Richie Crane bested a stout field of DIRTcar Pro Stock drivers to claim his first Series win at Albany-Saratoga Speedway during the Malta Massive Weekend Saturday night.
Crane mastered the bottom line around the 3/8-mile track to hold off recent Series winner Nick Stone and claim the victory in the 30-lap event – the sixth Series race of the 2022 season.
“I knew I had a good group behind me,” Crane said. “They’re tough to beat. But I knew I had a good race car. I knew I had to get a good restart, these guys behind me are really good. I beat the best tonight.
“I’m lucky this is my home track, so to have these fans here, I can’t say enough.”
Stone, who won with the Series at Weedsport Speedway, tried to challenge Crane for the lead after a couple of restarts but Crane was too strong on the bottom.
“He held a heck of a line,” Stone said. “That’s the name of racing. You have to wait for him to slip up and he didn’t. The track was great. Great racing.”
Behind Crane was Stone in second, Rob Yetman in third, Jason Casey in fourth and Josh Coonradt rounded out the top-five.
RESULTS
DIRTcar Pro-Stock Feature (30 Laps): 1. 69-Rich Crane[3]; 2. 8N-Nick Stone[4]; 3. 7-Rob Yetman[9]; 4. 324-Jason Casey[7]; 5. 00X-Josh Coonradt[12]; 6. 33-Zach Seyerlein[8]; 7. 2H-Luke Horning[19]; 8. 9-Shane Henderson[13]; 9. 715-Jason Morrison[2]; 10. 15X-Tyler Bushey[10]; 11. 51-Jason Meltz[20]; 12. 72-Bruno Richard[11]; 13. 28D-Phillip Defiglio[1]; 14. 75-Gary Silkey[5]; 15. 322-Jay Casey[18]; 16. 1X-Justin White[24]; 17. 02-Michael Baker[21]; 18. 56-Jay Fitzgerald[25]; 19. 55-Dave Stckles[27]; 20. 4M-Jordan Modiano[15]; 21. 17-Nick Hilt[22]; 22. 14J-Johnny Rivers[14]; 23. 09J-Shawn Perez[17]; 24. 110-Devon Camenga[23]; 25. (DNF) 25-Chad Jeseo[26]; 26. (DNF) 7D-Chucky Dumblewski[6]; 27. (DNF) 28-Jaxson Ryan[28]; 28. (DNF) 25Y-Kenneth Griffin[16]
