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Vince Friese is in the midst of a stretch of top fifteen finishes, as he seems to have hit his mid season groove. He went out and qualified with the twentieth fastest time on the tough Indianapolis course. Not really where he wanted to be but his
confidence was glowing and he knew he could put it together when it mattered.
The heat race for Friese was one to forget. He couldn’t nail a signature good start and was outside the top ten early. He wasn’t really able to make moves and would end up finishing in ninth place.
Friese got out to a much better start in the semi. He was in third place out of the gate, would quickly get passed by Reed but would get around Pauli to get back into third. He tried to stay there but Barcia had something to say about that and worked right around him on the second lap. After falling to fourth, Friese settled in and looked to just ride to the finish but would end up crashing all by himself in the whoops with one turn to go on the final lap. He lost five spots and was forced to try his luck in the LCQ.
He flew out to the holeshot in the LCQ but was quickly passed by Jeff Alessi. Friese quickly regrouped and got around but Peick also came charging through keeping him in the second place position. Instead of trying to go after Peick, Friese just decided the second was enough and rode his way to the main.
Friese could not repeat his holeshot from the LCQ in the main event. He would suffer a tenth place start stuck right in the middle of the field. Instead of moving forward, he moved backward, surrendering a few positions falling back to 13th early and was still there at the midway point. The track was just nasty during the second half of the main but Friese dug deep and made a late charge. He made a move on the fading Justin Barcia and would end up scraping up one more position finishing in a season best eleventh place. This may have been his best ride of the season because of the grueling, unforgiving nature of the track. It definitely separated the men from the boys and Friese stepped up. He will look to keep his momentum going when we head to St. Louis next weekend.
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