Rico Abreu powers to victory in Skagit Nationals opener
Photo by HighLimit Racing
ALGER, Wash.—The #24 team is the undisputed team to beat when they roll in the gates at the Burlington, Washington oval right now - having won three-in-a-row and four of their last six at the track after they took Thursday's opening night of the 2025 Skagit Nationals.
Coming from the seventh starting spot for his seventh win of the year, Abreu had to work even harder than originally planned as he was sitting 10th when the first restart fired off on Lap 5.
Charging to his 14th overall win of the season, Abreu's machine came to life in the later stages of the race and he really turned up the wick past halfway. On Lap 16, he was running 5th. He was 4th the next lap, then 3rd the lap after that. It only took another three laps to fly into 2nd. Then he romped his way to the lead by Lap 26 and never looked back.
Abreu's 19th career win with Kubota High Limit Racing stretches his advantage as the winningest driver in series history. A strong performance from start-to-finish also gave him 486 points in the Skagit Nationals format, making him the early high point man after the first of two preliminary programs.
He's on the hunt for one of the four coveted lock-in positions to Saturday's Dash in the $126,000-to-win finale.
After leading laps 15-25, Justin Peck came home with a runner-up finish aboard the Rudeen Racing, Rayce Rudeen Foundation #26 in a home race for the team owned by track promoter, Kevin Rudeen.
Rounding out the podium was local star Colton Heath from down the road in Marysville, Washington. Driving Mike Brown's #1C, Heath led the opening 14 laps on Thursday and gave both Peck & Abreu a challenge as they passed him. He still held on for a career-best podium finish with Kubota High Limit Racing.
Closing out the top-10 on Thursday at Skagit was Tanner Thorson, Daison Pursley, Justin Sanders, Tanner Holmes, Cory Eliason, Colin Mackey, and Dominic Scelzi.
After a Heat Race crash forced him to the B-Main, Justin Sanders salvaged his night with a big 21st-to-6th charge in the A-Main. That success, coupled with Brad Sweet's struggles, allowed the Ridge & Sons Racing #87 to reclaim the championship lead by a single-point over the Kasey Kahne Racing #49.
THE ALL-IN NOTEBOOK (8/28/25)
Skagit Speedway (Burlington, WA)
Dirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps - Brad Sweet (11.088)
Capitol Renegade QuickTime - Daison Pursley (10.923)
TJ Forged Heat One Winner - Colin Mackey
DMI Heat Two Winner - Danny Sams III
BR Motorsports Heat Three Winner - Chase Randall
Rod End Supply Heat Four Winner - Daryn Pittman
Winters Performance B-Main Winner - Justin Sanders
Jake's Golf Carts Fastest Lap Award - Rico Abreu (11.760)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger - Justin Sanders +15 (21st-to-6th)
Lap Leaders - Colton Heath 1-14; Justin Peck 15-25; Rico Abreu 26-30
Kubota A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 24-Rico Abreu[7]; 2. 26-Justin Peck[4]; 3. 1C-Colton Heath[1]; 4. 88-Tanner Thorson[3]; 5. 13-Daison Pursley[8]; 6. 87-Justin Sanders[21]; 7. 18T-Tanner Holmes[13]; 8. 45-Cory Eliason[6]; 9. 7O-Colin Mackey[9]; 10. 55XL-Dominic Scelzi[11]; 11. 2XM-Max Mittry[5]; 12. 14-Daryn Pittman[17]; 13. 9-Chase Randall[15]; 14. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi[20]; 15. 19-Brent Marks[24]; 16. 42-Sye Lynch[14]; 17. 49-Brad Sweet[23]; 18. 24D-Danny Sams III[10]; 19. 5-Brenham Crouch[12]; 20. 18-Jason Solwold[2]; 21. 95-Justin Youngquist[16]; 22. 21P-Robbie Price[19]; 23. 13L-Tyler Thompson[22]; 24. 26F-Eric Fisher[18]
Winters Performance B Feature (12 Laps): 1. 87-Justin Sanders[1]; 2. 13L-Tyler Thompson[2]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet[4]; 4. 19-Brent Marks[5]; 5. 21-James McFadden[10]; 6. 2K-Gauge Garcia[9]; 7. 21L-Landon Brooks[6]; 8. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt[7]; 9. 91-Chase Goetz[11]; 10. F1-Levi Klatt[19]; 11. 27C-Camden Robustelli[8]; 12. 17-Cam Smith[14]; 13. 29K-Levi Kuntz[18]; 14. 21W-Jake Wheeler[13]; 15. 9G-Greg Otis[17]; 16. 55-Trey Starks[3]; 17. 1M-Mike Brown[15]; 18. 95R-Dan Reynold[16]; 19. 19JR-Joel Myers Jr[12]
