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Derek Kraus gets lead and stays out front to win K&N opener

K&N Pro Series West Series driver Derek Kraus made a daring pass for lead and held on after a late caution to pick up his seventh career win.

Tim Southers

Edited: Feb 12, 2019, 3:21 PM

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Race winner Derek Kraus

Derek Kraus, BMR

Derek Kraus gets lead and stays out front to win K&N opener

K&N Pro Series West Series driver Derek Kraus made a daring pass for lead and held on after a late caution to pick up his seventh career win.

Derek Kraus took advantage of Colin Garrett and Ty Gibbs bumping each other while racing for the lead on Lap 134 and took the top spot for himself and held on for the victory.

The sixth and final caution of the race flew when Brittany Zimora spun in Turn 1, setting up the 10-lap dash to the finish.

Gibbs held on for second with Brandon McReynolds placing third. Sam was Mayer fourth and Anthony Segi rounded out the top five.

“It’s a really good car BMR brought me here, but we struggled a lot to be honest during practice and we didn’t get to do our moch runs,” said Kraus. “We had to start the race deep in the field but once the race started I knew we had a pretty good car underneath me.”

Kraus, who won four times last season driving for Bill McAnally Racing, started the race 16th after qualifying was washed out on Sunday and the rain also postponed the race until Monday night.

Kraus made his way through the field and was fourth at the last break of the race on Lap 125 of the 175-lap event. Having to work his way through the field and save his equipment was important to Kraus whl credited his spotter for helping him throughout the first half of the race.

“It helps to have someone good like (spotter) Freddie (Kraft) in my ear every lap telling me to not burn the right rear of this thing (car). We had a plan to come in on the front break and stayed out the second break. Track position is big here and it’s pretty tough to pass, but if you have a good turning car like I did it’s easier (to pass).”

Hailie Deegan started the race from the pole position after the starting lineup was set per the NASCAR rule book but she quickly fell back, allowing Chase Cabre to take the lead by Lap 7.

Cabre remained out from until Drew Dollar passed for the lead on Lap 13. Cabre retook the lead once more but fell out of contention with rear end problems on his car ending his chance for the win.

Dollar got back to the point where he remained until Garrett took the lead and eventually lost it with his door-bagging battle with Gibbs allowing Kraus to the lead for the remainder of the race.

The K&N Pro Series East will return to the track in early April when they visit Bristol Motor Speedway for the first of two races there this season on April 6th.

Race Results

Fin St # Driver Sponsor / Owner Car Laps Status Led Pts 1 16 Derek Kraus NAPA Auto Parts / Curb Records (Mike Curb) Toyota 175 2 17 Ty Gibbs * Joe Gibbs Racing / Arai Helmets (David Gilliland) Toyota 175 1.058 3 74 Brandon McReynolds The Reichert Group (Marie Benevento-Visconti) Chevrolet 175 2.066 4 21 Sam Mayer * Chevy Accessosries (Maury Gallagher) Chevrolet 175 2.708 5 20 Anthony Sergi * MJS Concrete (Ben Kennedy) Toyota 175 4.037 6 18 Colin Garrett * Emry's (Sam Hunt) Toyota 175 4.765 7 82 Spencer Davis All Pro Tower Sealants Ford 175 5.994 8 6 Ruben Garcia UTI-NTI / Max Siegel, Inc (Max Siegel) Toyota 175 6.970 9 54 Drew Dollar SRI Performance / Dollar Concrete (James LaMastus) Toyota 175 7.623 10 31 Connor Hall * Viking Yachts (Ted Marsh) Chevrolet 175 7.871 11 1 Max McLaughlin * Mohawk NE / Textron (Shigeaki Hattori) Toyota 175 9.542 12 15 Tanner Gray * Gray Motorsport / Valvoine / Durst (David Gilliland) Toyota 175 10.101 13 22 Brandon Oakley Oakley Blacktop / Duncan Oil (Thomas Oakley) Chevrolet 175 10.688 14 24 Mason Diaz * Friends of Jaclyn Foundation (Michael Diaz) Ford 170 5 Laps 15 99 Brittney Zamora * NAPA Filtern / ENEOS (Bill McAnally) Toyota 156 19 Laps 16 19 Hailie Deegan Monster / NAPA Power Premium Plus (Bill McAnally) Toyota 127 48 Laps 17 4 Chase Cabre Honda Generators / E3 Spark Plugs (Max Siegel) Toyota 77 98 Laps 18 5 Juan Manuel Gonzales ToughBuilt / Illux (Carlos Crespo) Toyota 65 110 Laps 19 87 Charles Buchanan Spring Drug (Charles Buchanan) Chevrolet 20 155 Laps

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