SALEM, Ind. — How wild was the finish of the Lucas Oil 200 at Salem Speedway Saturday night?
Well, consider this: Benny Gordon was running third and figured he was in the right place on a restart with four laps remaining.
“I really thought they were going to wreck each other, and I was going to get a win,” said Gordon.
Gordon was referring to leader Allen Purkhiser and rookie Mikey Kile, who were both searching for their first Hooters Pro Cup wins and leaving nothing on the table.
Gordon’s premonition proved incorrect, but just barely.
With two laps to go, Purkhiser carried the lead into turn one before slipping up the track, allowing Kile to close within a car length. On the final lap, Kile closed enough to nudge Purkhiser up the track in turn two, slid past and inched away from Purkhiser to win his first Pro Cup event in his fifth start.
“There was a lot of give and take, and a lot of good racing between us,” Kile said of his battle with Purkhiser. “I didn’t want to get into him, but I was fighting for the win. I would’ve expected the same out of him.”
Though the last-lap battle went into overtime as the two bounced off each other during the cool-down lap, Purkhiser agreed.
“That was just hard racing,” said Purkhiser. “If I was in his position, I would have done the same thing.”
Purkhiser actually did the same thing on lap 174. After catching Kile for the lead, Purkhiser bumped Kile high, moved to the point with 25 laps remaining and began to pull away from the field. But the late-race caution on lap 194 changed that.
“It was a good thing for us that we got that last caution, or I wouldn’t have caught him,” said Kile, who took home $11,800 for the win. “I was able to cool the tires off and make a run at him. It looked like his car got a little tight on the restart, and I was able to get under him. Then, it was a drag race down to turn three.”
Purkhiser tried to close on Kile in the final turn, but he came up .170-second shy of his first Pro Cup win.
Gordon finished third ahead of Gary St. Amant and Mike Hampton.
The finish:
Showing driver, car, laps completed and money won: 1. Mikey Kile, Chevrolet, 200, $11,800; 2. Allen Purkhiser, Ford, 200, $7,000; 3. Benny Gordon, Ford, 200, $6,200; 4. Gary St. Amant, Chevrolet, 200, $6,200; 5. Mike Hampton, Ford, 200, $4,700; 6. Brandon Ward, Ford, 200, $3,800; 7. Travis Miller, Chevrolet, 200, $2,600; 8. Tyler Young, Chevrolet, 200, $3,300; 9. Tim Bainey, Jr., Ford, 199, $2,300; 10. Ray Love, Jr., Chevrolet, 198, $2,200; 11. Danny Jackson, Chevrolet, 198, $2,759; 12. Michael Kidd, Chevrolet, 198, $2,000; 13. Matt Merrell, Chevrolet, 191, $1,900; 14. Jeff Agnew, Ford, 187, $2,300; 15. A.J. Frank, Chevrolet, 183, $1,700; 16. Brett Butler, Ford, 153, $1,600; 17. Derek Kale, Chevrolet, 150, $2,000; 18. Derrick Kelley, Ford, 104, $1,600; 19. Ronnie Souders, Chevrolet, 94, $1,600; 20. Tim Kerr, Ford, 63, $1,600; 21. Sam Fullone, Chevrolet, 54, $1,800; 22. Joe Harrison, Jr., Chevrolet, 20, $1,400; 23. Jay Fogleman, Ford, 9, $2,550; 24. Jason Sarvis, Chevrolet, 3, $1,800.