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Ryan Repko Saves Tires, Passes Craig Moore And Wins Throwback 276 At Hickory

by Hunter Thomas August 4, 2019 0 comments

HICKORY, N.C. – Ryan Repko passed Craig Moore in the closing laps of the CARS Late Model Stock Tour portion of the Throwback 276 to win at Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday night.

Repko, who started the 138-lap race in second, saved his tires to pass Moore with just under 30 laps to go to win the race and celebrate with NASCAR legend, Dave Marcis in Victory Lane. Repko has two starts this season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but on Saturday night, he noted that this was the biggest win of his career.

“I would say that’s the biggest one of my career,” Repko said. “Definitely the most memorable for sure. It’s just an honor to be able to honor Dave Marcis and run his throwback paint scheme. Winning here is special, there’s a lot of history at this place.”

Marcis, who was in attendance for the third edition of the throwback-themed event, was absolutely thrilled to see his No. 71 Realtree scheme in Victory Lane. Marcis celebrated with Repko by wearing an open-faced helmet during the Victory Lane celebration.

“It was fantastic,” Marcis said about seeing his old paint scheme in Victory Lane. “You couldn’t wish for anymore.”

Marcis was also very impressed with the CARS Tour’s car count and quality of racing throughout the weekend. He says that the racing fans witnessed on Saturday night at Hickory was very similar to the form of competition seen back in his days of racing in NASCAR’s premier series.

“Very nice,” Marcis said about the Throwback 276. “Very nice! You have a lot of nice race cars in the series. They had a nice field of race cars. They put on a really good show, so I think it’s good racing. Everybody raced really good and hard and clean, and that’s what you look for, and I think that’s what the fans enjoy. This is more like the racing used to be back when I was racing in the NASCAR Cup Series.”

As for Moore who came up just short of the win to finish second, he was disappointed in the result but very pleased of the effort considering that his car was built in only nine days.

“You don’t know how bad I wanted to get into Victory Lane and say ‘The Fastest Chicken in the South’,” Moore said. “That was the first race in this car. We only had about two hours of test time on it. I built the car in nine days myself. I got a helluva a crew that helps me out on race day.”

Moore led the majority of the race, but in the end, he said that his car was just way too free coming out of the corners by the end of the race. Moore doesn’t believe that he could’ve saved anymore tire.

“I’m telling you man, I was like, literally running about half throttle and just trying to save, save, save, and I just got too free off,” Moore said.

Bobby McCarty finished third, followed by Layne Riggs and Sammy Smith. Rounded out the top-10 was Josh Berry, Brandon Pierce, Brody Pope, Mike Darne and Deac McCaskill.

The next race on the schedule for the CARS Late Model Stock Tour is the Thrifty Tire-Puryear Tank Lines Mid Atlantic Classic at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, North Carolina on Saturday, August 24.