Holtz Holds Off Swan In Photo Finish

The Midwest Truck Series was back in action on Memorial Day Monday for our annual stop at the Golden Sands Speedway. 25 trucks were on hand and ready to take on the 1/3rd mile. Coming home with Fast Time in Six08 Graphics would be Bryce Miller with a lap of 12.950. Next up would be three QA1 heat races. Braison Bennett would take home heat 1 while Kevin Knuese won heat 2 and Dylan Schuyler would win the third and final heat.

As impending storms loomed to the northwest it was time to roll out the 50 lap feature. Leading the field to green would be Kevin Zielezinski and Chester Ace. Zielezinski would jump out to the early lead with Ace behind him. Ace would stay within striking distance and take the lead from Zielezinski on lap 12. The battle for 3rd through 5th was heating up quickly with James Swan in 3rd, Jacob Nottestad 4th and Jeff Holtz 5th. The field began to get into a rhythm and logged laps as lap 17 would see Swan sneak by Zielezinski for 2nd. Lap 25 would see Holtz get by for 3rd and be in the catbird seat as Ace and Swan battled for the lead.

The first caution would come out on lap 30 when Tucker Bodendorfer’s day would come to an early when he came to a stop at the top of turn 2 with a mechanical failure. Ace would accelerate from Swan on the restart and maintain the top spot. Lap 37 would see Swan get to the inside of Ace and take the lead with Holtz in 3rd, Nottestad 4th and Eugene Gregorich III 5th. It looked as if Swan had the race won until the caution came out with 4 laps to go when Bryce Miller went around after contact with another truck. This set up a good old fashion shootout to close out the race. Holtz was able to make the outside stick and keep his momentum going and edge out Swan with 3 laps to go. As they took the white flag from starter Alex Gilhart the crowd was on their feet knowing a photo finish was in store. At the line by mere inches it would be Jeff Holtz winning the Memorial Day 50 over Swan with Nottestad coming home 3rd, Ace 4th and Zielezinski 5th. With his win today Jeff Holtz became the first repeat winner in the modern era of the Midwest Truck Series at the Golden Sands Speedway.

Jeff Holtz also back the 3rd driver to the lead in the 2024 Championship Point Standings by 9 points over Chester Ace. Eugene Gregorich slipped a few points but is only 13 points out of the lead. With his 3rd place finish, Jacob Nottestad is back in 4th in the standings 28 points back and Brandon Reichenberger rounds out the top 5 only 31 behind.

To put the points battle into perspective there is a 14 point spread between 1st and 8th in qualifying, a 9 point spread between 1st and 5th in a heat race and a 28 point spread between 1st and 7th in the feature. This battle is going to require teams to be near perfect every race in order to have a shot at the end.

Current Points Are Updated On Our Website: https://www.midwesttruckseries.com/standings

The Midwest Truck Series will be back in action again on Father’s Day at the Track Enterprises Events at The Milwaukee Mile. Also on hand that day will be the ASA STARS National Tour, the Mid-Am Racing Series and the Vintage Cars.

Contingency Awards:

Fastest Lap of Race: #38 Kevin Zielezinski - 13.324

JK Tools Rookie of the Race: #44 Parker Cain

Wehrs Outside Top 10 $100 Bonus: #2 Wyatt Kraiss

Five Star Bodies Hard Luck Award $75 Product Certificate: #05 Tucker Bodendorfer

EPYK Media Hard Charger $100 Bonus: #33 Kevin Knuese