Satterlee Became Just Second Driver To Win Bedford Keystone Cup Twice

By JEFF ULRICH
Gregg Satterlee of Indiana, Pa., led all 55 laps of Saturday night’s Keystone Cup Super Late Model feature at Bedford Speedway, earning his 12th victory of the season and his second Bedford win of the year. The victory also made Satterlee a two-time Keystone Cup winner after previously claiming the event in 2020.
Mason Zeigler continued his strong late-season run with a second-place finish, while Trevor Feathers, driving the Cameron/Mann No. 72, completed the podium in third.
For Satterlee, the win was especially satisfying because it came in a car he has driven only three times this season.
“This is our 12th win this season, and tonight it was a different car,” Satterlee said. “We have seven wins at Selinsgrove, two here at Bedford and one each at Hagerstown, Port Royal and Lincoln.”
Satterlee brought the DMC Chassis to Bedford on Friday for practice, hoping to improve its balance after struggling with it earlier in the season.
“We really haven’t been in this car very much, so we were just trying to get a better balance with it,” he said. “We did a few things after practice and figured out some things on our own. I don’t know if practicing Friday changed everything, but it definitely helped.”
Satterlee also credited a favorable redraw for putting him in position to control the race from the start. “Starting spot was key,” he said. “If Mason Zeigler starts in front of me, I’m pretty sure he wins the race. We had a lucky draw.”
Although he led every lap, traffic became a challenge during the second half of the race.
“We had a little trouble with lapped traffic,” Satterlee said. “Toward the end everybody started slowing down, and I just rode around and finished it off.”
The car was built by Brian Daugherty with input from Keyser Manufacturing, and Satterlee admitted the team is still learning about it.
“This was only the third time we ran it, and now we’ve got a win with it,” he said. ”I’m pretty proud of that.”
The team endured its share of struggles earlier in the year. “We were terrible a few weeks ago at Hagerstown,” Satterlee said. “Just terrible. Tonight it worked out for us. It’s a race car, and we just had to get all four corners working together.”
The victory continued what has been one of the strongest seasons of Satterlee’s career. “We’ve only raced about 30 times this year, and to have 12 wins is a pretty good accomplishment,” he said.
Satterlee also explained that while his team never intended to chase a championship at Selinsgrove Speedway, the track’s lucrative weekly purse made it difficult to stay away.
“We didn’t set out to run for a track championship,” he said. “But when Selinsgrove is paying $5,000 to win a regular show, who wouldn’t want to be there? We wanted to support the track.”
Satterlee now turns his attention to Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway, where the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will pay $10,000 to win Friday and $50,000 to win Saturday.
Zeigler, meanwhile, left Bedford feeling he may have had the fastest car in the field.
The Chalk Hill, PA driver set fast time, won his heat race and appeared to be one of the favorites entering the feature. However, a redraw of six left him starting deeper in the field than he had hoped.
“We set fast time, won our heat race and had the best car all night,” Zeigler said. “The redraw didn’t go our way again.”
After working his way into second, Zeigler was unable to mount a serious challenge once the racing surface took rubber.
“Gregg got out front and got away from us,” he said. “I got to second, but by that point the track really rubbered up. It pretty much became follow-the-leader racing.”
Despite the frustration, Zeigler remained realistic about the finish. “Second is better than third,” he said. “It is what it is.”
Zeigler pointed to a season filled with strong performances despite a limited schedule.
“We haven’t raced much this year, but every time we unload we’re right there at the front,” he said. “We were in contention in three World of Outlaws races, won one of them and probably should have won two. In the Lucas Oil races we’ve been on the podium twice.”