Philo holds off Foos for thriller 410 win at Attica; Missler gets late model victory; Stroup earns 305 win
Saturday, July 3, 2021
By Brian Liskai
ATTICA, Ohio – Late race cautions fell perfectly for Travis Philo Friday, July 2 at Attica Raceway Park. The Waterville, Ohio resident then executed perfect restarts and held off a hard charger DJ Foos for a thrilling 410 sprints feature win on Smith Family Foods/Sutton Bank/Burns Electric Night Presented by Integrity Auto and Truck Sales of Bucyrus.
Philo and Foos battled in very close quarters the final seven laps with Philo earning his seventh career win at “Ohio Finest Racing” speed plant.
“I knew I had to do something different each time (on restarts). I actually got that one where I took off really early from DJ…I saw him do
that one night and I couldn’t believe they let it go so I was like I might as well try it. We’ve been struggling a little bit lately with some issues. Kind of lucked out starting on the front row. That was really fun battling with DJ. It had to be a heck of a race for you fans. I have to thank my dad…I wouldn’t be here without him. He busts his ass every day in the shop for us. Thanks Jim Roby and all our sponsors…Control Design Solutions, Tire Slick, Banshee Graphics, Bohmer Rentals, Berryman Racing Shocks, Kistler Engines…Paul Kistler has been helping us out lately trying to resolve our issues and it paid off tonight,” said Philo.
Bellevue, Ohio’s Ryan Missler, a five time Attica track champion, took the lead in the UMP Late Model feature on lap six and survived several cautions to get his 15th career win at Attica, moving him into fourth on the all-time win list for the division.
“I learned all you have to do is cream the wall at Eldora and your car gets faster. It felt really good tonight. You learn some stuff when you go racing at other places. I just been trying to use common sense and trying different things and not doing the cookie-cutter thing that everybody tells you to do. I have to thank everyone for coming out on fan appreciation night….this is a hell of a crowd. I have to thank my father-in-law…he’s my crew guy and he’s limping and in a boot because he tore his calf. Thanks to my wife and my whole crew….Dan, Devin and my kids,” said Missler beside his Golden Giant Building Systems; Big D’s Pizza, MGX Technologies, Kepling Flooring, Handy Grafix, Rich Farmers’ Napa group; Schuder Technologies; York Fabrication; T-Town Lawn Care; Terry McConnell Excavating; NAPA of Bryan; SCS Gearbox, Keizer Wheels, Missler’s Sweets, Accu-Force backed #50.
Fremont, Ohio’s Dustin Stroup tangled with Paul Weaver at the start of the Fremont Fence 305 Sprint A-main but was able to keep going while Weaver took a tumble. Stroup then led all 25 laps but it wasn’t easy as Matt Foos put up a great fight, actually pulling inside of Stroup on the final lap. Stroup was able to get by a lapped car which stopped Foos’ advance as Stroup scored his fifth career Attica win.
“First I want to apology to Paul Weaver on the start of that race. I messed up. I just went into turn one and didn’t lift. Thought I would
have had him cleared….well I wasn’t clear and that’s 100 percent my fault. I heard Matt there the last couple of laps and I could see him and the car kind of faded away on the top and I was missing my marks and starting to get in my head. I seen an opportunity with that lapped car to kind of block him and it paid off,” said Stroup beside his Automatic Fire Protection; MLP Lawncare & Snow Removal; Vantage Branding; Sulfer Town Pub, Level Performance; Advance Auto Parts backed #10X.
At the drop of the green for the 30-lap Callie’s Performance Products 410 Sprint A-main, Philo and Foos immediately began their battle as Duane Zablocki, Byron Reed, Kyle Capodice and Cap Henry gave chase. Lapped traffic quickly came into play by lap nine with Philo holding a narrow advantage over Foos with Reed, Henry and a charging Caleb Griffith in tow.
A caution on lap 13 for Henry who made hard contact with a lapped car kept the field close. Then on the restart fifth place running Cole Macedo had his rear wing posts fail bringing out another caution. Philo got an excellent restart and put a little breathing room between himself and Foos.
Just as Foos drove to Philo’s outside exciting turn two on lap 18, a caution flew. Again Philo had another great restart and pulled away slightly from Foos who lost second for a lap to Reed. Once back into second Foos hunted down Philo and again the pair battled side by side for the lead until a caution with six laps to go.
This time on the restart Foos stayed with Philo but a debris caution with five laps to go forced Philo into another excellent restart. Foos gave a couple of looks to Philo’s outside the remaining five laps but Philo held his lane and took the win over Foos, Chris Andrews who hard charged from 20th, Reed and Griffith.
Mike Bores grabbed the early lead of the Dirt Nerds Podcast/Propane.com UMP Late Model A with Missler, Tyler Thompson, Ryan Markham and Devin Shiels giving chase. Three cautions marred the first eight laps of the feature but Missler drove around Bores into the top spot on lap six.
A couple of cautions at the half-way point kept the field close but Missler and Bores pulled away from a tremendous battle for third between Markham, Shiels and Matt Irey. One final caution for debris with just four laps to go wasn’t enough for the rest of the field as Missler drove away for the victory over Bores, Irey, Shiels and Markham.
At the start of the Fremont Fence 25-lap 305 sprint A-main, contact between the front row of Stroup and Weaver ended with Weaver taking a tumble. Once the green flew again Stroup jumped into the lead over Matt Foos, Mike Keegan and Shawn Valenti. Only caution flew on lap nine, keeping the field close.
Once the race resumed Stroup was able to pull away from Foos as now Tyler Shullick was on the move, taking third. With seven laps to go Foos was fighting off Shullick as Stroup had to deal with lapped traffic. When the white flag flew Foos stuck a bumper under Stroup who then made a daring move exiting turn two to put a lapped car between himself and Foos. Shullick, Jamie Miller and Valenti rounded out the top five.
Attica Raceway Park will be back in action Friday, 9 on Croghan Colonial Bank/Steinle Chevrolet-Buick In Clyde Night featuring the All-Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads/Kistler Racing Products 410 Attica Fremont Championship Series Presented by the Baumann Auto Group, the late models and the Napa of Bryan 305 AFCS Presented by Jason Dietsch Trailer Sales.
For more information go to www.atticaracewaypark.com or follow the track on Twitter @atticaracewyprk or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/atticaracewaypark and Instagram at attica_raceway_park.