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| Mid Ohio Race Notes: Chris Gleason |
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Gleason had no such trouble, however, and he was clear up to fifth place when the first full-course caution waved on lap 13 to get Jason Workman's car out of a gravel trap. Gleason pitted two laps later under that yellow and Auberlen, of Redondo Beach, Calif., took over.
After the stop Auberlen was shown in 26th position on lap 17, but he was ready to start his charge when the green waved again on lap 21 while he was in 22nd position. He passed seven cars in three laps to move into 15th place by lap 24, and two more to boot on the following circuit.
He was up to seventh on lap 30 but a few seconds later he spun in the final turn and dropped back to 14th place. Shaking that off he once again started to pick off cars, and he was back to 11th by lap 33.
A multi-car flip slowed things down but Auberlen kept to his work, and by lap
56 he was all the way up to fourth. Things got even more interesting then as Spencer Pumpelly, Stanton, Wayne Nonnamaker, Auberlen and Patrick Long were all duking it out for the front-running spots.
With about a half-hour of the two-hour-and-30-minute race left Auberlen passed Nonnamaker for third place on lap 60 and then got by Pumpelly for second on the next lap. Less than two-tenths of a second separated him from the leader at that time, Stanton, and on lap 62 Auberlen passed Stanton in turn four for the lead.
There was still some drama left, however, as Stanton got by Auberlen on a restart on lap 70 with about 13 minutes left in the race. Auberlen immediately passed him back, and although Stanton kept the pressure up another full-course yellow waved on lap 74 and Auberlen was home free when the race ended under yellow.
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