Jason Hathaway battles way to Hudco Electric Supply 300 win

Jason Hathaway would battle his way back to the front late in the race at Barrie Speedway to pass D.J. Kennington on lap 284 to win the Hudco Electric Supply 300. Hathaway had to survive a green-white-checkered finish to pick up his second victory of the season ahead of Kennington and J.R. Fitzpatrick.

“We had a really good race,” the driver of the No. 3 Snap-On Tools/Rockstar Energy Drink Dodge commented. “We led a bunch of laps. We had the best car and we won the race and that’s what we came here for.”

The caution flew with 30 laps to go for debris in turn one, it set up a final shootout to the checkered. The result was Hathaway, Fitzpatrick and Kennington all trading paint back and forth.

“He hammered on me pretty good,” Hathaway commented of Fitzpatrick. “I looked up and went, ‘Who is that guy?’ and it was J.R. so I knew not to take too much from it. He hit me pretty good a couple of times. Kennington and I got into each other a couple of times off of two there; pretty tight to get off of there. It’s alright. That’s why we’re here. It’s Barrie short track racing – you get after it.”

“I think none of us wanted to wreck each other,” Kennington commented. “It was just good hard racing. Jason came out on top; wish we would’ve. We’ll go get them at Kawartha.”

D.J. Kennington finished second to extend his points lead from three points to five points over Scott Steckly heading to the season finale in two weeks at Kawartha Speedway.

“In the big picture, we’re in good shape,” he commented. “The Castrol Edge team is vying for the championship here and hopefully we get it finished up at Kawartha.”

There was one point in racing where Kennington made slight contact with a lap car, though no harm no foul as both continued.

“These guys that you’re lapping are just having bad days and it’s up to you to get around them,” the driver of the No. 17 Castrol Edge Dodge commented. “I’ve been on the other end where I’ve been the lap traffic. It’s tough. It just makes it tougher with Barrie being a small place.”

J.R. Fitzpatrick finished third for his sixth top five of the season.

“Overall, it was a good day I guess,” the driver of the No. 84 Equipment Express Chevrolet said. “Track changed quite a bit from practice to the race. I was kind of good in practice so just let it alone not knowing what to expect. Then when we went out for the race, we were decent but not exactly where we want to be. We’ll take third for the year we’ve had, but not where we’d like to be.”

In speaking of the close racing at the end of the race, Fitzpatrick said that’s the way short track racing should be.

“Three guys that have a lot of respect for each other,” he added. “Obviously we each want to win the race so we beat and banged, it was good hard racing and nobody got wrecked and put on a good show.”

Helluva Good Pole Winner Scott Steckly finished fourth for his seventh top five of the season. Rookie Alex Guenette finished fifth.

Martin Roy finished sixth followed by Ryley Seibert, Mark Dilley, Ron Beauchamp Jr. and Joey McColm.

Last week’s race winner L.P. Dumoulin spent numerous laps behind the wall getting the rear end changed out of his Dodge after it went south. As a result, Dumoulin slips to fourth in points, 35 points behind Kennington.

Last year’s race winner Pete Shepherd was done on lap 41 after the ring gear went on his Dodge. Shepherd was looking for his third win of the season in his third start of the season.

NCATS Barrie 9/8/13 Results