Bristol 93

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Tempers flared at Bristol, a dominant performance unraveled in the closing laps, and Red Snapper Racing left with another trophy—but not with the driver who had spent most of the night looking destined to collect it. Brian Burchett emerged from a final-lap incident with teammate Chris Chavez Essary to win Race 3 of the AARN O’Reilly Series season. The No. 54 started 16th, led just one of the race’s 178 laps and finished 0.778 seconds ahead of Justin Hewitt, keeping Red Snapper Racing in Victory Lane for the second consecutive week. For Burchett, it was a breakthrough.

For Chavez Essary, it was a bitter ending to a race he had controlled for more than half the distance. The No. 21 led a race-high 95 laps and appeared positioned to follow its Gateway victory with another win. Instead, two late incidents—first with a lapped car, then with Burchett on the final lap—changed the outcome. The team still won, but the route to that victory left Bristol with a very different feel from RSR’s successful debut one week earlier.

Chavez Essary had done much of the heavy lifting. Starting fifth, he worked to the front and became the central figure in a caution-filled race that repeatedly forced the field back into close-quarters battles. Tyler Wagner led 45 laps, Alan Warneke led 21 and Shane Morris paced 16, but nobody matched the amount of time the No. 21 spent in control. The speed was there.

So was the opportunity to win again. What disappeared was the margin for error. Contact with a lapped car disrupted Chavez Essary’s closing run and complicated a race that had been going his way. Then came the final-lap collision with his own teammate.

In an instant, the battle for another RSR victory became a tangled finish between the No. 21 and No. 54. Burchett came out of it with the win. Chavez Essary was scored sixth, one lap down. For the No. 21, sixth place did little to reflect how much of the race it had controlled.

The bonuses for leading and leading the most laps still produced a 40-point night, but they could not replace the victory that had been within reach. Burchett’s evening followed the opposite path. He began deep in the field and finished ahead of everyone, gaining 15 positions and collecting 45 points. His only lap led was the last one, with bonuses for leading and winning completing the biggest points haul of the event.

That is the contrast Bristol left behind: one RSR driver led 95 laps and lost the race; another led one and won it. Hewitt nearly became the beneficiary of the late trouble himself. The No. 24 started 11th, climbed to second and crossed the line less than eight-tenths behind Burchett. Hewitt never led, but he completed the full distance and earned 42 points for the runner-up finish.

It was his first podium of the season and lifted him six positions to sixth in the championship standings. Gary May completed the podium in third, 5.041 seconds behind the winner. His Wagner Brothers Racing teammate Tyler Wagner finished fourth after starting from the pole and leading 45 laps. Both left with 41 points.

May earned his total through the third-place finish, while Wagner added a lap-led bonus to his fourth-place result. That left the teammates tied for second in the championship with 101 points apiece, only six behind the new leader. Morris rounded out the top five for Lucky Dog Racing after spending 16 laps out front. He was the first driver scored one lap down, illustrating how much the race had spread out despite the repeated cautions.

Only Burchett, Hewitt, May and Wagner completed all 178 laps. David Harrah added a seventh-place finish for RSR behind Chavez Essary, giving the organization three cars inside the top seven. Warneke finished eighth, while Ideal Racing teammates Charles Allen Jr. and Chuckie W. Allen completed the top 10 after starting 19th and 17th, respectively.

Warneke’s eighth-place result did not put him in the middle of the final-lap fight, but it delivered something equally valuable over the longer season: the championship lead. The No. 72 led 21 laps and recorded the fastest lap of the race at 15.339 seconds, earning two bonuses and 38 total points. Warneke now leads the standings with 107, moving ahead of Aaron Gerwitz, who did not start at Bristol and received 22 points in the posted results. Warneke has finished inside the top 10 in all three races, including two top-five finishes.

He has yet to win, but his consistent scoring has placed him ahead of a field that has already seen considerable movement. Behind Warneke and the tied Wagner Brothers Racing pair, Gerwitz sits fourth with 96 points. Morris holds fifth at 91, followed by Hewitt at 88 and Charles Allen Jr. at 87. Chavez Essary climbed to eighth with 84, Joseph Essenberg sits ninth with 81 and Daniel Dunaway completes the top 10 with 80.

Burchett’s victory moved him nine places higher to 13th with 77 points, 30 behind Warneke. For several other drivers, Bristol became an exercise in limiting the damage rather than building momentum. Dunaway’s race lasted only one lap, leaving him 18th in the results and dropping him five positions in the championship. Jason Thomas completed 53 laps and finished 15th, while Dave W.

Allen completed 52 and placed 16th. Robert Wyant finished 13th after completing 142 laps, and Michael Kurdziolek’s follow-up to his Gateway runner-up finish ended with 99 laps completed and 14th place. Those results underline how demanding the night became. A strong starting position offered no protection, and even sustained time at the front did not guarantee a representative finish.

Chavez Essary’s late trouble was the most visible example, but the effects reached well beyond the lead battle. For Red Snapper Racing, the overall result still continued an impressive introduction to AARN competition. Chavez Essary won at Gateway. Burchett won at Bristol.

Two appearances for the organization have produced two different winners. The team remains fourth in the championship with 234 points, only 11 behind Ideal Racing in third. Wagner Brothers Racing leads with 300, followed by Lucky Dog Racing at 257. Great Lakes Racing holds fifth with 81, ahead of Major Motorsports at 65.

There is plenty for RSR to build on. Burchett has a victory, Chavez Essary has shown the speed to contend every time out, and Harrah’s seventh-place finish added another solid result. But Bristol also demonstrated how quickly teammates can become direct rivals when the same checkered flag is within reach. The final lap will overshadow much of what came before it.

Chavez Essary led the most laps. Wagner spent a significant portion of the race in command. Hewitt charged into contention, and May collected a podium that helped put him within six points of the championship lead. Yet the defining moment came between two cars from the same organization.

Tempers flared. Contact changed the winner. And a race the No. 21 had spent 95 laps controlling ended with the No. 54 in Victory Lane. Brian Burchett led only one lap at Bristol.

It was enough to keep Red Snapper Racing’s winning streak alive—and leave plenty to talk about before Race 4. The AARN O’Reilly Series is supported by Tier One Setups. Use code AARN for 10% off setup purchases.