STARS Go West 150 @ Pikes Peak

It's a Sweep! Atkins completes weekend sweep with Pikes Peak victory

Ben Atkins managed to hold off teammates Casey Lester and Grant Macintosh as ATK Motorsports took a 1-2-3 finish with the Brit leading the way. Atkins, who has been known for his good performances on Superspeedways and Road Courses, had never won a short track event at any level of STARS racing entering the weekend, but now has secured two victories after also winning the truck series race.

Ryan Matthews and Breyton Green rounded out the top 5. Only 11 cars finished on the lead lap in the 140 lap event, in which attrition was key. Notable incidents included a scary incident for the #31 of Jacob Eichholtz, which saw him slide down the front stretch on his roof.

Atkins was pressured at the end by rookie Casey Lester, who was looking for his first career win, but Atkins was able to take his #2 Sunrider Academy Chevrolet to victory lane.

"Can't say I was expecting to sweep the weekend!" said Atkins, "I have had the worst time on short tracks in my career, so to come here and sweep both races is amazing! Casey put in a good challenge and I thought he was going to get me but I really wanted to get the win. We're in the playoffs now as well! This is awesome!"

F S # DRIVER INTERVAL LAPS LED POINTS STATUS
1 20 2 B Atkins 120.355 140 20 180 Running
2 9 21 C Lester -0.15 140 7 175 Running
3 19 12 G Macintosh -1.39 140 53* 175 Running
4 4 6 R Matthews -2.29 140 21 165 Running
5 15 88 B Green -2.67 140 0 155 Running
6 2 1 M Dillinger -3.31 140 2 155 Running
7 14 66 D Donohue -3.98 140 0 146 Running
8 1 29 R McBrien -4.17 140 21 147 Running
9 13 65 I Durbin -6.21 140 0 138 Running
10 17 86 M Montellini -13.16 140 0 134 Running
11 12 00 J Clagett -22.47 140 0 130 Running
12 30 75 W Carmichael -1L 139 0 127 Running
13 26 14 G Hadaway -1L 139 0 124 Running
14 28 20 C Swift -1L 139 0 121 Running
15 24 01 H Tsushima -1L 139 0 118 Running
16 10 10 D Leckliter -2L 138 0 115 Running
17 36 15 B Stansfield -2L 138 0 112 Running
18 35 57 D Dent -2L 138 0 109 Running
19 27 89 L Forrester -2L 138 0 106 Running
20 3 28 R Carter -3L 137 0 103 Running
21 16 22 C Minami -4L 136 0 100 Running
22 37 7 D Johnson -4L 136 0 97 Running
23 6 11 F McBrien -5L 135 0 94 Running
24 32 99 K Miller -7L 133 0 91 Valve
25 8 19 E Vance -8L 132 0 88 Header
26 7 72 C Conway -10L 130 0 85 Retired
27 5 92 B Carlisle -23L 117 5 87 Tire
28 25 08 Y Kunikida -29L 111 0 79 Accident
29 39 05 M McAllister -32L 108 0 76 Accident
30 31 0 M Nishikino -35L 105 0 73 Retired
31 29 24 P Vaughn -35L 105 0 70 Valve
32 18 50 G Macena -37L 103 11 72 Retired
33 33 44 E Jenkins -38L 102 0 64 Accident
34 22 76 R McKee -41L 99 0 61 Accident
35 38 78 D Williams -81L 59 0 58 Gearbox
36 34 82 J Sanders -101L 39 0 55 Retired
37 21 31 J Eichholtz -108L 32 0 52 Accident
38 23 98 S Harrow -113L 27 0 49 Camshaft
39 11 02 R Truro, Jr. -120L 20 0 46 Accident

Green indicates a driver is locked in on wins.
Yellow indicates a driver is currently in on points.
Red indicates a driver must win to makes the playoffs. (not yet relevant)

Top 20 in Chase Standings
16 drivers make the STARS LIS Chase.

1st: #6 Ryan Matthews (1 win)
2nd: #1 Matilda Dillinger (1 win)
3rd: #22 Chiyo Minami (1 win)
4th: #2 Ben Atkins (1 win)
5th: #92 Bradley Carlisle (1 win)
6th: #29 Ruby McBrien (1 win)
7th: #88 Breyton Green
8th: #21 Casey Lester
9th: #12 Grant Macintosh
10th: #50 Gabriel Macena
11th: #98 Luke Forrester
12th: #86 Marcus Montellini
13th: #11 Frank McBrien
14th: #00 Joey Clagett
15th: #66 Dean Donohue
16th: #99 Kevin Miller
------------------------------------------------------
17th: #65 Ike Durbin
18th: #28 Ross Carter
19th: #0 Maki Nishikino
20th: #20 Connor Swift

Point Standings after Race #6
Pos +/- Driver ST W T5 T10 AvFP P AvSP PTS BF/BN
1 -- R Matthews 6 1 3 4 9.67 0 12.50 398 0/0

