ABBOTTSTOWN
 Cody Darrah has been knocking on the door all season long.

 But the young Red Lion stud hasn’t been able to find the winning touch.

 But in Saturday night’s 30-lap Keystone Cup event at Lincoln Speedway, Darrah had all the right moves in capturing his first win of the season as he drove to an impressive win.

 Darrah started fourth and made a daring move on the 10th lap to steal the lead from Stevie Smith and then had to work his way through heavy lapped traffic before earning the big $5,000 payday for his fourth career win at Lincoln.

 “With Stevie out there and to get the lead early was making me nervous,” said Darrah, whose win was the first with new crew chief Steve Suchy. “All I gotta do is tell myself to calm down and keep the wheels under me, let these shocks and these motors do its job. This Maxim was really working good tonight.”

 Smith, the winner of the last two Keystone Cup events, took the lead on lap one with a bold move coming off turn four, passing Alan Krimes and Doug Esh.

 Smith set sail out front over Krimes as Darrah moved into third on lap three.

 With Smith using the high groove and Krimes running low, Smith moved to the low groove on lap nine allowing Darrah to blast around the outside of both him and Krimes to lead lap 10.

 Once in front, Darrah drove away in the Darrah Motorsports, J & K Salvage, Eichelberger’s U-Pull-It No 89 and the race was for the runner-up spot.

 And what a race it was!

 Krimes kept Smith at bay while Esh, Fred Rahmer and Brian Montieth all battled close, at times running four-wide in the turns.

 But it was all Darrah who was working through heavy lapped traffic despite contact with the lapped car of Keith Kauffman, was able to take the checkered flag by nearly five seconds.

 “Steve (Suchy) and the crew are doing any awesome job on this thing and they put the car under me every week,” Darrah added. “It’s nice to finally get one for them. It was tough with Krimes on the bottom and Stevie up high, there wasn’t much room but we did it. Racing here at Lincoln is just awesome. Whether you’re leading, racing back further or in lapped traffic, there is always something going on.”

 Smith, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma was able to get around Krimes late in the race to finish in the runner-up spot with Krimes, of Denver third, Esh of Lancaster fourth and Salfordville’s Rahmer fifth.

 Montieth, Adam Wilt, Brian Leppo, Mark Smith and Niki Young completed the top 10 finishers.

 With his runner-up finish, Smith maintained his big Keystone Cup points lead with two races remaining at Selinsgrove and Port Royal. He had 671 points as Darrah moved into second with 493 points, Rahmer (461), Esh (444) and Mark Smith (439) the top five spots.

 Brian Montieth came out on top of the makeup 25-lap 410 Sprint car feature that was rained out last Saturday night.

 Montieth started third in the field and took the lead on lap five.

 Darrah started ninth and actually passed Darrah for the top spot on lap 20 but when Chad Trout spun, the pass was negated giving Montieth the lead.

 Rahmer was able to get Darrah on the restart but couldn’t close in on Montieth, who took his 12th career feature win over Rahmer, Darrah, Brent Marks, Esh, Josh Wells, Chris Knopp, Cris Eash, Krimes and Cory Haas.

 Duane Watson captured his third win of the year in the 20-lap thundercar feature over Danny Beard, Todd Miller, Scott Yount and Rick Weaver.


PIT STOPS…Greg Hodnett’s night ended during his time trial lap when he got into the first turn wall and flipped. The car suffered severe damage and the J & S Fabrication team headed back to the shop…Doug Dodson and Chad Trout also flipped in turn one during their heat races…Lincoln had a big crowd for the fourth night of the KC series…Lincoln returns next Saturday night with 410 Sprints, 358 Sprints and Legends at 7pm. There will also be fireworks on the program…