Irvan Outduels Staropoli in Deja Vu Finish at Citrus

The second straight win was enough for the 28 to overtake the 64 in the standings.

Late Models

Top

hero image for Irvan Outduels Staropoli in Deja Vu Finish at Citrus

Jared Irvan claimed both his second consecutive win and the track points lead on Saturday night at Citrus County Speedway in Inverness, Florida.

It was a perfect race for the second-generation racer, who posted the fastest speed in time trials and quickly overcame a four-car invert to lead the final 40 laps of the third race of the regular season. It was three second overall victory as the final 40 laps were contested without a caution.

It was the win that almost wasn't.

"The car was really good tonight," Irvan said in Victory Lane. "We actually blew a fuel pump up in practice and if it wasn't for another competitor lending us one, driving all the way to their shop to get it, we wouldn't be here right now.

"We still had a bit of a misfire at the start, we took all the restrictors out of it, hoped for the best and it worked out."

The No. 28, reminiscent of his father’s tenure in the Robert Yates Racing Cup Series program, was good in traffic and it needed to be. When he first took the lead from Kristin Clements, it required the bumper and lapped traffic wasn’t any kinder to Irvan on Saturday night.

"The car was easy to pass with," Irvan said. "It got off the corner well and that’s what you need here. Traffic was definitely a little eventful, but we made it through."

Irvan entered the race with a one-point deficit to Patrick Staropoli in the championship standings. Those standings will now get flipped after they reversed their results from the second race of the season on March 20.

"Jared had a great car so congratulations to him and their team," Staropoli said. "We worked on some things that I thought made us much better compared to last month. We had something come up with the left rear axle on the restarts. I couldn't get going and it made the restarts exciting.

"But once we got in clean air, Jared was flying so they had a really good car."

Making a rare start in a Super Late Model, Clements impressed with a podium and several laps led early in the night.

"It's just our second time here in a Super and we've only had a couple of starts in a truck," Clements said.

The 21-year-old showed the guile shown in Pro Trucks and Mini Stocks. She showed a willingness to be aggressive on restarts while also running clean smooth laps on extended green flag runs. It proved to be a solid podium against a competitive 16 car field.

With his win, Irvan is already looking ahead to a second straight championship at Inverness.

"That’s our ultimate goal this year," Irvan said. "Hopefully we can keep working towards that."

Citrus County Speedway
Super Late Model Race 3
April 16, 2022