“Towards the end there, the car was getting looser and looser and I tell you, we ran it into the corners so hard I couldn’t believe it stuck and somehow I got ahead,” Egan stated from victory lane, “My spotter told me I really had to pedal because (Mueller) was coming and I was giving it all I had, I didn’t have anything left.”

Tommy Pecaro paced the opening laps before Scott Schoeni took command of the race by lap five, bringing Fred Winn along with him into second place as Pecaro fell into the clutches of Egan, Conrad Morgan, and Mueller in a scrape for third. The yellow flag waved on lap 12 for a tangle between Austin Luedtke and Tommy Hromadka in turn four and during the caution period, championship point leader Lowell Bennett exited the speedway with mechanical issues and retired from the event. Schoeni maintained the lead on the restart as Winn’s car washed wide in between turns one and two, enabling Egan to fill the gap and challenge Schoeni for the lead while Morgan, Pecaro, Steve Apel, and Mueller advanced forward as well. Egan began to pressure Schoeni for the lead, diving to the inside off turn two to take over the top spot on lap 19. With Egan out front, Schoeni began to have his hands full with Morgan, Mueller, and Apel as the three of them tracked him down in a battle for second. Just past the halfway mark, Morgan and Mueller worked their way around Schoeni on the inside to move into second and third respectively as Egan continued to lead. Behind the lead battle, Dennis Prunty and Jeremy Lepak found themselves in an intense struggle for the eighth spot as Prunty sliced in front of Lepak entering turn three and upon exiting turn four, the two found themselves side by side with Lepak on the inside and Prunty in the high line. After two laps of extremely hard racing with some minor door contact, Prunty found himself in the frontstretch wall when the gap between it and Lepak’s car narrowed off turn four, drawing another caution flag. Egan fired his car hard into the corner on the restart and it stuck on the inside line, enabling him to hang onto the lead as Mueller pulled alongside Morgan to hash out second.

“I guess Lowell Bennett blew an engine and I ran the outside of the 16 car (Steve Apel) for a long time and then I had to start on the inside of Conrad Morgan, “Prunty said, reviewing the exciting race from victory lane, “man his car has got some horsepower and it was tough holding him off, I drove my ass off.”

Bennett appeared to have the race in hand as the laps wound down, setting sail to a commanding lead over Apel, Prunty, and Morgan when suddenly his car came to an abrupt stop in turn one with eleven laps to go, belching smoke and flames as the power plant appeared to come unglued. With the current track point leader sent to the pits, Apel took over the top spot for the restart, choosing the inside lane to take the green flag with Prunty lined up to his outside. Apel and Prunty headed into turn one nearly even as racing resumed and the two raced door to door for the lead with neither able to gain any advantage while behind them Scott Schoeni and Conrad Morgan staged their own battle for third. Prunty edged ahead slightly on the outside entering turn one on lap 56 while Apel’s car slid loose as he entered the corner and looped around in turn two to produce the caution flag with just four laps remaining, setting up a shoot-out to the finish between Prunty, Morgan, Schoeni, and Egan. Prunty chose the inside lane for the restart but as the field came up to speed, Morgan held his ground on the outside and once again an intense side by side battle for the lead ensued, this time between Prunty and Morgan. The two took the white flag in a dead heat and Prunty held a minute advantage on the exit of turn two, however Morgan shot ahead by a few inches as they entered turn three. Prunty was able to get a bit of a run exiting turn four which was enough to just spurt ahead at the stripe to take the win by less than a car length over Morgan.

“With five laps to go when I was on the outside of Dennis (Prunty), I thought I could beat him, “Morgan stated after coming up just a half car-length short of the victory, “I think our car was as good as anybody’s at the end, it’s just a little bit rougher to try beat somebody like from the outside with five laps left.”

Mike Egan took the checkered flag in third place and had a front row seat for the spectacular finish as the battle for the win played out in his windshield.

“I’ve got to tell you, they were going at it,” Egan said afterwards, “I’ve never seen two guys race so hard in my whole life.”