PURE STOCK: BENOIT GRABS THIRD WIN IN JUNE
Doug Brenoit has certainly enjoyed the month of June. Not only did it give him five race dates, but he grabbed three wins and a pair of seconds, with the most recent victory in the month-ender. He started ninth and was in third place on lap 3, when caution flew for Mike Henriques’ spin. The restart had him outside The Outlaw, Dan Massa, and behind Bob Moore and Amy Arsenault, who were on the front row. As Moore and Arsenault hacksawed the lead, Benoit came diving in underneath them to make it three-wide with Moore in the middle. Moore fell back, while Benoit grabbed the lead and Amy went high, dropping to seventh.
DJ Pires and Lenny Souza (winners of the previous two features) followed Benoit through and Moore held on to fourth. Behind him, Dave Desrosiers and The Outlaw were jousting over fifth. Massa moved up outside Sousa as the field became strung into a line and Arsenault got between them to make a three-wide. But Massa was suddenly scraping along the front stretch wall. Max Bergstrom, at speed, could not avoid Massa and piled in, hard. Massa was projected to the infield by the blow, while Bergstrom stopped dead in front of the starter’s stand and the field careened to avoid him. It became a red flag event as fluid erupted from Bergstrom’s car and the track crew faced a long cleanup. Randy Laplante was pushed to the pits, although he was not part of the original incident.
Benoit and Pires lined up again for the restart and seesawed the lead for a lap-and-a-half before Benoit was able to edge ahead and then grab the front. Sousa came in from row two after escaping Moore to run tight against Pires. Desrosiers ducked under Moore and they ran wheel-to-wheel. Arsenault ran on their bumpers, looking for an opportunity while Jason Tisi stayed at her back. As Benoit gained a two-car advantage, Marissa Morgan erupted in smoke coming down the frontstretch and spilled a long line of fluid. Track crew was again under red.
It was a long cleanup requiring lots of speedy-dry and the appearance of the street sweeper to speed the cleanup. But at last they were ready again. Benoit and Pires, Sousa and Desrosiers and Moore and Arsenault lined up to take the green. Benoit grabbed the lead out of turn two and Sousa ducked under Pires to take away second. Moore and Desrosiers again battled for fourth ahead of Arsenault, Tisi and Tommy Blackwell. But Tisi came loose and went around out of turn two. He kept it running and attempted to continue but caution flew as he had spun 180 degrees and was facing into traffic.
It took nearly a lap, but Benoit got ahead of Sousa into the lead by a half-car and Desrosiers got under Lenny for second. They ran up to Benoit’s bumper and Sousa continued to fight it out on the high side. Finally, he took over second and dropped in but on lap 19, Missy Charette spun bringing the final caution.
Five laps remained as they came away under green. Benot greabbed the front again and Sousa dropped into second. Pires followed with Desrosiers on his tail, then came Moore. They ran like this until the white flag lap, when Sousa threw it hard through turns three and four but could not conquer Benoit.
Benoit went back to victory lane and Sousa had second, followed by Pires, Desrosiers and Moore. Sixth went to Arsenault, followed by Greg Perry, Jr., Henriques, Blackwell, Daryl Perry and Ava Chouinard.