PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

(Kevin Cooley photo)

Eddie Krawiec raced to his 28th career victory in Pro Stock Motorcycle with a 7.239 at 185.51 holeshot final round result over Hector Arana Jr. on his Screamin' Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson. The current Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader earned his first win of the season and third at Bandimere Speedway.

"In the final, I could hear him next to me," said Krawiec, a three-time world champ. "I will say one thing; I knew I had to be about .020 on the Tree, and I was .025. I usually don't race that way. I don't usually have to push that hard, but this year I do. I really didn't want the final to be that close, but I couldn't ask for any better. It always makes the driver look good to win on a holeshot."

Recent Chicago winner Arana Jr. raced his Lucas Oil Buell past Freddie Camarena, Steve Johnson and defending world champ and 2014 event winner Andrew Hines to reach the final. Arana Jr. sits second in points, trailing Krawiec by 36.

Arana Jr. won in Chicago two weeks ago for his first victory of the season, and he was looking to go back to back in Denver.

"I wanted to win badly, but it was still a good weekend," the Buell rider said. "The bike was running strong. We were the fastest bike all day today. The Harley bike was right there with me, and I knew it was going to come down to the wire."

In the first head-to-head battle of the season between Arana and Krawiec, the two championship leaders, the difference came on the Christmas Tree. Both were good, but Krawiec was a touch better. His light of .025-second was enough to hold off Arana's quicker elapsed time.

"Whoever left first was probably going to be the one to win," Arana said. "I went for it but at the same time I didn't want to go red. I had a .036 light, which is nothing to complain about, and he was just right there with the .025. I ended up losing by two-thousandths, so that's how it goes. You can't win them all, but overall it was still a great outing."

Arana was quickest in two of the four elimination rounds Sunday and matched Krawiec's e.t. in the first round and semifinals. Arana opened the day with a run of 7.208 seconds at 187.76 mph that took out Freddie Camarena's pass of 7.355 seconds at 183.59 mph.