NASCAR CUP SERIES MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY XFINITY 500 TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT OCTOBER 30, 2022

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIESMARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAYXFINITY 500TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTOCTOBER 30, 2022

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of his return to NASCAR Cup Series competition at Phoenix Raceway next weekend. Press Conference Transcript: Walk us through this process and what it’s been like for you with recovery. “It’s been a long process, for sure. I think Sunday, obviously I didn’t feel good. Monday, I didn’t feel great, but it was hard for me to identify what was really going on. Typically Monday’s after a race when it’s that hot, you kind of feel bad anyway; dehydrated or whatever. Tuesday, I felt great. I made like three laps in a sprint car on Tuesday, just for an Ally deal. I felt great through all that; felt totally normal. Wednesday, I had a crazy busy day and by the end of the day, I was feeling pretty bad. I felt really bad in front of screens and stuff like that. So that’s when I kind of identified what was going on; went to see the doctors and went from there. The recovery was definitely different from I guess what I would have assumed for concussions. I got back into my regular routine of training pretty quickly. Just added things for my ocular and vestibular systems to try to catch them back up. It’s a long process and a couple of flights back and forth to Pittsburgh to see the guys up there. But everybody was super helpful. I got more text messages and advice than I knew what to do with honestly. But I feel 100%. I’ve been training harder than ever for the last couple weeks, honestly, so probably in a better spot than I was before I crashed. I’m really excited to get back.” Was it just the Texas wreck that caused this or were there any previous wrecks? Some of the in-car cameras show you rubbing your eyes a lot after that. Is there any part of you that looks back now and says, ‘man, I should have stopped racing on that day? “I don’t really feel like I’ve had any big hits this year, so I would say just the Texas crash. Yeah, looking back, it was a tough situation. I’m in the middle of the playoffs. I’m not a doctor.. did I just get my bell rung? Do I have a concussion? Like I don’t know what’s going on or what that feels like. So I don’t think it hurt me more. I’m glad that nothing else happened throughout the rest of the day, and it all ended up being okay. But yeah, it’s a bummer. I think that’s just part of the Next Gen car. It’s so tough. The car wasn’t very damaged at all, so we were able to keep going and honestly keep going at the speed that we could have been okay if we weren’t a bunch of laps down.” Was the biggest issue you were seeing was the lag and where you might see something and then when your brain might react to it? For somebody who hasn’t really experienced concussions, what was the one symptom that really took the longest to heal from?“Yeah, it wasn’t that at all. I feel like all of the concussion symptoms that I have heard of throughout my career – heard people talking about like the nausea and stuff like that – I didn’t have any of. I just had a lot of pressure in my eyes. It was almost like when your sinuses are plugged up or whatever, and you kind of get that that sinus headache and that pressure behind your eyes. I would get that from workouts or from any activities that I was busy doing. That was the biggest thing that took a while. I think from what the doctors said, obviously the concussion kind of hurts the weakest points of your body. I had some vision stuff going on that I don’t think I really knew what it was. Like my vision is not weak, but Dr. Micky Collins says concussions fight dirty, so it went for a weak point with me and messed with my ocular system. I think that was the thing that took the longest to recover from.” Did you have headaches? “I mean, it created headaches, but it was because of my eyes.” What was the toughest part to deal with to the recovery part? The most frustrating part of the process for you? “Watching somebody else drive the No. 48 car on Sunday’s. That’s not fun by any means. It was really interesting, honestly. I think at first, you kind of feel – not forgotten about – but it’s just weird not going to the race track. All I’ve ever known is racing, so when you’re not going and having to do different things on a weekend is just weird. Driving around and realizing that there are people in the world that don’t know there’s a NASCAR race going on. I think that was a weird thing for me (laughs). I’m at the grocery store and I’m like ‘Man, none of these people know that there’s a race going on right now’. So that part of it was weird.. weekends were weird. It’s really weird being here today. But yeah, I think seeing somebody else drive was definitely the least fun part.” You kind of talked about how you kind of had some feelings of things after workouts. Were you almost going just to see if it was just a normal issue or were you more concerned like ‘hey, there’s something else a little bit more?’ Were you shocked when he came back and said that you have a concussion and you can’t be in the car? “I think I knew that there was a possibility of that. I knew what I felt when I crashed at Texas. But the weird thing was and like the weird thing about concussion timelines, is they’re never really the same. By Tuesday, I felt 100% and I felt totally fine. Wednesday, when it kind of hit me by the end of the day that I was hurting and having that that pain in my eyes that that turned into a headache; in my head I’m like ‘that’s not normal’. I talked to some others that have had been through similar things and kind of gathered the similarities were there. So I knew when I went to the doctor that was a possibility. They definitely identified it very quickly.” Where will you be for the race today? Are you staying or why are you even here?