Rick Eckert emerged from the pack to score a dominating win and take the Bedford Speedway Keystone Cup Saturday night. The win along with the Labor Day 55 a few weeks ago gave Eckert a sweep of the two biggest races of the season at the track and rewarded Eckert with over $22,000 in his two appearances. It was Eckert’s second Bedford win of the year and his 24th Bedford win, fourth on the all time list.
With lightning in the distance and dire weather forecast, most in attendance were convinced that the race would not go the 60 lap distance, Ross Bailes brought the field to the green. but outside pole sitter Gregg Satterlee was up to the challenge, going side by side with Bailes the first three laps before emerging with the undisputed lead.
Bailes and Matt Cosner ran together in Satterlee’s wake until the first caution when Satterlee tangled with a lapped car on the front stretch. On the restart, Bailes seemed to be slower and Eckert slipped by for second. Cosner took third a few laps later, but the man on the move was Scott Bloomquist who was ripping through the field. Bloomquist came from 23rd to sixth by lap 15 and was still comming.
After a few quick cautions, the field went about ten green laps until Satterlee again tangled with a lapped car, this time finding Drake Troutman going hard into the wall on lap 29. The order on the restart was Satterlee, who received some body damage in the crash, followed by Eckert and Bloomquist.
Action was hot at the front on the restart as Eckert and Bloomquist went at it hard with Bloomquist actually taking second on lap 32. But that move served as a wake up call to Eckert who retook the spot a lap later, then attacked Satterlee. On lap 36, Eckert shot by Satterlee and never looked back. pulling out to win by over 16 seconds as the race went the last 25 laps all green.
Satterlee and Bloomquist ran the duration together but never traded positions as each seemed to slow in the later stages. Dylan Yoder who started 14th in the field ran that pair down late but ran out of laps and settled for finishing behind them.
Although few gave much chance of the event going all 60 laps with dire weather forecasts and lightning in the sky the race was completed with Eckert winning by over 16 seconds. Behind him it was Satterlee, Bloomquist, Yoder and Cosner completing the top five.. Ross Bailes who dominated the Friday qualifications suffered through some car issues late in the event and finished 11th.
As Eckert pulled up onto the famous Bedford stage for the victory celebration, the sky opened up and rain fell. postponing the other two scheduled evening events.
As a trivia point, back in 1988-89 the speedway had a string of 14 consecutive different winners until Eckert won and broke the string. In 2019 the string again formed, this time to 10 different winners, and again it was Eckert who broke it.
With the rain, the 2019 season and Keystone Cup weekend gets extended by a day as the Limited and Emod events will be run on Sunday.
LATE MODEL 60 LAPS 1 Rick Eckert, Gregg Satterlee, Scott Bloomquist, Dylan Yoder, Matt Cosner, Mason Zeigler, Jason Covert, Kyle Lee, Bryan Bernheisel, Trevor Feathers, Ross Bailes, Tyler Bare, Andy Haus, Mike Lupfer, Jerry Bard, Gary Stuhler, Chuck Clise, Matt Sponaugle, Jeff Rine, Chad Julius, Drake Troutman, Kyle Lear, John Wayne Weaver, Jaymie Beck, Jeff Johnson. DNS Ross Robinson. DNQ Tommy Beck, Ken Schiltebrand, Kadden Smith
