ANDERSON, Ind. — Shane Cottle scored the biggest win of his racing career capturing the 60th running of the Pay Less Little 500 at Anderson Speedway on Saturday.
Cottle took the lead for the final time on lap 378 with an outside pass of Ryan Litt going down the backstretch. He held off Tony Elliott during a 25-lap sprint to the finish to record the victory.
Rounding out the top five were rookie Johnny Rodriguez, Litt and Russ Gamester.
Cottle’s victory was the first for the Madison County-based team since Wayne Alspaugh captured the event in 1958. It marked the first victory for team owner Larry Contos.
“This is my first pavement win ever,” Cottle said. “It’s a good race for that first win.”
Cottle said he knew Elliott was closing, but made some final adjustments inside the car and took off a little at the end of the 500-lap grind on the historic quarter-mile asphalt oval.
“I love racing here,” he said after collecting a minimum of $25,000 for the victory.
Elliott was frustrated with his second-place finish, citing some calls by race officials that cost him the win.
“We had a great car,” he said. “We got beat by pit stops. Officials told us we could pit under the red and then we were penalized for that, and then they said we passed the pace car.”
Elliott said the team was still in a position to win.
“With 20 laps to go, we lost a cylinder, but were still able to close on Shane (Cottle),” he said. “Then with five to go, we lost a second cylinder, so I slowed down to finish the race and not destroy the engine.”
Rodriguez, who captured rookie- of-the-race honors, appeared to have the fastest car on the track just before the mid-point of the race and led from lap 148 to 212, when he pitted under the green flag.
“The crew has been here before,” he said of the veteran team, “they have a number of top-five finishes. We had one bad pit stop which killed us.”
Rodriguez said the race was not as tiring as he expected, but admitted his “butt” was sore.
Contos, whose family breathed new life into the Little 500 in the 1990s by sponsoring the race and organizing a festival around the race, said the win was a long time coming.
“I wouldn’t start celebrating until the checkered flag waved,” he said. “Anything can happen here. We had to work hard for it. I think in the past we covered every position in the top five but first.”
The race was slowed 14 times by caution periods for 109 laps and was red flagged twice. The first stoppage came on lap 48 when Jacob Wilson flipped in turn one, and the second came on lap 134 when Brian Tyler flipped in turn three. Neither driver was injured.
There were 11 lead changes among four different drivers, with Cottle leading a race-high 164 circuits.
The finish:
Showing driver and laps completed: 1. Shane Cottle, 500; 2. Tony Elliott, 500; 3. Johnny Rodriguez, 498; 4. Ryan Litt, 495; 5. Russ Gamester, 492; 6. Rex Norris III, 492; 7. Billy Puterbaugh, 491; 8. Brad Armstrong, 485; 9. Ike Beasley, 475; 10. Jeff Bloom, 475; 11. Jeff Banyas, 473; 12. E.J. Calloway, 469; 13. Brandon Whited, 451; 14. Mark Hall, 434; 15. Tom Paterson, 377; 16. Jim Swain, 298; 17. Kenny Biro, 294; 18. Dave Steele, 239; 19. Kevin Feeney, 227; 20. Ed Lute, 205; 21. Aaron Pierce, 135; 22. Brian Tyler, 130; 23. Tyler Underwood, 107; 24. Troy Decaire, 107; 25. Brent Berry, 104; 26. Jimmy McCune, 97; 27. Mat Neely, 97; 28. Doug Heveron, 96; 29. Eric Gordon, 96; 30. Jacob Wilson, 48; 31. Sonny Hartley, 47; 32. Brian Gerster, 5; 33. Jason Blonde, 0.