Story By: CAMDEN PROUD / OSWEGO SPEEDWAY – OSWEGO, NY – Josh Sokolic triumphed in last week’s 25-lap J&S Paving 350 Supermodified main event presented by JP Jewelers at Oswego Speedway. Starting from the seventh position, Sokolic utilized a late restart to overtake pole sitter Nick Barzee with just four laps remaining.
The race began with intense action among the front starters. Barzee, Brendan Young, and Kyle Perry nearly went three-wide at the drop of the green flag, with Barzee taking the early lead and Perry slipping underneath Young for second. A yellow flag flew before the completion of the first lap due to a spin by Dawson Hawksby, which also collected Barry Kingsley. This incident led to an original restart, and the sequence of events repeated with Barzee leading, Perry into second, and Young in third.
Sokolic began his charge early, moving to fourth underneath Talen Hawksby and then quickly into third past Young before the second lap was complete. However, by that point, Barzee and Perry had already built a substantial gap from the rest of the field.
Dawson Hawksby, making his first start at just 14 years old, showed promise by holding off Sokolic after returning from the pits, but he spun with eight laps remaining, which bunched the field back up. On the restart, Barzee fended off Perry from the low lane, while Sokolic took advantage and moved into second.
Another restart with six laps to go saw Sokolic initially attempt a high-side pass on Barzee, but he quickly switched lanes, dove low, and made an exciting move coming into turn three with four laps to go to secure the lead. Sokolic held on to claim his second victory of the 2024 season, and expanded his points lead.
In victory lane, Sokolic commented, “We’ve had something wrong with this car since the heat race. It was really good in practice, but I don’t know what’s going on. Something kept snapping loose on the car. Maybe it’s a bolt or bracket loose or something, but we’ll figure it out this week. I knew I only had 2 or 3 laps after the restart to really just go hard before the car started getting wrecking loose on me. So, it was a good race with them. If the caution didn’t come out, I didn’t have anything for those guys, so we got lucky tonight. Sometimes you’d rather be lucky than good. I have to thank all my sponsors: All Weather Power Equipment, Lamptiques, Universal Windows Direct, Rugged Trailers, and everyone that puts money and work into this car to make it go fast around here.”
The 350 Supers return to action this Saturday, August 3rd with just two point events remaining before the Classic, featuring the 30-lap, $2,000-to-win Mr. J&S Paving 350 Super feature.
RESULTS
JP Jewelers Retro Night
J&S Paving 350 Super 25
Saturday, August 3, 2024
Oswego Speedway
Oswego, NY
Feature (25-laps): 1. 6 JOSH SOKOLIC, 2. 31 Nick Barzee, 3. 20 Kyle Perry, 4. 79 ® Talen Hawksby, 5. 75 ® Brendan Young, 6. 45 ® Dawson Hawksby, 7. 19 ® Bailey Groves, 8. 73 ® Noah Ratcliff, 9. 91 Barry Kingsley
Heat (10-laps): 1. 31 Nick Barzee, 2. 20 Kyle Perry, 3. 73 ® Noah Ratcliff, 4. 75 ® Brendan Young, 5. 79 ® Talen Hawksby, 6. 45 ® Dawson Hawksby, 7. 91 Barry Kingsley, 8. 19 ® Bailey Groves, 9. 6 Josh Sokolic
Lighthouse Lanes Up & Comer ($100 bonus to the highest finishing driver who has never won a feature at Oswego Speedway): #75 ® Brendan Young
D&S Landscaping Hard Charger ($25 bonus to the driver advancing the most positions): #6 Josh Sokolic