Mike King Wins First Lebanon Valley Race Since 2010

Mike King led flag-to-flag late Saturday night to win the rain-delayed Modified feature at Lebanon Valley. It is his first victory since 2010 and makes him the second-oldest driver to ever win a Modified feature. Only Denny Soltis in 2015 was older.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” King said after the race. “Most of my crew has never been with me for a feature win. I wanted to win one for them so bad, you couldn’t even imagine. To see all the people here and the crews in the pits…it was truly amazing.”
King won by 1.628 seconds over Matt Pupello. L.J. Lombardo was third, then Kyle Armstrong and Eddie Marshall.
After winning his heat race, King started from the pole and out-distanced Pupello. For points leader Brett Haas, his night ended early. His car locked up on the second lap of the race and stopped on the backstretch. The night was over for Haas, who finished 24th and lost the points lead.
Early on, Andy Bachetti charged up from the 14th starting spot to get into the top-five. He appeared to have the fastest car, but jumped the cushion and dropped back to seventh.
Lombardo, back in a part-time ride, moved himself up to third on lap 15 after starting 17th. He then challenged Pupello for second. The two drivers raced each other hard, which allowed King to open up his lead.
Lombardo was able to get the spot on lap 19, but gave it back to Pupello just that quickly. By then, King was a couple of seconds ahead and that was more than enough to hold on for the win.
In the Small Block Modifieds, $2000 was on the line for the winner, courtesy of T&T Body King. The field wanted that extra money and had a lot of issues getting going.
There were three attempts to start this race. All three times, the caution flew before the first lap could be completed. After all this, the move was made to go to single-file restarts for the rest of the race.
After a single lap was completed, Brian Peterson spun in turn 4 to bring out another yellow. Bachetti also hit the outside wall and damaged his car. Peterson continued without issue, but Bachetti had damage and ended up a lap down in 17th.
On a restart, Ray Hall Jr. was able to get the lead from pole sitter Brian Sandstedt and attempted to pull away from the track. However, Bachetti stalled in turn 4 after rejoining the race and brought out a yellow on lap 11. During this caution, it started raining, resulting in a 90-minute red flag.
When the race resumed, Hall continued to lead with Brett Haas and Marc Johnson, driving in place of Joey Coppola, who was presiding over a wedding Saturday. A Travaglin spin brought out the yellow with seven laps to go.
On the restart, Haas made a dive to the inside of turn 1 on Hall that managed to stick to take the lead. From there, Haas pulled away to take the win. Johnson ended up second, then Ryan Larkin, Lorne Brown and Hall.
Sportsman has seen no one be able to beat Tim Hartman Jr. this year. Saturday night was no different. Hartman started ninth and quickly made his way forward.
Mike Engwer was able to get the lead from pole sitter Joseph Mennitte on lap 7, but could not hold off Hartman. Engwer tried to come back on Hartman, but ended up hitting the wall and spinning out.
From there, Hartman drove away to take his eighth straight win this year and 10th straight overall. He won by 7.313 seconds over Nick Giardini. Michael Sabia was third, then Brady Cordova and Hall.
In Limited Sportsman, Braxton Martin started from pole and led early on. Points leader Scott Zehnacker was caught up in an early crash in turn 3 with Greg DeCamp, Jasen Brewer and John Santolin. Zehnacker continued once he got unstuck. DeCamp was out.
Once things got going, it was a battle between Martin, Owen Lewis and Colby Kokosa. Lewis was able to get the lead on lap 6, but Kokosa was pressing the issue. A lap later, Kokosa was able to take the lead away.
From there, Kokosa held on to take the win, his first career open-wheel victory. Martin was second, then Zehnacker, Santolin and Ray Royals.
In Pro Stock, Rocco Procopio started from pole and led early. Chris Stalker started alongside and was right on his tail in the opening laps.
On lap 5, Stalker made the move and took over the lead. Once out front, Stalker pulled away from the pack as Procopio dropped back.
