Joe Benedetti, of Auburn, WA, won the "Ray Judy 150" NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series season finale race Saturday in Tuscon, AZ.
Benedetti, this year's runner-up in the NASCAR Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series championship, started ninth in his first appearance at Tuscon Raceway Park in the Racecals/TSTR Pontiac. Driving a low line that few other cars could follow on the multiple-groove, three-eighths-mile oval, Benedetti advanced through the field and passed Southwest Series champion Craig Raudman for the lead on lap 49.
"This car was awesome on the bottom," said the 1999 Northwest Series Rookie of the Year. "I've been watching tapes of races at Tuscon and saw how most cars pass on the bottom, not high. We decided right away we were going to the bottom."
After building a lead that grew to as much as four seconds, a caution flag on lap 147 bunched up the field for a two-lap shootout involving Benedetti and fellow Northwest Series driver Ken Kaltschmidt, of Marion, MT. Benedetti got a good restart and held off Kaltschmidt's outside pass attempt coming out of turn four on the final lap to take the checkered flag. Southwest Series Rookie Eddie McKean, of Jerome, ID, finished third.
Zach Niessner, of Royal City, WA, won the Bud Pole, the first of his career, but retired after lap 27 with a blown engine.
