Skinner and Moore Dominate Red Eye 50/50
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Florida (January 12, 2019) — The 33rd Annual Red Eye 100 50/50 at New Smyrna Speedway took on a new look in 2019. Instead of the traditional 100 lap super late model affair, the race was broken into two 50 lap features; one for super late models, and the other for pro late models. At the end of the night of January 5th, victory lane was visited by two veterans, kicking this racing season off with a bang.
Mike Skinner led wire-to-wire in the pro late model portion of the night. Starting on the pole, Skinner had to contend with a strong effort by Sammy Smith in the first half of the race. Smith, driving for 2018 Snowflake 100 winning team Anthony Campi Racing, saw his bid at the Red Eye fall by the wayside after contact with Todd Stone in turn two on lap 39.
“I really enjoyed getting to work with Anthony Campi Racing,” Smith told Speed51.com. “They are very knowledgeable and a great group of guys. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot in my first Late Model race. Anthony is a great crew chief, coach and helped me get comfortable in the car. Racing with Mike Skinner was a great experience. I was able to take in some things while racing around him that will help me with in future races.”
Skinner had to then fend off a hard charging Brad May late in the feature. May, stayed close, and pulled alongside Skinner on the final lap as the pair crossed the finish line. It was Skinner, the 1995 NASCAR Truck Series Champion, holding off May to the checkered flag.
“Brad was coming,” said The Gunslinger. “He did a really good job on the restarts. I probably overdrove one and two a little bit, but was able to bring it back.”
“We didn’t really have a fast car all day and we did a bunch of changes right before qualifying. This Toyota was just a little bit better than most of them.”
In the Super Late Model 50 lapper, Ryan Moore dominated from drop of the green flag. Unlike the clean, fast-paced Pro Late Model feature, this race was bogged down by multiple cautions. The cautions kept the field tight throughout the first half of the race, which also kept Anthony Sergi in striking distance of Moore. Sergi was able to get briefly find the lead on lap 23 before yet another caution slowed the field back down.
The second half of the race would see a superb battle between Sergi and Brad May, however it was all Ryan Moore up front, cruising to the win.
“For my guys and I to build a car, come down here, qualify second and win the race, I think they should know we’re here,” Moore said in victory lane. “It was a crazy race, a lot more yellows than I wanted to see. But we had a really good car. The thing would just pull really hard down the front stretch.”
Next up at NNS is the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing during Speedweeks from February 8th to 16th.
Red Eye 50/50 Pro Late Model Results:
1 5 Mike Skinner
2 9M Brad May
3 1x Todd Stone
4 0 Josh Todd
5 24S Dalton Smith
6 3 Andrew Franzone
7 28 Barry Brooks
8 24 Chance Jewels
9 81 Sammy Smith
10 117 Phillip Bessette
11 72 Bruce Griffin
12 43 Daniel Dye
13 54 Zach Harris
Red Eye 50/50 Super Late Model Results:
1 74 Ryan Moore
2 9M Brad May
3 20 Anthony Sergi
4 56 Gus Dean
5 5K Daniel Keene Jr.
6 11 David Rogers
7 28I Jared Irvan
8 5A Jerry Artuso
9 32 Harold Crooms
10 2 Brad Bowman
11 17 Tanner Gray
12 12M Mario Goselin
13 62 John Gerstner
14 59X Becca Monopoli
15 99 Christian Rose
16 39 Morgan Hoover
17 12K Brad Kossow
18 67 Colin Allman
19 54 Drew Dollar
20 40 Tovia Grynewicz
21 21 Trey Bayne
22 7 Doug Elliot
23 24D Dalton Smith
24 1 Todd Stone
25 57 Travis Cope
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