LAKE CITY, Fla. — NASCAR racer Tyler Nicely tasted sweet victory at the North Florida Speedway when he won his Heat Race.
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It was a close call as Nicely did not get the lead until the final laps. Outside polesitter Jason Garver swiped the lead from Nicely when the green dropped and held tight to it until Lucas Lee bested him on a Lap 7 restart. With Lee now in command of the field, Garver began to slip back into the clutches of Nicely.
Then came a turning-point restart on Lap 17, when Nicely fired-off well and maintained pace with leader Lee. With Nicely inching Lee in every lap, Lee decided to stay about a half-groove higher than the very bottom of the track, where Nicely was running. Nicely saw this and took his shot with three-to-go, getting under him out of Turn 2, drawing even with Lee’s #12 into Turn 3 and prying the spot away from him at the exit of Turn 4.
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“On those restarts I’d get shuffled back, and finally we got a couple laps run and I was able to get underneath Lucas, and it was a good, clean race,” Nicely said.
“I thought as long as I could keep my speed up, [I’d be fine],” Lee said. “I didn’t think he was coming. My [signal] guy gave me a lead, and then it closed-up, and I knew I was a sitting duck.”
The DIRTcar UMP Modified Winternationals action continues at North Florida Speedway Sunday. Follow along on the DIRTcar Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages for all the latest updates and content.
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