Chris Finocchario Goes Back-To-Back In Modifieds At Evans Mills; Wins Third Of ’21

EVANS MILLS, NY – Another beautiful June evening welcomed race fans and drivers to Evans Mills Raceway Park on NAPA Auto Parts and Intrepid Fallen Hero’s Fund night. Young race fans were presented with their own American flag upon entrance to the park to help celebrate Flag Day.

The Sport Compacts/Thunderstocks started the features off for the evening with Trevor Halladay (#23T) and Anthony Pettinelli (#5) making up the front row. On the start, Pettinelli would get the advantage over Halladay. While working through lap traffic in turns 1 and 2, Pettinelli would spin bringing out the first caution. Halladay would inherit the lead on the restart with Justin Coachman (#7) starting to his outside. Halladay proved to be too strong and earn his 5th win of the season. Pettinelli rebounded to finish second and Coachman crossed the line in third. In the Thunderstocks division, it was a close battle all race between Tyler Burns (#77), Mike Greenfield (#17) and Kevin Greenfield (#11A). That would be the order of finish as Burns picked up his first feature win of the season.

The Christman Fuel Service INEX Legends were the next feature of the evening, lead to green by last week’s feature winner Tyler Christman (#27) and Zack Anderson (#46). Christman would lead the first lap, but Coleby Felber would quickly work his way up to second place. Felber found a fast line on the inside of turn 2 and took the lead from Christman. That would be enough as Felber cruised to his first feature win of the season. Christman would finish second and Anderson crossed the line in third.

The Caskinette Ford Modifieds saw the #8 pulled on the heat invert, which left Chris Finocchario (#81) on the pole and Randy Brunelle (#007) to his outside. Finocchario was able to gain the lead on the start from Brunelle and Taylor Caprara (#21) would move into third. The leaders would run in this order for the first 17 laps until the first caution flew for a spinning Terry Gardner (#41). On the restart, the top three would fill the top three spots on the cone restart. Terry Cheetham would elect to start on the outside of row 2, picking up 2 spots. When the green flew, it was all Finocchario. He would lead all 30 laps and win his second feature in a row and his third of the year. Brunelle would finish second, Caprara finished third, Cheetham was fourth and Geoff Sharkey (#66) rounded out the top five.

The final feature of the evening was the Excess Storage Pro Late Models. Joel Hargrave (#71) and Josh Verne Jr. (#1V) were the pole sitters. Verne Jr. would get jump on Hargrave on the start. Rylee Gill (#57) who started last, sctarted to make ground on the high side of the track and by lap 9 would catch the leaders. Gill would pass Hargrave for second on lap 9 and Verne on lap 12, both on the high side and go on to cross the line first. However, he failed post weight inspection, giving the win to Verne Jr. Hargrave would finish second and Jerry Dineen (#11) would finish in third.

Next week, Saturday June 19th, the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints invade the Evans Mills Raceway Park for the annual Kevin Ward Jr. Memorial Asphalt Spectacular. $4000 will be up for grabs for the winner, plus additional lap money. The Caskinette Ford Modifieds, Excess Storage Pro Late Models, Christman Fuel Service INEX Legends and Sport Compacts/Thunderstocks will be in action as well. Pit Gates open at 3pm, General Admission at 5pm, Racing starts at 6:30pm. Pit Pass $35, General Admission $20, Military $18, Children 10-17 $18, Under 9 Free with paid adult!