Empire State 450

Dillinger steals first Empire State 450 win from Minami

2016 STARS Champion Matilda Dillinger has punched her ticket into the STARS Chase very early on with a historic win in her second Empire State 450, denying rookie driver Chiyo Minami a win on her debut with a pass with just 5 laps to go. Dillinger, 19, becomes the first Oklahoman driver since Grant Macintosh 6 years ago to win the event.

Dillinger looked to be out of the running after lap traffic held her up, and the battle for the win looked like it was between Frank McBrien, William Carmichael, Spencer Libra and Chiyo Minami, however Frank McBrien had a mechanical problem take him out of contention with just 15 laps to go, and William Carmichael's Chevrolet had a race-ending clutch issue with just 17 laps to go, ending the 2016 Duel race winner's chances at the big trophy.

Frank McBrien, who was in his last appearance at New York Autoring, had led 81 of the 200 laps, mostly in the closing stages of the race, and had by far the fastest car on the circuit towards the end of the event.

"It's disappointing that we couldn't get another 450 under our belt" said McBrien, "It would have been an honour to join Ben Atkins and Garry Carter at 3 wins in this race, but it wasn't meant to be. I'm glad Matilda [Dillinger] could get it done, though. She's a hell of a talent."

Dillinger, who only had 3 wins to her name during her championship season, at Bristol, Atlanta and the season finale at Las Vegas, was over the moon to get her first Empire State 450.

"Incredible... absolutely incredible... we really had a good car today." said Dillinger, "I thought we weren't going to chase down Chiyo [Minami] at the end but the car came to life and we had laps to spare! I knew we were good to go when she couldn't mount a charge... even with her teammate, we had it in the bag!"

"The ATK team did a lot to help me win this thing, but I'm so proud of myself and the team for pulling this off... what an honour!"

Minami was equally as pleased to get a second place finish in her debut, however.

"If you told me I would have a shot to win... I'd call you a liar!" said Minami, "Nozaki-kun said I did a great job today, so I'm just waiting for the day he really notices me! When I win this year, I will get noticed! Notice me Nozaki-kun!!!"

F S # DRIVER INTERVAL LAPS LED POINTS STATUS
1 4 1 M Dillinger 179.545 200 28 180 Running
2 7 22 C Minami -0.15 200 7 175 Running
3 38 50 G Macena -4.41 200 0 165 Running
4 6 26 S Libra -4.50 200 20 165 Running
5 36 24 P Vaughn -6.99 200 0 155 Running
6 9 76 R McKee -35.51 200 0 150 Running
7 17 86 M Montellini -1L 199 1 151 Running
8 26 94 G Carter -1L 199 0 142 Running
9 12 18 M Hanley -1L 199 0 138 Running
10 25 89 L Forrester -2L 198 0 134 Running
11 28 98 S Harrow -3L 197 0 130 Running
12 15 11 F McBrien -3L 197 81* 137 Running
13 13 27 N Prowse -4L 196 0 124 Running
14 16 66 D Donohue -5L 195 0 121 Running
15 33 01 H Tsushima -5L 195 0 118 Running
16 23 0 M Nishikino -5L 195 0 115 Running
17 1 55 N Yazawa -6L 194 0 112 Running
18 21 00 J Clagett -7L 193 0 109 Running
19 34 7 D Johnson -7L 193 0 106 Running
20 32 78 D Williams -8L 192 0 103 Running
21 18 10 D Leckliter -9L 191 0 100 Running
22 30 77 B Ward -10L 190 0 97 Running
23 37 05 M McAllister -15L 185 0 94 Running
24 14 75 W Carmichael -17L 183 6 96 Clutch
25 11 19 E Vance -18L 182 3 93 Clutch
26 19 20 C Swift -55L 145 0 85 Ignition
27 5 6 R Matthews -88L 112 21 87 Engine
28 22 31 J Eichholtz -88L 112 5 84 Retired
29 31 99 K Miller -101L 99 7 81 Accident
30 3 92 B Carlisle -126L 74 1 78 Ignition
31 24 12 G Macintosh -134L 66 7 75 Clutch
32 29 5 T Benatar -139L 61 0 67 Clutch
33 40 65 I Durbin -153L 47 0 64 Accident
34 20 08 Y Kunikida -171L 29 0 61 Retired
35 10 82 J Sanders -172L 28 0 58 Header
36 2 2 B Atkins -172L 28 7 60 Accident
37 27 88 B Green -173L 27 0 52 Accident
38 35 70 S Peterson -173L 27 0 49 Accident
39 8 21 C Lester -179L 21 6 51 Accident
40 39 29 R McBrien -182L 18 0 43 Susp