"I have to thank Evan Avart and all the guys for giving me such a great car here tonight," East said from victory lane.  "The Ford engine was flawless all night long and that Beast chassis was hooked up.  We had a few close calls in lapped traffic and then those cautions let the guys catch up and that made me a little nervous, but the car didn't miss a beat all night long."

East's only real close call all evening long was when he threaded the needle through lapped traffic on the frontstretch near the halfway point, a move which brought the crowd to its feet.

"I had one guy waving me to go high, and the other guy waving for me to go low," East said.  "I didn't have a lot of time to think about it, I just put the car where it wanted to go and split them through the middle.  I don't know how close it looked from the grandstand but it was really close from my point of view."

East pulled away to lead by nearly a quarter lap at times in the middle stages of the event as the race went green from lap 26 through lap 90.  But a series of late-race caution flags put the pack on his tail for the final ten laps.  With second place Leffler behind several lapped cars on the first restart, East was able to build some breathing room but a second caution after Leffler cleared traffic put the second-place driver on his tail for a final two-lap dash to the finish.

"I knew the only chance he was going to have was on the restart, but we got a good jump and we able to hold him off," East said.  "I knew if I ran my race and didn't make any mistakes we'd be able to hold him off."