Catchfence

IRWINDALE, Calif. – Auggie Vidovich captured his first career win in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West with a victory in the King Taco 200 at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night.

The 29-year-old Lakeside, Calif., driver, who was the 2003 champion in the former NASCAR Elite Division Southwest Tour, dominated the event after taking the lead on Lap 59. The victory marked a turnaround for Vidovich, whose best finish in his six previous series starts was 14th.

He charged from sixth on the grid and inherited the lead when Greg Pursley, who had won the Coors Light Pole Award earlier in the day, smacked the Turn 2 wall on Lap 42. Although Blake Koch took the lead on subsequent restart, Vidovich soon regained the top spot in his No. 59 babycancer.com / TCR Chevrolet and paced the field to the finish. He won by a margin of 6.029 seconds, giving car owner Terri Cass and the TCR team their first series win.

Koch wound up second, followed by Brett Thompson, Moses Smith and Chris Johnson. Jonathon Gomez, Timmy Hill, Dusty Davis, Luis Martinez Jr. and Eric Holmes rounded out the top 10. Brennan Newberry, making only his second regular season series start, was running second to Vidovich in the closing stages but stalled in Turn 1 with three laps to go.

“The car was all right,” Vidovich said of his winning entry. “Blake, I thought he was the one who was going to get me. I was driving my heart out. Then Newberry got in position and I didn’t see much out of him, so then I just rode. When he stalled, I had a big enough lead. It really didn’t matter I don’t think.”

Although it was his first series start at the half-mile Irwindale track, Vidovich had previous success there in winning the Elite Division portion of the 2005 NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown. By virtue of Saturday’s win, he secured a spot in the upcoming postseason NASCAR K&N Pro Series showcase.

The King Taco 200 will air on SPEED on Thursday, July 15 at 6 p.m. ET.

The next event on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West schedule is the Bi-Mart Salute to the Troops 125 at Portland (Ore.) International Raceway on July 18.

With his top-10 finish, Holmes extended his lead in the championship standings to 64 points. The two-time champion from Escalon, Calif., leads with 937 points. David Mayhew, who was sidelined Saturday with a 23rd-place finish due to engine problems, is second with 873 points. He is followed by Jonathon Gomez with 843, Smith with 836 and Paulie Harraka with 824. Rounding out the top 10 are Luis Martinez Jr., at 795, Koch at 793, Michael Self at 786, Todd Souza at 748 and Pursley at 745.

- NASCAR Press Release