DeLorenzo returns to victory lane at Albany-Saratoga
 
MALTA – In years to come, records will show that Matt DeLorenzo started on the front row and led all 35 laps to win Friday's Law Enforcement Night modified feature at Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
 
What they probably won't show is that DeLorenzo wasn't driving his own car; that he got to the track late because he was watching his daughters' high school softball team win a league championship; or that a rare single-file restart late in the feature helped him hold off a determined charge from Mike Mahaney.
 
DeLorenzo, driving the car usually piloted by his KLG Racing/BBL teammate Brian Gleason, was flying from the start. By the fifth lap, he had a full straightaway lead, and some early cautions kept him out of heavy lapped traffic.
 
On each restart, he would line up inside, fire between the third and fourth turns and then charge right back to the top, which was his preferred line, going down the front straight.
 
They scenario played out on three different occasions. Then, on lap 22, at about the same time that DeLorenzo was finally catching the tail end of the field, Mahaney, who had started ninth, pulled off a wild slide job on Jack Speshock coming out of the fourth turn to take over the No. 2 position.
 
Two laps later, another caution came out when Kolby Schroder, who had chalked up his first career win at Albany-Saratoga two weeks ago, slid off the backstretch. That put Mahaney right next to DeLorenzo.
 
Rules at Albany-Saratoga state that all restarts are double file, unless a lap isn't completed on a restart. On the restart on lap 24, Robert Bublak Jr. spun between turns one and two before the leaders got back to the start-finish line, meaning the next restart would be single file.
 
So on the second restart, Mahaney was behind DeLorenzo instead of next to him, and that's where he stayed for the rest of the race.
 
"I just wanted to show Brian the old girl (Gleason's 3G car) could still win," said DeLorenzo, the 2022 modified champion at Albany-Saratoga who had a winless season in 2024. "It definitely helped to start up front.
 
The sportsman ran double features, with the first event being carried over from the April 25 rainout. Joey Scarborough chalked up his first win of the season in the first 25-lap feature, and Connor Crane held off a late charge by Tim Hartman Jr. to win the second feature.
 
Scarborough started fourth and only needed five laps to take the lead away from pole-sitter Chris Crane Jr. The race quickly turned into a follow-the-leader affair, with Scarborough, Crane Jr. and Derrick McGrew Jr., who had started third, all finishing in the top three.
 
The second sportsman feature, which paid $1,060 to win through sponsorship from DKM Fabrications, got off to an inauspicious start, when six cars piling up in the fourth turn on the third lap. When racing resumed, Drew Cormie, who had started on the front row, seemed to be in control, but a rash of restarts kept breaking his rhythm.
 
Connor Crane, who had started 25th and made steady progress by hugging the inside and taking advantage of the restarts, finally snatched the lead away from Cormie on lap 21, but this one was far from done.
 
Hartman, who had been running the extreme outside, took over the No. 2 spot with four laps to go, and kept trying to get big runs off the corners, only to have Crane drift up and block his path. On two consecutive laps, Hartman was banging on Crane's rear bumper and on the last lap, he went even higher in the fourth turn and attempted to cut to the inside and get under Crane, but he couldn't make the move stick and had to settle for second.
 
Zach Buff, who was also part of that wild battle in the final five laps, finished third.
 
358 MODIFIEDS: MATT DELORENZO, Mike Mahaney, Jack Speshock, Felix Roy, Demetrios Drellos, Adam Pierson, Peter Britten, Marc Johnson, Jessey Mueller, Neil Stratton, Justin Stone, Jack Lehner, Michael Trautschold, David Schilling, Don Ronca, Ronnie Johnson, Jeremy Pitts, James Meehan, CG Morey, Kolby Schroder, Derek Bornt, Josh Masterson, Tommy D'Angelo, Robert Bublak Jr., Rich Ronca, Todd Ryan, Brendan Darrah, Ryan McCartney, Brian Calabrese, Kris Vernold.
 
SPORTSMAN (CARRIED OVER FROM APRIL 25): JOEY SCARBOROUGH, Chris Crane Jr., Derrick McGrew Jr., Tim Hartman Jr., Dan Grignon, Elliot Lussier, Caleb Durgan, Craig Wholey, Michael Ballestero, Zach Buff, Dylan Madsen, Mike Benson, Michael Wagner-Fitzgerald, Jon Miller, Nick Brundige, Dave Baranowski, Connor Crane, Daryl Nutting, Nick Lussier, Owen Lewis, Cody Ochs, Scott Bennett Jr., Phil Arnold, Taylor Wason, Pat Jones, Scott Towslee, Bryce Breault, Drew Cormie.
 
SPORTSMAN (REGULAR FEATURE): CONNOR CRANE, Tim Hartman Jr., Zach Buff, Derrick McGrew Jr., Dylan Madsen, Drew Cormie, Bryce Breault, Chris Jakubiak, Joey Scarborough, Dave Baranowski, Pat Jones, Cody Ochs, Chad Gregory, Michael Ballestero, Phil Arnold, Chris Crane Jr., Owen Lewis, Taylor Wason, Michael Wagner-Fitzgerald, Scott Towslee, Jeff Washburn, Craig Wholey, Ron Proctor, Daryl Nutting, Tyler Rapp, Tanner Coon, Jon Miller, Josh Coonradt.
 
PRO STOCKS: PETE STEFANSKI, Brandon Emigh, Kim Duell, Rich Crane, Kyle Hoard, Devon Camenga, Jimmy Duncan, Jason Casey, Chucky Dumblewski, Jordan Modiano, Shane Henderson, Dean Charbonneau, Caden Dumblewski, Phil Difiglio, Pete Vila, Jay Casey, Chris Stalker, Joe Wilson, Slater Baker, Mike Baker, Jaxson Ryan, Josh Bussino.
 
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