2 +2 B Green 6 0 2 4 11.83 0 23.67 349 49/49

3 -- M Dillinger 6 1 2 3 13.00 0 6.67 345 53/4

4 -2 C Minami 6 1 2 4 13.33 0 18.67 333 65/12

5 +2 C Lester 6 0 3 3 18.83 0 9.33 301 97/32

6 +4 G Macintosh 6 0 3 3 16.00 0 10.00 298 100/3

7 +7 B Atkins 6 1 2 3 17.33 1 11.83 288 110/10

8 -3 G Macena 6 0 2 3 16.33 0 19.67 273 125/15

9 -3 L Forrester 6 0 1 3 16.33 0 22.83 249 149/24

10 +3 M Montellini 6 0 0 3 17.17 0 23.33 239 159/10

11 -2 F McBrien 6 0 0 2 19.17 1 6.17 228 170/11

12 -4 B Carlisle 6 1 1 2 21.33 1 3.33 226 172/2

13 +4 J Clagett 6 0 1 1 17.33 0 19.33 224 174/2

14 +6 R McBrien 6 1 1 2 21.17 1 9.33 223 175/1

15 +6 D Donohue 6 0 0 2 18.67 0 20.83 221 177/2

16 -5 K Miller 6 0 1 2 19.17 0 20.83 221 177/0

17 +2 I Durbin 6 0 1 2 19.33 0 21.00 213 185/8

18 -3 R Carter 5 0 0 1 13.20 0 12.40 206 192/7

19 -7 M Nishikino 6 0 1 1 18.83 0 27.17 203 195/3

20 -4 M Hanley 5 0 0 2 16.00 0 13.40 180 218/23

21 +2 C Swift 6 0 1 1 21.50 0 18.67 179 219/1

22 -- B Stansfield 5 0 1 1 18.60 0 26.00 175 223/4

23 -5 S Harrow 6 0 0 0 20.83 0 26.50 174 224/1

24 -- D Leckliter 6 0 0 1 19.67 0 25.50 167 231/7

25 +3 H Tsushima 4 0 0 1 15.75 1 20.75 154 244/13

26 +6 W Carmichael 6 0 0 0 22.33 0 23.33 149 249/5

27 -2 P Vaughn 6 0 1 1 24.67 0 33.50 147 251/2

28 +3 D Johnson 5 0 0 0 21.00 0 33.80 128 270/19

29 -2 J Sanders 6 0 0 0 25.00 0 21.00 126 272/2

30 -4 R Truro, Jr. 5 0 0 1 24.40 0 18.00 125 273/1

31 -1 R McKee 6 0 0 1 28.50 0 26.50 121 277/4

32 -3 N Prowse 3 0 0 1 15.67 0 21.00 118 280/3

33 +4 D Dent 5 0 0 0 23.80 0 36.40 107 291/11

34 +2 E Vance 6 0 0 0 27.00 0 8.50 99 299/8

35 -2 B Ward 3 0 0 0 17.00 0 31.00 94 304/5

36 -2 S Libra 2 0 1 1 18.00 0 8.50 92 306/2

37 -2 D Williams 6 0 0 0 28.17 0 37.67 92 306/0

38 +3 M McAllister 5 0 0 0 27.40 0 38.00 78 320/14

39 -- J Eichholtz 6 0 0 0 30.67 0 15.00 77 321/1

40 +2 Y Kunikida 4 0 0 0 26.25 0 26.50 76 322/1

41 -3 N Yazawa 2 0 0 0 15.50 1 20.00 73 325/3

42 -2 G Carter 2 0 0 1 21.50 0 29.50 68 330/5

43 -- E Jenkins 5 0 0 0 32.80 0 22.00 51 347/17

44 +4 G Hadaway 2 0 0 0 23.50 0 27.50 50 348/1

45 -1 S Peterson 2 0 0 0 26.50 0 35.50 40 358/10

46 +1 C Conway 3 0 0 0 29.67 0 10.00 40 358/0

47 -2 T Benatar 2 0 0 0 26.50 0 27.50 33 365/7

48 -2 N Balandier 1 0 0 0 17.00 0 32.00 30 368/3

Race Winner Atkins reveals words with Clagett after Pocono "were not nice"

Fan video footage has recently emerged of the words exchanged between Ben Atkins and Joey Clagett in the wake of their Pocono accident, which saw both cars eliminated after the race. Reports of Atkins applauding Clagett were confirmed, yet details about the event were hazy, although it was known there were no punches thrown, and that the confrontation was mostly verbal.

"Yeah, we definitely didn't have nice words," said Atkins, laughing, "It was a bit of the heat of the moment. I was annoyed because we had a good car and got in a wreck, made the GWC then wrecked again. I knew we had some tough races coming up and I marked Pocono as a chance to win. I was mad it didn't go that way, and clearly he was mad because his win went away."

"I made some pretty nasty jabs at him, but he was just talking himself up a lot. He really just wanted me to swing at him. I wasn't going to do that. He was trying to play the tough guy but it didn't phase me."

The video that came out later on confirmed Atkins' statement as truthful, while Clagett maintained on Twitter that Atkins was the main offender.

*Atkins applauds Clagett, prompting Clagett to walk over*

Clagett: What's that?

Atkins: I'm just saying well done, pal.

Clagett: Clever. I was racing for the win.

Atkins: About the only time you've done that. Third year with Kwik Fit?

Clagett: What's your deal anyway?

Atkins: I'm mad you tore up my car.

Clagett: Swing at me then. Settle this like men.

Atkins: *laughs* I'm not going to do that.

Clagett: Too pussy to do it?

Atkins: I'm not dumb, kid.

Clagett: You intimidated?

Atkins: You're like 5'8", why would I be intimidated?

Clagett: Fuckin' swing at me then!

Atkins: Nah, I'm good.

Clagett: I thought you were mad?

Atkins: I'm just kinda amused now, thanks for the cheer up.

Clagett: What's there to be amused about? You were mad a minute ago.

Atkins: Just thinking my girlfriend could probably beat you up makes me laugh.

Clagett: Fuck off, dude.

Riko Vance: Ben, come on.

Atkins: See you in 20th next week, bud.