ROSSBURG, OHIO: When Brent Marks started his Sprint Car career, he dreamed of challenging the best in the sport and building his team into a consistent winner.

There have been some setbacks, there always is in such a process. But Marks stayed the course and never lost sight of what he wanted to accomplish, not only for himself, but for his family and the people who supported him from the beginning.

That’s what makes Marks’ success over the last 15 months so special. He worked on his craft and put the right people in place to become the No. 1 Sprint Car team in the United States.

If there was any doubt, it was put to rest Thursday night. Marks lived up to the high praise he has been getting over the last couple of weeks and proved he is the best in the country with an impressive charge from 14th to capture the Historical Big One at Eldora Speedway.

“It’s always amazing to win a race at Eldora, but to win this race that has been absent for so many years and finally came back, obviously, the big payday is unreal,” Marks said of the $100,000 first-place check. “I’m very thankful to be in this position, and my team works so hard. We work so well together, and it shows, but to win this race is amazing.

Brent Smith Photography

“Honestly, I’m just soaking it all in now. It’s just unreal. I can’t wait to get back and celebrate with my team and my family. They are the important ones, and it makes this so much more special. I’m very thankful to be in this position and race cars for a living and have partnerships that have propelled me to this point in my career. I’m very thankful.”

The numbers Marks is putting up are staggering. In his last 22 races, he has finished in the top three of 20 shows, including an impressive eight wins.

During the stretch, Marks has beaten the World of Outlaws — he has four wins against the series this season — and the All Stars. He dominated Pennsylvania Speedweek and with his Historical Big One score, the Myerstown, Pa. driver is over $300,000 in earnings

“It’s a really cool thing for people to be saying [we are No. 1 in the country], but I know how racing is,” Marks said. “Like I said, we just work really hard to make sure we don’t lose our rhythm or get ourselves dialed out. It just takes a lot of focus and concentration every night so we don’t get to that point. We have a really good racecar wherever we go, and to compete against those guys is awesome.

“I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to build, and Allen Murray and the whole Murray family coming on board as our partner has really upped our program and is special to me. So, I’m really glad we decided to do that partnership.”

There was plenty of work that needed to be done to get to the front. While Marks carved his way through the field, Tyler Courtney was setting the pace and built a 1.584-second lead by the completion of Lap 5.

Courtney approached lapped traffic on the eighth circuit and maintained a .693-second lead over Kyle Larson. One lap later, Sye Lynch, who started on the pole, had a motor fire that brought out the red flag.

During the stoppage, Larson headed to pit road with a flat tire. Moments later, fifth-place Kraig Kinser also went to the work area for new rubber. Larson came back through the field to get ninth.

Rico Abreu owned the restart, splitting Brad Sweet and Kerry Madsen to take second. Before the lap could be scored, Kraig Kinser got upside down on the backstretch after making contact with Jacob Allen.

The stoppage didn’t slow Abreu’s progress. He shot past Sweet on the restart and disposed of Madsen with a slider through the third and fourth corner on Lap 12 to take second.

Courtney built a 1.464-second lead, but it was wiped out on Lap 15 when Zach Hampton rolled to a stop on the backstretch. Sweet took third on the restart, with Marks cracking the top five by the completion of Lap 16.

Marks was nailing the bottom and sailing through the field. He shot past Madsen in Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 17 and got underneath Sweet for third at the other end of the speedway.

“There are a lot of good racecars up front, and you’ve got to pass them all,” Marks said. “It’s just really hard, and they reworked the track a little bit before the feature, and the bottom half was just so good for so many laps. I’m like, ‘Man, it’s not going to widen out.’

“I was getting a little worried, and just like that, the track changed and moved to the top. We could move around a bit.”

Up front, Abreu was all over Courtney. The California driver got to the bottom of Turns 1 and 2 and took the lead, holding it at the line by a mere .090 seconds. Courtney didn’t go away, and the two traded the spot during Lap 20, with Abreu holding a narrow .103-second advantage at the stripe.

Courtney continued to harass Abreu for the top spot, taking the lead back on Lap 22. This time, he was able to open up a small gap, as the top three rode inches from the outside wall.

