MANSFIELD, Ohio — Mark McFarland took his best shot at Benny Gordon at the end of the Sears Auto Center 250, but it just wasn’t enough.
Gordon staved off a last-lap charge by McFarland to win the first round of the Hooters Pro Cup Championship Series at Mansfield Motorsports Park Saturday night.
“My spotter said he rolled to the outside of me in turn one, but I didn’t even look,” said Gordon, driver of the No. 66n Samuel Metals Ford. “I just hammered down. I gave him room in case he was out there, because I wasn’t going to pinch him in the wall.
“It was really fun racing Mark, that was really awesome for the divisional champions to be getting after it and racing that hard for the win. If he was in front of me, I wouldn’t have been able to get around him either. He ran me clean. He had a couple of chances to move me, but he didn’t. If I’m in the same position, I’ll race him the same way.”
Several years ago, Gordon might not have been so lucky.
“I could’ve roughed him up a couple of times, but I wasn’t going to do it,” said McFarland, driver of the No. 81s Chevrolet. “I’ve done it before, and I always ended up paying for it later. We’ve still got three more races to go. Maybe if it was the last race I’d (rough him up).”
With the win, Gordon will head into Iowa Speedway with the outright lead in the Championship Series standings. But at the start of the event, Gordon was just hoping to get out of Mansfield with a top-10 finish. After qualifying fifth, Gordon’s team found a small problem with the head of his engine. Rather than switch to a backup car, Gordon chose to patch the problem, hoping it would make it to the finish.
By only stopping once, Gordon cycled into the lead on lap 97. McFarland moved into second by the halfway mark, and the two battled for the lead the rest of the night.
Jay Fogleman followed McFarland in third, matching his best finish of the season, while Jeff Agnew and Derek Kale completed the top five.
The finish:
Showing driver, car, laps completed, money won: 1. Benny Gordon, Ford 250, $13,000; 2. Mark McFarland, Chevrolet, 250, $6,500; 3. Jay Fogleman, Ford, 250, $6,250; 4. Jeff Agnew, Chevrolet, 250, $4,500; 5. Derek Kale, Chevrolet, 250, $4,000; 6. Clay Rogers, Chevrolet, 250, $3,500; 7. Kirk Leone, Ford, 250, $3,000; 8. Drew Herring, Ford, 250, $4,050; 9. Caleb Hoffman, Chevrolet, 250, $2,600; 10. Hunter Robbins, Ford, 250, $2,400; 11. A.J. Frank, Chevrolet, 250, $2,100; 12. Bobby Gill, Ford, 250, $2,100; 13. Matt Merrell, Chevrolet, 250, $2,000; 14. Billy Bigley, Jr., Ford, 50, $1,900; 15. Woody Howard, Chevrolet, 250, $1,800; 16. Allen Purkhiser, Ford, 250, $1,700; 17. Matt Lofton, Chevrolet, 250, $1,700; 18. Tom Hessert, Chevrolet, 250, $1,700; 19. Danny Jackson, Chevrolet, 250, $1,700; 20. Ronnie Souders, Chevrolet, 250, $1,700; 21. Joey Coulter, Ford, 248, $1,600; 22. Mikey Kile, Chevrolet, 245, $1,600; 23. James Buescher, Chevrolet, 244, $1,600; 24. John Gibson, Ford, 242, $1,600; 25. Derrick Kelley, Ford, 241, $1,600; 26. Joe Harrison, Jr., Chevrolet, 239, $1,500; 27. Tyler Young, Chevrolet, 216, $1,500; 28. Tim Kerr, Ford, 214, $1,500; 29. Michael Kidd, Chevrolet, 207, $1,500; 30. J.P. Morgan, Chevrolet, 186, $1,500; 31. Gary St. Amant, Chevrolet, 172, $1,500; 32. Sam Fullone, Chevrolet, 149, $1,500; 33. Tim Bainey, Jr., Ford, 108, $1,500; 34. Michael Ritch, Ford, 54, $2,500; 35. Brett Butler, Ford, 38, $1,500; 36. Matt Hawkins, Ford, 24, $1,500.