After The Line Vol. 5 (Apr 22-28)

HTRL
The 7th race of the High Tide Racing League MF Racing Designs Cup Series would role out to a familiar venue, the Auto Club Speedway. This time the 2 mile behemoth would play host to the Jewell Taylor Memorial, 125 trips around for one of the longest races of the season.

The race would prove to be a massive case of deja vu, as just like in season 1, the first half of the race was riddled with various incidents up and down throughout the field. Nick Nickerson was one driver who consistently pulled away at the front, proving to be a difficult driver to match. He would also lead the most laps, leading a total of 52 throughout the night.

Just past halfway a longer green flag run began to settle in, during which pit stops were out in force, and the pit strategy was on. Just when the race was looking to be decided though, a late-race caution forced the event into overtime. Tony Hilbrands would get out in front in the 2nd overtime attempt, and would drive like mad to fend off defending champion Benjamin Lacy. He would take his first win of the season by only half a car-length, as Lacy and Hilbrands doored each other coming to the checkered flag.

OMSRL
Richmond Raceway would prove a significant challenge for drivers in the OMSRL Truck Series when it came to passing. Ryan Dingler made his first appearance in several weeks in the series, and made a big splash upon his return, leading most of the first half of the race. a mistimed caution though would put Dingler in the midfield. Cautions were few and far between, leading to plenty of good racing throughout the second half.

At the end of the race, Spenser Ray took his 7th win of the season, and his 3rd in a row, continuing his 100% win streak in the crank-off. With no other driver seemingly able to contend with Ray, it's looking likely that Ray could very well lock up the championship in the penultimate race next week in Dover.

SPEED
The Monster Mile made another appearance on the channel as the SPEED Tires Plus Cup Series continued its steady march through its season. All evening long the notoriously bottom-lane heavy track would see surprising multigroove racing, with several instances of drivers going double-file for several laps at a time.

A small handful of cautions would disrupt the running in the race, providing many opportunities for strategy shakeups. Ryan Shelton and Jason Gracias would find themselves embroiled in a heads-up grudge match for the last stint of the race. Before it could come to fruition though, one last caution would force the race into overtime. Try as he did, Shelton couldn't break around Gracias, netting the MGR #1 a notch in the win column.

TNGG
Nashville Superspeedway would be the next host of the Saturday night truck series. As it was last season, the big talking points were all about the tires, and who could be the big saver. Minimal cautions meant it was all about who had the long run pace.

Scott Rankin all afternoon had shown great prowess in both tire and fuel saving, strategically giving up the race lead to allow for drivers like Dale Rapp to lead. Rankin would drop back to 4th, allowing for initially faster drivers to drive up front. Rapp would have to pit with less than 10 laps to go, giving the lead to Selena Thompson.

Thompson was looking for her first career win in TNGG, but heartbreak would strike as she ran out of fuel on the last lap of the race. Rankin would take the win at the end of the night, though even he wouldn't have enough fuel for a burnout.

ASRL
​Only 2 races remained for the ASRL NextGen Cup Series before the top 10 points reset for the playoffs. Right from the get-go the Iowa Speedway proved to be a bit of a wildcard in strategy, with points leader Hunter Engrav clutch and coasting even just 25 laps into a 200 lap race. The cautions fell at very inconvenient periods for much of the field, causing the number of cars on the lead lap to be rapidly whittled down.

Jordyn Propst made his debut start just one week ago at USA International Speedway, and netted a 4th place finish. Propst had a lot of long-run pace at Iowa, and with under 20 laps to go worked up a gap of over 10 seconds. It was not meant to be though, as a caution inside the closing laps annihilated his gap. He would drop back on the restart, having to settle for another 4th place finish, with Hunter Engrav taking his 5th on the season.

GREENFLAGTV'S RACE OF THE WEEK
The Beer League made its return for its 7th season of competition, this year returning to the Toyota GR86 from season 3. The championship also saw a brand-new format. Gone are the heat races, replaced with an open 20 minute qualifying session, and a new 15 minute sprint race, with the top 12 scoring points and inverting for the main race, extended to 1 hour. Watkins Glen International would host a 47 car field for the pre-season race. 

The sprint race saw many huge pileups, with a notable one being a massive 15+ car pile-up in the esses that saw Chris Flams take one of the wildest flips ever seen on GreenFlagTV, tumbling end over end over 10 times as his car was struck numerous times. The main race would see a much calmer drive, and strategy was given a chance to play out. Several cars pitted prior to halfway, and were caught out by the caution. Many attempted to stay on the race track, while most of the field opted to pit under the yellow flag.

Several drivers found themselves being caught out though, unable to make it to the end of the race. Defending champion Alex Koffard would be the one to best the strategy, kicking off the season with a win in the non-points pre-season race.

WEEKLY WINNERS
Tony Hilbrands: HTRL MFRD Cup Series Race 7 - Auto Club Speedway
Spenser Ray: OMSRL Truck Series Race 14 - Richmond Raceway
Alex Koffard: BEER League Pre-Season - Watkins Glen International
Jason Gracias: SPEED Tires Plus Cup Series Race 11 - Dover Motor Speedway
Scott Rankin: TNGG IEL Truck Series Race 8 - Nashville Superspeedway
Hunter Engrav: ASRL NextGen Cup Series Race 12 - Iowa Speedway