Holtz Hustles to First Midwest Truck Series Win

[Sun Prairie, WI] The Midwest Truck Series was back in action at Golden Sands Speedway on Memorial Day Monday for the CenterPoint Marine 50 Lap Event. It was a perfect day for racing with temps in the upper 70’s and the occasional cloud cover to keep everyone cool. An impressive field of 25 Trucks made their way through the gates and ready to battle it out on the tricky ⅓ mile. Leading the way in 608 Graphics Qualifying was Bryce Miller with a lap of 12.912 by just .007 over his cousin Tyler Noble. This was Noble’s best qualifying effort of his short Midwest Truck Series career. In two races Bryce Miller has two fast times by a total margin of only .008 seconds. This set the field for three heat races. Jerry Mueller would take home the win in the first heat with Mike Reichenberger winning the second heat and Derek Doerr would win heat 3.

Next up would be the Center Point Marine 50 lap A Main. Leading the field to green would be Cody Vander Loop and Danielle Behn. Vander Loop would get the advantage and take the lead with James Swan in second, Behn in third, Kevin Zielezinski fourth and Kevin Knuese fifth. Two laps later Jeff Holtz made his way past Knuese and into the fifth spot. The field began to settle in and get in a rhythm until lap 11 when the first caution would come out for contact between Nick Roehl and Derek Doerr. On the restart the caution would come back out again as Steve Henke and Roehl got together off of turn 2. The green flag would fly and Vander Loop got out to the advantage once again with Swan in second, Zielezinski would move his way into third with Behn in fourth and Holtz still in fifth. It would remain the same until lap 16 when Holtz would get by Behn and move into fourth. Fast Qualifier Bryce Miller would also move his way into fifth. The caution would then come out again on lap 23 as Henke and Tom Steinbach got together and went around off of turn 4. On the restart Vander Loop would get the lead but Holtz would move into the second spot over Swan with Paul Shafer following him into the third position. The caution would fly for the final time on lap 25 as Bobby Selsing Jr. came to a stop in turn 1. From that point on the field settled in and got into a rhythm. The battle through lap traffic between Vander Loop and Holtz would be a good one and with five laps to go Vander Loop would slip up ever so slightly allowing the veteran Holtz to get his nose to the inside. Vander Loop would try to cover however, it was too late as Holtz would take the lead and bring Shafer along with him. Holtz would hang on and pick up his first feature win in the Midwest Truck Series in his 32nd start. Shafer finished second in his season debut, Swan in third, Zielezinski fourth and Knuese fifth. Jerry Mueller who started 22nd in the race would end up finishing 8th moving up 14 positions.

With his podium finish, James Swan has taken over the point lead by just 4 points over James Lynch. It could have been much worse for Lynch who as his team found an issue with the truck following his 17th place qualifying effort. Lynch was able to drive to 10th and salvage points. Kevin Knuese and Danielle Behn continue to record consistent finishes holding onto 3rd and 4th in the standings. Bryce Miller continues to pick up points in qualifying keeping him just inside the top 5 in points. With a 3rd place in qualifying and the feature win, Jeff Holtz has a good point day propelling him back into the championship conversation just 50 back from Swan.

Wehrs Machine & Racing Products Outside the Top 10 Random Bonus: #31 Derek Doerr

Most Laps Lead: Cody Vander Loop

Fastest Lap of Race: Cody Vander Loop 13.253

The Midwest Truck Series is back in action on Father’s Day June 18th at the Milwaukee Mile as a part of the ASA Stars National Tour Event. For More information on the Midwest Truck Series visit https://www.midwesttruckseries.com/