UPDATED (10:50 p.m. ET) A potential Top-10 finish by Chili Bowl champion Rico Abreu in his stock car debut was scuttled late in tonight’s Pete Orr Memorial Super Late Model race at New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway.
The sprint car star and future NASCAR K&N Pro Series East competitor had come from 23rd on the starting grid to run ninth with less than 15 laps left in the 100-lap event.
But according to the Associated Press’ Jenna Fryer, the rear end on Abreu’s No. 24 DLP Motorsports entry broke at Lap 87 and forced him into the pits.
He was set to be credited with a 15th-place finish. However, a pair of post-race disqualifications involving winner Dalton Sargeant and third-place finisher William Byron – two of his HScott Motorsports with Justin Marks teammates in K&N East – elevated Abreu to 13th at night’s end.
Speed51.com reports that both Sargeant and Byron’s cars were hit with left-side weight infractions. The site says Sargeant’s car went across the scales at 58.2% left side weight, while Byron’s car had a 58.3% left side weight – both beyond the tolerances set in the track rulebook. Sargeant’s Twitter account said his car’s left side weight was 58.1%.
Conflicting numbers aside, Sargeant’s penalty meant that Good was declared the new winner upon his car passing inspection. Jake Perkins, J.J. Haley, Stephen Nasse, and Tyler Dippel rounded out the Top 5.
Haley, along with Scott Heckert (finished 11th), are also Abreu’s K&N East teammates in the HScott/Marks stable.
Sargeant had made headlines earlier in the month when he was held out of the ongoing Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway. He was to co-drive a Prototype Challenge entry for Performance Tech Racing, but his lack of sports car experience caused IMSA to deny him a license to race (a FoxSports.com story has more details).
Abreu and the rest of the HScott/Marks team will be back at the New Smyrna half-mile on Sunday, Feb. 15 for the K&N East season opener.
