Buffington Continues Dominance at NHMS
Loudon, NH — The Amsoil Nelcar Legends Tour was back in the granite state this past weekend, at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The last time the tour showed at the quarter mile, it was Shaun Buffington who dominated the event and took home the checkered flag. If Buffington wanted to continue his dominance, he’d have to beat out some of the best Legends Cars drivers in the North East.
On the pole for the first heat race was Buffington’s teammate, Tom Gray. The 399 of defending Nelcar champion Bob Weymouth started on the outside. The field took the green and Gray got the early lead. On lap three however, the 59 of Reid Lanpher spun in turn two, ending his day early. Once the field got back to green flag racing, it was all Gray at the front as he took the first heat win. Weymouth finished second while Nelcar rookie Ryan Hammar took third.
For the second heat race, it was Buffington on the pole with the 56 of Evan Beaulieu to his outside. While Buffington was able to get away on the start, the field strung out and he made it look easy with taking the second heat win. Beaulieu was second with the 33 of Alan Smith finishing third.
Next up was feature racing. Gray and Buffington were on the front row and as the field took the green flag, they showed their dominance right away. While Gray took the early lead, it wasn’t long before Buffington would make his way around and take the race lead. Buffington, Gray and Weymouth would pull away from the rest of the field. It was clean and green and Buffington made it look easy, as he took his third win of the season and continued his dominance in Nelcar. Gray finished second, with Weymouth rounding out the podium finishers. Beaulieu came back from a tech issue in the heat race that forced him to start at the rear, to finish fourth with the 17 of tour president Terry Kirk rounding out the top five.
With another strong performance, Weymouth stretched out his points lead to 30 points over Kirk. Next weekend, the Nelcar tour is back at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but this time they’re doing a little more than just turning left. The Tour will be running the mile and a half road course on Sunday, May 22nd as part of the 21st Annual Vintage Celebration weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It will sure to be exciting as many of the tour drivers are purely oval drivers and do not have much for road course experience. For more information, and how you can get into a Legends Car, visit Nelcar.net.
Sources: NHMS PR