“I’m here to talk to you guys (laughs). It’s going to be super weird for me. It’s not an easy thing to be here and not be in the race car. But I’ll probably watch from the pit box and hang out with the guys. It’s cool to be back around the team. I’ve been around the team throughout the week. I’ve still been going to all of the meetings and hanging out. Chewing Noah (Gragson) out when he brings Big Macs to the team meeting on Monday mornings.. we’re working on it (laughs). But it’s been good to stay plugged in with the race team and to be back at the racetrack today. Seeing the support from the fans and everything’s been really cool. I’m appreciative for the warm welcome. I’ll just be hanging out today, I guess. I don’t really know. It’s going to be weird.” If Phoenix Raceway was not the final race, if Phoenix was not your hometown, would you be doing this? Or would you just wait until February? “I think for me, having a goal to get back to was important. As far as how hard I’ve had to work to get to this point, it was pretty difficult. It was 6 a.m. workouts every day, followed by another 9 a.m. workout every day. I’ve worked really hard. I think if I didn’t have the possibility to get back this year, it would have been easier to kind of push those things off and not work as hard. But on top of that, the doctors have said that I’m 100%. So I think if there was any hesitation there, it would be different. There was a lot of motivation to get back for a Phoenix race; my last race with Greg (Ives) as a crew chief. I didn’t want to go out how Texas went with Greg. I don’t want to sit all off-season questioning it. I want to get back in the race car. So when the doctor said I was 100%, I trust them. I’m going off of what they say and I don’t think there was any hesitation there and they said I’m good to go.” When we heard the radio exchange in Texas, initially as it was happening, it was absolutely chilling to hear you say ‘I’ve never taken a hit so hard like this in my life’ and you have a lot to base that on. What did you base that on? Did you know immediately and was there any sense that maybe I need to get out of the car now or did it not seem that dire at the time?“That’s a hard question, right? Like it’s the middle of the playoffs. You’re going for every last point. The thing I based it on when I said that was just how it felt. Like it just felt solid, which we’ve all gathered that in the last couple of weeks. It was just hard and the way my head hit the head rest was definitely violent. Yes, the right decision would have been to pull over, get out of the car and quit. But you won’t get any of the other 35 guys that do this every Sunday to do that. It’s a difficult decision. I still drove the race car and felt like I did a fine job of driving the race car for the rest of the day. It’s just part of what we do. When the car isn’t torn up, you’re going to keep going.” Some of your competitors said that the adrenaline probably kept you going, kind of override whatever sense that you had of getting out of the car. But later that week, you got into a sprint car, correct? “Yeah, I ran a couple laps on Tuesday. How I felt on Monday, I wasn’t planning on running. And then Tuesday, I was 100% and I felt totally fine through that whole thing. I really just fired it off to warm the engine. I ran like two or three laps, just to make sure it was good for him. But I felt 100% through that experience. It was honestly during meetings I had. The NASCAR media assignment, where you go through an hour or an hour and a half of call-ins, and some team stuff that I was doing throughout the day on Wednesday. By the end of that, I just felt terrible. So it had nothing to do with Tuesday.. I felt 100% through all of that. I saw a lot of speculation that I got in the sprint car and felt bad and that’s when I knew. That wasn’t the case at all. I felt fine through that and that actually reinforced me being like ‘oh, nothing’s wrong, I’m fine’. But then staring at a computer screen for a couple hours on Wednesday made it pretty obvious that something was up.” Have you touched base with Kurt Busch at all and compare what you guys have experienced? “Yeah, definitely. I’m talked to Kurt (Busch) a lot. A lot of the guys throughout the garage have been super helpful and that’s been really cool. Whether it’s Kurt or Jeff Burton – obviously I’ve talked to Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) a lot. Kevin Harvick reached out a lot throughout the process and that was really cool. It was cool to see the support from the rest of the drivers. Obviously we don’t want to see any of our peers in this situation. I think there’s a lot to be learned from everything that’s happened and hopefully nobody else has to go through it.” What do you feel could be done to you know to limit that happening in the Next Gen car for other drivers? “Yeah, I’m glad there’s people a lot smarter than me to make those decisions. But I think you have to learn from the experiences.. whether it’s mine or Kurt’s crashes or all other crashes throughout the year, the crash testing that they’ve done. Obviously there are changes that are going to be made over the off-season. Obviously this wasn’t expected when they designed the Next Gen car, right? Like it wasn’t like NASCAR would be like, ‘oh, it’s going to be fine’ and it’s not been fine. It was just unexpected. There’s a lot of really smart people working on making it better. I think the communication between NASCAR, the teams and the drivers has gotten better. I haven’t been at the race track until now, but there have been a lot of driver meetings with NASCAR, so that I think is a good thing. I think there’s going to be improvements made. I don’t think safety ever ends. It’s always an evolving thing. Hopefully we’ll get to a point where we’re better than where we are today.”

