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Rico Abreu On A Hot Streak With Three Wins
Rutherford CA. March 10, 2014. After a successful first time trek to Florida that saw him make every feature event against top notch competition, Rico Abreu returned to the West Coast and immediately caught fire with three wins in five events. Driving the Abreu Vineyards number 24 wrenched by Paul Silva, Abreu took advantage of late mistakes by the race leading drivers each night of a two day affair in Yuma, Arizona as the American Sprint Car Series national tour began it’s 2014 season on February 28 and March 1. This past weekend the 22 year old placed a feather in his cap with a late race charge to pull away to another big win in the Silver Cup at Chico’s Silver Dollar Speedway’s season opener.
Following a second place finish in Tampa’s East Bay Raceway Park King of the 360 Nationals in his last night in Florida, Abreu and team headed west. With threatening weather all around Abreu dropped into Yuma’s Cocopah Speedway and came out with his first ASCS Lucas Oil presented by MAVTV feature win. Abreu lead the first 18 laps, only to lose the point to Roger Crockett when the Medford, Oregon found a line that propelled him to the front. However, after the lead duo took the white flag Crockett slid high in turn two and a surprised Abreu slipped by to take the $3,000 win.
“I thought he missed the bottom, but he thought the race was over,” said Abreu. “They throw that crossed flag before they throw the white. I just watched him. I didn’t know what was going on and snuck by him on the backstretch and made sure I hit my marks at the end”
The following night saw a two hour delay as weather again was a factor, but the moisture provided a great racing surface for the night’s Protect the Harvest 30 lap feature. After starting third Abreu stalked race long leader Christopher Bell, who ran inches from the fence as he raced away from the pole. Finally on lap 26 Bell jumped the cushion just enough to allow his teammate in Keith Kunz’ USAC midgets to slide by. Bell didn’t give up and drew close to Abreu, but had to settle for second. Abreu joined his jubilant crew as the Rutherford, California driver held the $10,000 check aloft in victory lane.
“The track just got so finesse there at the end,” said Abreu. “It was just right around the wall and the cushion was very demanding. Bell just made that one mistake. I was right there, so I just ran my own race. When I got to traffic I was sliding guys, really grinding my tires. Lappers were tough to get by but Paul Silva gave me a really great race car.”
Last Wednesday and Thursday Abreu joined up with the World of Outlaws as the touring group made their first stop out west at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. On the first night Abreu had his work cut out for himself as he missed the heat race inversion with a 22nd fast effort in qualifying. However, a heat race transfer placed Abreu 21st on the grid in the feature event, and he did not disappoint. Powering through the field with well-placed slide jobs Abreu closed the gap on the front runners, finally finishing a satisfying seventh camped on the tail of defending series champion Daryn Pittman, as Paul McMahan took the win. Abreu’s driving display was good enough to earn the event’s KSE Hard Charger Award.
On the final night Abreu managed to just make the heat race inversion, placing 16th in the order. He turned that into a crowd buzzing win in the heat race, with a last lap pass to get by Mark Dobmier. That produced a ticket to dash, where a ninth place finish resulted from 10th starting. Slipping in and out of the top 10 during the race, Abreu’s night finally ended in a late race multi-car shunt that he could not avoid, ending 22nd in the final rundown.
Initial plans had the Abreu Vineyards team doing an all-nighter from Vegas to make it to Chico in time for the Friday night opener of the two day Silver Cup. However, hauler issues delayed that plan, and the team rolled into the pits for the big payoff on Saturday night under threatening skies. Once there Abreu set fast time and took second in his heat to work his way into the 30 lap feature. Starting from the pole, things didn’t start out as planned. After only a handful of laps Abreu had fallen back to fourth, where he ran for most of the first two thirds of the race with sprinkles dropping. But on a late race restart Abreu powered around Justin Sanders and opening night victor Sean Becker to take over second. One lap later Abreu got by race long leader Andy Gregg to secure the top spot. From that point on Abreu quickly opened the gap and sped to his national leading third sprint car win, in a tie with USAC legend Dave Darland for the honor.
In victory lane Abreu thanked his crew for their efforts by saying, “People don’t know how much work goes on to get a car to the track. I’m really sorry we couldn’t get here for last night’s race, but Paul and Trevor Canales got everything done in time for us to make it here tonight. The track was pretty rough but it made the racing really good because it opened up ways to get by guys. I really want to thank the Silver Dollar track crew for getting the race in. They could have easily called it and people would have understood.”
Abreu’s racing efforts are sponsored by Abreu Vineyards, ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems, Stadelhofer Construction, FK Rod Ends, Schoenfeld Headers, Brown & Miller Plumbing, BR Motorsports, and All Star Performance.
Press Release: March 10, 2014
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