The Reigning Series Champion Wins the Latest Nail-Biting Finish
Mazda MX-5 Cup Race 2 Provisional Results
Mazda MX-5 Cup Provisional Points
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Defending Idemitsu Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires champion Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) timed the final lap of Friday’s race perfectly and beat Thursday’s race winner, Tyler Gonzalez (No. 51 Copeland Motorsports), to the Daytona International Speedway finish line.
A full-course yellow with 15 minutes left in the race set up a one-lap dash to the checkered flag. Gonzalez led the field to the white-flag restart, but Thomas got the better of him exiting the Le Mans Chicane. The pair continued nose-to-tail around the final high-banked corners and Gonzalez waited until the last moment to jump out of the draft, but it wasn’t enough as Thomas took the win by 0.078 seconds.
Thomas takes home a generous $8,000 check from Mazda for the win but knowing that his 2022 championship season started with a Race 2 win at Daytona was the best part for the JTR team leader.
“Since we got our first win of 2022 in Race 2 at Daytona last year, I am extremely excited to start this season off with a bang again,” Thomas said. “I thought it was a great race, although there was a chance we weren’t going to go back green, but I knew with the two Hixon cars right behind me, I had to stay on the (No.) 51 (Gonzalez). They kind of got shuffled up behind us and it was just a two-car race, and I played my run in just the right time to be able to get Tyler blind, so that was super exciting.
“The money is nice, but to be honest I was not thinking about the cash, I just wanted to win no matter what. It is nice to win here; this is a place I grew up as a little kid watching the (Rolex) 24 and it was kind of the race I always idolized. The feeling of being on victory lane here now twice is very special.”
Unlike Thursday evening’s race that ran under green from flag-to-flag, Friday’s event saw the field slowed for two full-course caution periods. Traditionally, leading at Daytona on the final lap is not where you want to be to get the win, so Gonzalez knew his fate was probably sealed, but being able to break free from the rest of the pack at least guaranteed a podium finish to follow his win in Thursday’s opener.
“Unfortunately, there is not too much you can do when you are that lead car, but I am happy for Jared, I am happy for Copeland bringing home a first- and second-place finish this weekend. I think that is pretty good.”
2021 Mazda MX-5 Cup champion Gresham Wagner (No. 5 Spark Performance) benefitted tremendously from the late full-course yellow. A poor start saw Wagner drop 20th place before he started his climb to the podium. On the final restart, he went from 10th to third.
“I am just glad we were able to get that last lap in sitting P10 coming to the white flag,” Wagner said. “I knew I was finally up there where I could make something happen. Somehow, I always manage to get it done here at Daytona. I did not have the best race here yesterday finishing fifth, and I really wanted to get on the podium here, which is always the goal. After that race, I am pretty excited for a third; that is like a win.”
Wagner led a pack of 10 cars to the finish line. He was just 0.036 seconds ahead of Selin Rollan (No. 87 Hixon Motor Sports), who narrowly beat out Max Opalski (No. 2 Copeland Motorsports).
The latest Mazda MX-5 Cup Shootout Scholarship Winner, Nate Cicero (No. 83 McCumbee McAleer Racing) was the highest-finishing rookie in eighth place.
Mazda MX-5 Cup is back in action March 3-5 at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.