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KERN COUNTY KING: GOLOBIC DOMINATES FOR THIRD NARC KCRP TRIUMPH

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

(10/29/2022 – Alex Nieten) Bakersfield, CA… If there’s a NARC Fujitsu General Sprint Car race at Kern County Raceway Park, Shane Golobic can be counted on the be at the front as much as you can count on the sun to rise in the east and set in the west.

On Saturday night, Golobic led all 30 laps of the Fujistu Feature en route to his third series victory in five starts at the Bakersfield bullring. The other two attempts resulted in podiums, meaning Golobic owns an eye-popping 1.6 average finish in NARC competition at the facility. The Rocklin gasser’s trio of KCRP triumphs puts him atop the track’s NARC win list.

The victory also comes a week after Golobic claimed his third Trophy Cup championship. It’s been a good seven days for the driver of the Matt Wood Racing/NOS Energy Drink No. 17W.

“I love this place,” a jubilant Golobic said in victory lane. “I think the worst I’ve run is like second or third. I’ve got a few wins, so I always love coming down here. It makes the drive a little bit more worth it all the way from Rocklin. When you win, it definitely makes it a little bit easier.”

Golobic led the field to green courtesy of his win in the Sunnyvalley Bacon Dash with Corey Day alongside.

The race got off to a rocky start as a flurry of stoppages interrupted the early laps. Yellows for Craig Stidham and Dominic Scelzi and a red for Willie Croft (he was unharmed) all happened within the first five laps.

After the Scelzi caution, the race got into a rhythm as Golobic jumped ahead with Day in pursuit. The cars at the very front of the field stayed mostly in line on the hooked up surface, but a few drivers made some moves further back as Cole Macedo charged into the top-five, and Justyn Cox roared into the top-10 from the tail.

Golobic entered traffic around the halfway point of the feature. He and Day sliced through lapped cars, and Golobic masterfully handled the traffic. Just as it seemed Day would be able to close in, Golobic would put another car between them. With the track as fast as it was, Golobic knew the slower cars could make or break his race.

“I kind of knew lap traffic was going to be where the race was won or lost,” Golobic explained. “In our case, that would’ve been us losing the race if I didn’t make the right moves there or just got caught up behind anybody. Luckily it all went pretty smooth.

“The pace slows down so much in traffic with slower cars,” Golobic added. “And I know both Corey (Day) and Justin (Sanders) are really aggressive racers in traffic and they’re going to make moves so you better do the same. I just had to pick them off one at a time, try and make good, smart decisions, and we were able to do that.”

After working through heavy traffic, one final yellow flew with just seven laps to go setting up a quick blitz to the finish. Even though it put Day on his tail, the clear track proved to be too valuable as Golobic pulled away and comfortably claimed his 14th career NARC victory with a 1.234 second advantage.

“We’ll have a couple of NOS Energy Drinks to get us home and be able to crawl into bed and see my kids in the morning,” Golobic said with a smile.

Finishing runner-up was Corey Day aboard the Jason Meyers Racing/Four CCCCs Construction No. 14. The 16-year-old is on a roll in NARC competition as the result marked his third straight series podium and sixth in his last 10 races dating back to June. The second-generation racer owns a 2.9 average finish over that span.

“I really didn’t need that yellow there,” Day said of what might’ve helped him win. “We we’re getting through lap traffic, and he got hung up behind one of them and I got to him, and then he’d get back away and get to another one and I’d get to him. Right as I got close to him to where I could probably have tried to make a move there was a yellow.”

