Rico Abreu (Todd Buffenbarger Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
Rico Abreu survived challenges from Michael "Buddy" Kofoid and Kyle Larson at Bridgeport (New Jersey) Motorsports Park in Tuesday night's High Limit Sprint Car series race to win his third race of the season and close to within 15 points of the inaugural title. All three of these wins have come in the last five events.
"You just have to slow everything down (in traffic)," Abreu said after the race, which was streamed on FloRacing.com. "I started using my feet really good there at the end of the race. Lap cars make our cars really aero dependent and the lines we were running weren't as gripped up as they were when you were out by yourself."
The championship will be decided next Tuesday at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana.
Abreu and Larson lined up on the front row and ran in the top two positions most of the night. Moving forward from the second row, Kofoid was strong in the middle stages of the race and challenged for the lead with 16 of the 35 laps remaining. As he attempted a slide job for the lead in Turn 4, he was a little too aggressive and banged into the side of Dusty Zomer. Kofoid never went to the work area but the incident dropped him from contention and back to 17th. He climbed to 11th at the checkers.
In fact, lapped traffic would be a major factor throughout the race with the leaders catching the back of the field in only four to five laps.
Larson caught Abreu but failed to take advantage.
"I had one good shot getting into (Turn) 3 but I just didn't know how low he was going and the way my run was going there was a big tractor tire there at his left side," Larson said. "I bailed and maybe I could have squeezed through. I didn't want to do what Buddy did and wipe out myself and a lapper so I felt it was best to forfeit that turn and hope another opportunity would come but he saw my nose and then went back to carrying momentum."
From that point on, it was a two-man show between Abreu and Larson with traffic playing a huge factor. Larson closed on Abreu with less than 10 laps remaining, but could not make the pass.
Cory Eliason rounded out the podium in third.
High Limit Sprint Car Series
Bridgeport Speedway
Bridgeport, New Jersey
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Qualifying
1. 83JR-Michael Kofoid, 12.387[3]
2. 91-Kyle Reinhardt, 12.488[4]
3. 57-Kyle Larson, 12.518[20]
4. 24-Rico Abreu, 12.522[30]
5. 11-Cory Eliason, 12.524[23]
6. 19-Brent Marks, 12.553[26]
7. 39M-Justin Sanders, 12.568[7]
8. 48-Danny Dietrich, 12.587[22]
9. 55-Kerry Madsen, 12.606[1]
10. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 12.612[18]
11. 28M-Conner Morrell, 12.625[8]
12. 13-Justin Peck, 12.637[32]
13. 8-Aaron Reutzel, 12.648[10]
14. 67-Justin Whittall, 12.654[11]
15. 9-Chase Randall, 12.695[27]
16. 2MD-Cap Henry, 12.728[12]
17. 71-Anthony Macri, 12.732[24]
18. 23-Devon Borden, 12.766[28]
19. 5-Tyler Ross, 12.815[6]
20. 5T-Ryan Timms, 12.818[31]
21. 19L-CJ Leary, 12.830[19]
22. 00K-Kyle Spence, 12.864[21]
23. 20-Ryan Taylor, 12.942[9]
24. 99-Skylar Gee, 12.952[16]
25. 3J-Dusty Zomer, 12.998[13]
26. 85-Ricky DiEva, 13.103[15]
27. 20B-Tim Buckwalter, 13.115[17]
28. 24T-TJ Greve, 13.140[33]
29. 88J-Joey Amantea, 13.217[14]
30. 44-David Brown Jr, 13.405[25]
31. 4B-Jon Brennfleck, 13.507[29]
32. 12D-Steve Downs, 13.656[5]
33. 51-Shelby Kelly, 16.677[2]
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 83JR-Michael Kofoid[1]
2. 11-Cory Eliason[2]
3. 55-Kerry Madsen[3]
4. 71-Anthony Macri[5]
5. 8-Aaron Reutzel[4]
6. 19L-CJ Leary[6]
7. 3J-Dusty Zomer[7]
8. 88J-Joey Amantea[8]
DNS: 51-Shelby Kelly
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[1]
2. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[3]
3. 19-Brent Marks[2]
4. 23-Devon Borden[5]
5. 67-Justin Whittall[4]
6. 00K-Kyle Spence[6]
7. 85-Ricky DiEva[7]
8. 44-David Brown Jr[8]
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 57-Kyle Larson[1]
2. 39M-Justin Sanders[2]
3. 9-Chase Randall[4]
4. 28M-Conner Morrell[3]
5. 5-Tyler Ross[5]
6. 20-Ryan Taylor[6]
7. 4B-Jon Brennfleck[8]
8. 20B-Tim Buckwalter[7]
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps)
1. 24-Rico Abreu[1]
2. 48-Danny Dietrich[2]
3. 13-Justin Peck[3]
4. 2MD-Cap Henry[4]
5. 5T-Ryan Timms[5]
6. 99-Skylar Gee[6]
7. 24T-TJ Greve[7]
8. 12D-Steve Downs[8]
Dash #1 (7 Laps)
1. 24-Rico Abreu[1]
2. 57-Kyle Larson[2]
3. 11-Cory Eliason[3]
4. 83JR-Michael Kofoid[8]
5. 39M-Justin Sanders[4]
6. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[5]
7. 48-Danny Dietrich[6]
8. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[7]
B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 00K-Kyle Spence[2]
2. 19L-CJ Leary[1]
3. 3J-Dusty Zomer[5]
4. 20-Ryan Taylor[3]
5. 99-Skylar Gee[4]
6. 85-Ricky DiEva[6]
7. 44-David Brown Jr[10]
8. 88J-Joey Amantea[9]
9. 4B-Jon Brennfleck[7]
10. 12D-Steve Downs[12]
11. 51-Shelby Kelly[13]
12. 24T-TJ Greve[8]
DNS: 20B-Tim Buckwalter
A-Main (35 Laps)
1. 24-Rico Abreu[1]
2. 57-Kyle Larson[2]
3. 11-Cory Eliason[3]
4. 39M-Justin Sanders[5]
5. 91-Kyle Reinhardt[6]
6. 48-Danny Dietrich[7]
7. 19-Brent Marks[10]
8. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[8]
9. 55-Kerry Madsen[9]
10. 5-Tyler Ross[19]
11. 83JR-Michael Kofoid[4]
12. 71-Anthony Macri[13]
13. 5T-Ryan Timms[20]
14. 9-Chase Randall[11]
15. 2MD-Cap Henry[16]
16. 8-Aaron Reutzel[17]
17. 67-Justin Whittall[18]
18. 28M-Conner Morrell[15]
19. 19L-CJ Leary[22]
20. 20-Ryan Taylor[24]
21. 00K-Kyle Spence[21]
22. 23-Devon Borden[14]
23. 3J-Dusty Zomer[23]
24. 13-Justin Peck[12]