Tyler Courtney Wins Wild USAC Midget Portion of the 4-Crown Nationals
January 12th, 2020 by Wade Huisman
ROSSBURG, Ohio (September 28, 2019) — Tyler Courtney was victorious in one of the most memorable USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Car Series events event held at Eldora Speedway during the 38th running of the 4-Crown Nationals. Courtney, Tanner Carrick, and Logan Seavey exchanged slide jobs the last half of the main event before Courtney was able to take the lead with two laps to go and drove to victory. The win was Courtney’s second in a row in the midget car portion of the 4-Crown National driving for Clauson-Marshall Racing.
“For a while I couldn’t gain any ground on those guys because we were all going the same speed,” said Courtney. “We got to lapped traffic and we started racing a bit. I just tried to time my moves right, but Tanner just kept coming back. He’s turning into one heck of a driver. To win all three you have to start with one. That one was a lot harder than I was hoping for but this is Eldora. That’s what this place is all about. Hopefully that’s a good way to start of the night for these fans.”
Tanner Carrick led the opening lap with his Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Logan Seavey in second, shuffling front row starter Jerry Coons Jr. back to third position. Rico Abreu made his presence felt early dropping Coons back to third position on the second lap and set out after the leaders.
The red flag appeared on lap five when Jason McDougal flipped in turn four. McDougal exited the car under his own power.
Following the red flag Seavey took the lead from Carrick with a slide job in turns one and two only to have Carrick return the favor at the other end of the racetrack to maintain the top position. Behind them Courtney was moving up from his sixth starting position and drove by Abreu for the third spot.
With 11 laps complete Carrick Seavey, and Courtney pulled away from the rest of the field. On lap 16 the fireworks began when Seavey made a bit for the lead diving under Carrick to take the lead. Seavey and Carrick began to slide job each other on each end of the racetrack exchanging the lead on each end of the race track.
With five laps to go Courtney threw his hat into the ring putting a slide job on Seavey for second. Seavey crossed back as Carrick opened some distance between himself and the race for second. That cushion was short lived as Courtney gained the second position from Seavey and started exchanging slide jobs with Carrick. This continued until Courtney threw the final slide job on Carrick in turns one and two and pulled away to take the white flag.
Courtney completed the finale lap uncontested for the victory over Carrick, Seavey, Abreu, and Kevin Thomas Jr.