The pace was slowed on Lap 25 when James McFadden stopped in Turn 3. Marks showed his speed on the restart, scooting around the bottom in Turns 1 and 2 to get past Abreu and slicing past Courtney for the lead at the other end of the speedway.

“I was just trying to bide my time,” Marks said. “I felt like I did have a better car than those guys, but they were also racing each other really hard, too. It’s kind of hard to judge, but I still felt like my car needed some laps to come in, burn off some fuel load, and it did that and really came to life at the end.

“I seemed to be gaining on them, and sometimes you want to push the issue harder to try and catch up to them faster, but for how the track turned out to be, it would’ve burned the tires right off the car. So, I was just trying to maintain my tires as much as I could, and that way I had something at the end.”

Said Courtney, “You just get put in a bad spot when you are the leader, and like Brent said, he was able to run the bottom, and I just knew I needed to get back to the top on the restart,” Courtney said. “When you are running second and third, you have the ability to try things and not cost yourself anything. When you are the leader, you just have to go back to what you are doing and hope it works.”

Courtney came back on Marks on the following circuit but came up short. Marks opened up a 1.129-second lead by Lap 30 and caught the back of the field again with six laps to go.

It looked like Marks was on cruise control with five laps to go. Then on the 38th circuit, he got into the outside wall coming out of Turn 4, which allowed Courtney to knock a full second off the advantage.

“Kerry slid up in front of me and took some air off of my car, and I just slid into the wall,” Marks said. “I just had to regain my composure. I knew I lost a ton of ground there, but I wasn’t going to overdrive the next corner, because usually that is when you get yourself in trouble.

“I just tried to keep myself composed and stay calm and get a rhythm back the last couple of laps, and it worked out for us. I made a tiny mistake there, but it wouldn’t be a $100,000 race without a couple of mistakes. There is a lot on the line.”

Courtney cut into the lead, but he wasn’t close enough to pull the trigger on a pass for the win. Marks showed poise and took the win by .845 seconds.

It was Marks’ 12th win of the season. As for Courtney, he was disappointed but also knew he did everything he could to earn his second crown-jewel victory. Abreu, Sweet, and Logan Schuchart, who charged from 21st, completed the top five.

“I think that has been the case with a lot of races with Brent, lately,” Courtney chuckled. “It’s frustrating, obviously, and it stings, but I felt like I did everything I needed to do.

“It almost worked, and I slid him in three and four, but second sucks. We get two more chances this week to redeem ourselves, and we have a really good racecar. So, I’m excited to see what we can do.”

410 Sprint Car Feature Finish, 40 Laps: 1. Brent Marks; 2. Tyler Courtney; 3. Rico Abreu; 4. Brad Sweet; 5. Logan Schuchart; 6. Brian Brown; 7. David Gravel; 8. Carson Macedo; 9. Kyle Larson; 10. Donny Schatz; 11. Sheldon Haudenschild; 12. Logan Wagner; 13. Brock Zearfoss; 14. Parker Price-Miller; 15. Kerry Madsen; 16. Chris Windom; 17. Marcus Dumesny; 18. Zach Hampton; 19. Jacob Allen; 20. James McFadden; 21. Gio Scelzi; 22. Kraig Kinser; 23. Sye Lynch; 24. Dave Blaney.

DNQ: Aaron Reutzel; Brad Bacon; Justin Peck; Spencer Bayston; Danny Dietrich; Cale Thomas; Daryn Pittman; Ayrton Gennetten; Cory Eliason; Sam Hafertepe Jr.; Bill Balog; Anthony Macri; Robbie Price; Zeb Wise; Tanner Thorson; T.J. Stutts; Cap Henry; Lachlan McHugh; Hunter Schuerenberg; Sammy Swindell; Greg Wilson; Dylan Westbrook; Alex Bowman; Noah Gass; Henry Malcuit; Bill Rose; Ryan Myers; Lee Jacobs; Cole Macedo; Kasey Kahne; McKenna Haase; Logan Fenton; Zeth Sabo; Skylar Gee; Travis Philo.