cooper[5]; 3. 98-Enzo Dillon[11]; 4. 19-Travis Mosley[2]; 5. 4-Tack Brown[10]; 6. 115P-Robert Arch[15]; 7. 15-Zach Lankford[19]; 8. 50-Everette Dunlap[14]; 9. 8B-Dustin Bolin[20]; 10. 67-Jackie Holden[12]; 11. 1-Connor Keaton[21]; 12. 21-Jarrett Warren[18]; 13. 84-Kyle Cooper[25]; 14. 56F-Nick Fulcher[13]; 15. 5H-Bryan Harrelson[17]; 16. 95-Kevin Atwell[24]; 17. 03-Damien Bryant[27]; 18. 121W-JR Warren[8]; 19. 04-Austin Brown[3]; 20. 51K-Cody Keith[6]; 21. 10-Logan Richey[7]; 22. 121-Jacob Kinder[9]; 23. 04W-Phillip Wilson[16]; 24. 81-Brent Atkinson[22]; 25. 212-Greg Brew[26]; 26. 117X-Michael Lingerfelt[23]; 27. 96X-Tyler Riddle[1]; 28. 50B-Van Bryant[28]