TJ Forged Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 7O-Colin Mackey[2]; 2. 18T-Tanner Holmes[1]; 3. 1C-Colton Heath[3]; 4. 13-Daison Pursley[6]; 5. 26F-Eric Fisher[7]; 6. 2K-Gauge Garcia[8]; 7. 19-Brent Marks[4]; 8. 55-Trey Starks[5]; 9. 9G-Greg Otis[10]; 10. 17-Cam Smith[9]
DMI Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 24D-Danny Sams III[2]; 2. 95-Justin Youngquist[1]; 3. 26-Justin Peck[4]; 4. 55XL-Dominic Scelzi[3]; 5. 24-Rico Abreu[6]; 6. 21-James McFadden[8]; 7. 13L-Tyler Thompson[5]; 8. 27C-Camden Robustelli[7]; 9. 29K-Levi Kuntz[10]; 10. 95R-Dan Reynold[9]
BR Motorsports Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 9-Chase Randall[1]; 2. 5-Brenham Crouch[2]; 3. 18-Jason Solwold[4]; 4. 45-Cory Eliason[5]; 5. 21P-Robbie Price[7]; 6. 87-Justin Sanders[6]; 7. 21W-Jake Wheeler[9]; 8. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt[3]; 9. 19JR-Joel Myers Jr[8]; 10. F1-Levi Klatt[10]
Rod End Supply Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 14-Daryn Pittman[1]; 2. 88-Tanner Thorson[4]; 3. 42-Sye Lynch[2]; 4. 2XM-Max Mittry[5]; 5. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi[7]; 6. 21L-Landon Brooks[3]; 7. 91-Chase Goetz[8]; 8. 1M-Mike Brown[9]; 9. 49-Brad Sweet[6]
Capital Custom Trailers Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 13-Daison Pursley, 00:10.923[3]; 2. 24-Rico Abreu, 00:10.965[18]; 3. 87-Justin Sanders, 00:10.986[36]; 4. 49-Brad Sweet, 00:11.004[31]; 5. 55-Trey Starks, 00:11.105[10]; 6. 13L-Tyler Thompson, 00:11.114[2]; 7. 45-Cory Eliason, 00:11.136[6]; 8. 2XM-Max Mittry, 00:11.139[21]; 9. 19-Brent Marks, 00:11.153[28]; 10. 26-Justin Peck, 00:11.187[35]; 11. 18-Jason Solwold, 00:11.194[37]; 12. 88-Tanner Thorson, 00:11.204[30]; 13. 1C-Colton Heath, 00:11.215[1]; 14. 55XL-Dominic Scelzi, 00:11.222[19]; 15. 21S-Jesse Schlotfeldt, 00:11.254[27]; 16. 21L-Landon Brooks, 00:11.257[4]; 17. 7O-Colin Mackey, 00:11.272[13]; 18. 24D-Danny Sams III, 00:11.279[24]; 19. 5-Brenham Crouch, 00:11.300[26]; 20. 42-Sye Lynch, 00:11.301[34]; 21. 18T-Tanner Holmes, 00:11.315[38]; 22. 95-Justin Youngquist, 00:11.333[7]; 23. 9-Chase Randall, 00:11.342[25]; 24. 14-Daryn Pittman, 00:11.352[22]; 25. 26F-Eric Fisher, 00:11.364[17]; 26. 27C-Camden Robustelli, 00:11.369[39]; 27. 21P-Robbie Price, 00:11.387[8]; 28. 7BC-Giovanni Scelzi, 00:11.426[9]; 29. 2K-Gauge Garcia, 00:11.430[29]; 30. 21-James McFadden, 00:11.474[11]; 31. 19JR-Joel Myers Jr, 00:11.493[5]; 32. 91-Chase Goetz, 00:11.562[33]; 33. 17-Cam Smith, 00:11.587[23]; 34. 95R-Dan Reynold, 00:11.640[20]; 35. 21W-Jake Wheeler, 00:11.702[16]; 36. 1M-Mike Brown, 00:11.729[32]; 37. 9G-Greg Otis, 00:11.903[15]; 38. 29K-Levi Kuntz, 00:11.907[14]; 39. F1-Levi Klatt, 55:55.555[12]
NEW 2025 Kubota High Limit Racing Championship Standings (After 34/51 Races):
1 Ridge & Sons Racing #87 (1,847 PTS...-)
2 Kasey Kahne Racing #49 (1,846 PTS... -1)
3 Clauson-Marshall Racing #7BC (1,821 PTS... -26)
4 Rico Abreu Racing #24 (1,809 PTS... -38)
5 Murray-Marks Motorsports #19 (1,744 PTS... -103)
6 Rod Gross Motorsports #88 (1,648 PTS... -199)
7 Rudeen Racing #26 (1,638 PTS... -209)
8 Buch Motorsports #13 (1,421 PTS... -426)
9 Jason Meyers Racing #14 (1,402 PTS... -445)
10 Chase Randall Racing #9R (1,295 PTS... -552)
11 CJB Motorsports #5 (1,259 PTS... -588)
12 Mosites Lynch Racing #42 (1,232 PTS... -615)
13 Randerson Racing #24D (1,083 PTS... -764)
Skagit Nationals Points After Night One (Top-4 After Friday Lock-In):
1 Rico Abreu (486)
2 Daison Pursley (483)
3 Justin Peck (474)
4 Justin Sanders (471)
5 Tanner Thorson (469)
6 Colton Heath (466)
7 Cory Eliason (465)
8 Max Mittry (457)
9 Colin Mackey (452)
10 Dominic Scelzi (447)
UP NEXT: The Skagit Nationals rolls on with the second preliminary night on Friday, August 29 with an elevated $20,000-to-win, $2,000-to-start show. after that, the points will be totaled and set the stage for Saturday's $126,000-to-win finale at Washington's Skagit Speedway. Fans can buy tickets at HighLimitRacing.com.
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