FONTANA, California –- Trey Eidson scored his fifth career ESCORS BallRacing Cup Series victory Saturday afternoon as he won the Sentia 300 at Auto Club Speedway.
It was the 20-year old's second win of the 2008 season, but more importantly, Eidson got 10 bonus points as the Chase for the BallRacing Cup gets under way in two weeks.
Earlier in the day, Eidson also drove his No. 25 Windstream Communications Toyota to the Mindware pole. A clean and green start to the race did not last long as Thomas Cazorla lost control off Turn 4. The incident collected strong drivers including Michel Berk, Andy Wilke, and Bjarne Laursen forcing them to retire from the race.
Csaba Volyka led 41 of the opening 60 laps but contact between Eidson and Volyka after a restart would end his hopes on the day.
As the race went on and the field went green for over 70 laps, Laurent Dilard, Vova Bykoff and Justin Trombley and Eidson swapped the lead among themselves until the final round of stops with 41 laps remaining. Eidson and Bykoff were the first to stop while Trombley, Thompson and Dilard all chose to stay out and run the tanks dry.
After everything cycled through, Trey Eidson had a 3.5-second lead over second-place runner Rick Thompson. Thompson and Trombley both chopped Eidson’s lead down tremendously and with 10 laps to go started pressuring for the lead.
Thompson took the lead with nine laps to go, but hard racing between Thompson and Eidson damaged the No. 14 Old Spice Dodge heavily.
The race ended with a five-lap dash between Justin Trombley and Eidson. Trombley was all over Eidson's Toyota going into Turn 3 but he had to settle for second.
Vova Bykoff finished third. Laurent Dilard and Helge Gravemeyer rounded out the top five finishers.
The ESCORS BallRacing Cup Series travels to Richmond International Raceway for the running of the Chevy Rock & Roll 250 under the lights next Saturday. It will be the last race until the 10-race "Chase for the BallRacing Cup" finally begins.