Justin Youngquist Victorious in Yakima
Yakima, WA - A rowdy crowd enjoyed the final Here 2 Wire Summer Thunder Sprint Car Series main event of the year, watching Justin Youngquist take the feature win and Colton Heath take the season title at Central Washington State Fair Raceway. Zach Simpson completed his sweep of the weekend in the Street Stock division.
Justin Youngquist started his year with a win at Skagit Speedway and finished his year with his first Summer Thunder Sprint Car Series win to close 2018. Cam Smith led on the initial start which was called back due to an accident in turn two. Following a lengthy red flag, Youngquist would get the jump on the next start, rocketing out to a sizable advantage. As Youngquist put laps away Jason Solwold was making his way up the field, passing cars on the outside of the track where no one else was running. Solwold came all the way from 19th up to second when a caution flag flew for Jeff Dunlap, bunching the field together. Solwold challenged Justin on the restart, but Youngquist was too good on the low groove, building is advantage back up as he crossed the finish for the popular win. Solwold would settle for second with Smith running third.
"I knew I needed to get a better start after the red flag came out," said Youngquist. "There was some moisture on the outside groove at the entry of turn one that I could enter against and get good drive to get off of turn two pretty well."
"Once we got going, the yellows came out at times that really worked to our advantage as far as lapped traffic goes," Justin said. The Skagit Valley's Best Potatoes sponsored number 56 only maneuvered through lapped traffic on two occasions over the course of the 30-lap race which saw Youngquist lead wire-to-wire.
"I had no idea who was behind me and that Jason [Solwold] had figured out the high groove until the restart with eight laps to go. I saw Jason on the outside of me in turn two after that restart and knew it was him right away. My dad's always told me that it's always better to be in second place toward the end of a race like that, and knowing Jason was there, I knew I had to hit my marks and not slip up because he would be right there to take advantage," said Justin.
The final laps saw Justin roll smooth around the low groove of the racetrack and hold off a late charge from Solwold to cross the checkers first in Yakima.
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