With six laps to go, Stalker had a 2.3-second lead. However, Stalker expanded that lead to 4.383 seconds by the finish to take his first Pro Stock win. Zach Sorrentino took second on the line, then Dave Stickles, Shawn Perez and Paul LaRochelle.
In Super Street Stock, Jeff Meltz Sr. took his fourth win of the year.
Modified Berkshire Bank Modified Feature Results (30 laps): 1) Mike King, 2) Matt Pupello, 3) L.J. Lombardo, 4) Kyle Armstrong, 5) Eddie Marshall, 6) Andy Bachetti, 7) Brian Berger, 8) Keith Flach, 9) Kyle Sheldon, 10) Kolby Schroder, 11) J.R. Heffner, 12) Marc Johnson, 13) John Virgilio, 14) Ryan Darcy, 15) Chris Curtis, 16) Timothy Davis, 17) Brandon Lane, 18) Josh Marcus, 19) Rob Maxon, 20) Montgomery Tremont, 21) Dan Humes, 22) Olden Dwyer, 23) Ryan Charland, 24) Brett Haas
T&T Body King Small Block Modified Feature Results (24 laps): 1) Brett Haas, 2) Joey Coppola*, 3) Lorne Browe, 4) Ray Hall Jr., 5) Jason Herrington, 6) Kyle Sheldon, 7) Ryan Larkin, 8) Peter Carlotto, 9) Walter Hammon Jr., 10) Walter J. Hammond, 11) Chris Curtis, 12) Brian Peterson, 13) Ryan Heath, 14) Donny Travaglin, 15) Brian Sandstedt, 16) Jeff Watson, 17) Andy Bachetti, 18) Michael Sabia, 19) Brady Cordova, 20) Jeff Lutes, 21) Alan Houghtaling, 22) L.J. Lombardo, 23) Kim LaVoy (DNS)
*- Marc Johnson raced the No. 94 as a substitute for Joey Coppola. Coppola will receive the points that Johnson earned.
Sportsman Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Tim Hartman Jr., 2) Nick Giardini, 3) Michael Sabia, 4) Brady Cordova, 5) Ray Hall Jr., 6) Kevin Chaffee, 7) Joseph Mennitte, 8) Matt Burke, 9) Bob Fachini, 10) Alex Bell, 11) Alex Palmer-Sawyer, 12) Karl Barnes, 13) Jimmy VanZandt, 14) Justin Gozzi, 15) Mike Engwer, 16) Anthony Maxon, 17) Mike Arnold, 18) Peter Lorenzo (DNS)
Limited Sportsman Feature Results (15 laps): 1) Colby Kokosa, 2) Braxton Martin, 3) Scott Zehnacker, 4) John Santolin, 5) Ray Royals, 6) Brian Walsh, 7) Harold Robitaille, 8) Dylan Holmes, 9) Kent Clark, 10) Chris Humes, 11) Owen Lewis, 12) Brandon Lemaire, 13) Jasen Brewer, 14) Fred Pravia, 15) Brian Houghtaling, 16) Greg Decamp
Pro Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Chris Stalker, 2) Zach Sorrentino, 3) Dave Stickles, 4) Shawn Perez, 5) Paul LaRochelle, 6) Tom Dean, 7) Nick Hilt, 8) Rich Colesanti, 9) Shawn Perez Jr., 10) Rocco Procopio, 11) Brian Keough, 12) Mike Dianda, 13) Richard Spencer, 14) Dave Kokindo, 15) Rick Duzlak (DNS), 16) Phil DeFiglio (DNS), 17) Chad Jeseo (DNS)
Super Street Stock Feature Results (20 laps): 1) Jeff Meltz Sr., 2) Dave Streibel, 3) Keri VanDenburg, 4) Doug Sterling, 5) Paul Vallee, 6) Kyle Burl, 7) Franklin Smith, 8) Dave Streibel Jr., 9) Lou Gancarz, 10) Rob Partridge, 11) Jason Meltz. DQ: Peter Huntoon