Completing the podium was a hard-charging Justin Sanders. The Aromas native wheeled the Mittry Construction/Farmers Brewing Co. No. 2X from eighth to the top-three for his seventh NARC podium of the year.

“I’m happy with the podium” Sanders said. “I felt like I had one of the best cars. I could pass guys kind of high and low and got on the outside of Corey there on that last restart but couldn’t make a move. The bottom was still a little too fast.”

Completing the top-10 was Tim Kaeding, Cole Macedo, Bud Kaeding, Carson Macedo, Justyn Cox, Ryan Timms, Max Mittry.

FUJITSU GENERAL USA FEATURE (30 laps): 1. Shane Golobic 17W 2. Corey Day 14 3. Justin Sanders 2X 4. Tim Kaeding 83 5. Cole Macedo 121 6. Bud Kaeding 69 7. Carson Macedo 21T 8. Justyn Cox 42X 9. Ryan Timms 5T 10. Max Mittry 2XM 11. Mitchell Faccinto 12. Ryan Bernal 22 13. Billy Aaron 26 14. Burt Foland Jr. 4 15. Dylan Bloomfield 83V 16. Jo De Wees 63D 17. Craig Stidham 36 18. Dominic Scelzi 41 19. Willie Croft 29

METTEC TITANIUM LAP LEADERS: Golobic 1-30

SWIFT METAL FINISHING HARDCHARGER: Justyn Cox 14th to 8th

ARP FAST QUALIFIER (20 Cars): Ryan Bernal – 11.935

BROWN AND MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS HEAT ONE (10 laps): Stidham, Scelzi, Mittry, Bernal, Cox, Aton, Montgomery (DNS)

KIMO’s TROPICAL CAR WASH HEAT TWO (10 laps): Co. Macedo, Golobic, Day, Timms, Faccinto, Croft, De Wees

DIRT.TRAVEL CLUB HEAT THREE (10 laps): T. Kaeding, B. Kaeding, Ca. Macedo, Sanders, Bloomfield, Foland Jr.

SUNNYVALLEY “POWERED BY BACON” TROPHY DASH (6 laps): Golobic, Day, Scelzi, T. Kaeding, Bernal, Stidham

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Record Year For World Short Track Championship Saw New, Historic Winners

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

CONCORD, NC (Oct. 29, 2022) – The seventh annual World Short Track Championship saw more than 400 race cars, split between 10 divisions, produce three days of thrilling action.

On Saturday, the prestigous short track event saw all 10 divisions crown 2022 champions at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.

Below is the recap for each Feature:

PRO STOCK: Josh Coonradt captures first career Pro Stock Feature win at World Short Track Championship

Josh Coonradt will have a little less space in his car on the long trek home to Upstate New York after competing in the World Short Track Championships at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.

He clinched the trophy with his first career World Short Track Championship Pro Stock Feature win Saturday night. Starting on the outside of the first row, the Fort Johnson, NY resident went into a battle with Luke Horning within the first ten laps of the race. After Horning slipped by him on the bottom, he battled back to find clean air. After taking over the lead, he never relinquished it for the 25-lap matchup, staying ahead of his competition.

“Once I saw [Horning] on the bottom, I figured it was the fastest way around,” Coonradt said. “So, I dove to the bottom. The car felt better but after talking with Luke he just told me he was coming on the top. We got the race done and we finished on top.”

In the runner-up position, Horning still attempted to put pressure on the leader by taking different approaches to try to pass him.

“I was running the bottom because that’s how I got in the lead,” Horning said. “I pulled a slide job on him, and we were keeping the lead for a little while. Then he got a slide job on me and I just couldn’t keep the momentum with him. It opened up a big gap with no yellows. I think about half a straight-away. We closed it to about a quarter of a straight away.”

After some precision driving around traffic, Pete Stefanski ran in third place by the halfway point of the race, outmaneuvering Marc Lalonde and Sheldon Martin. Coonradt and Horning had put enough distance between the trailing competitors to put them out of reach. Stefanski drove the second half of the contention error free, rounding out the podium with a third-place finish.

Marc Lalonde finished fourth and Sheldon Martin finished fifth.

RESULTS: 1. 00X-Josh Coonradt[2]; 2. 9S-Luke Horning[4]; 3. 2-Pete Stefanski[5]; 4. 8-Marc Lalonde[3]; 5. 92-Sheldon Martin[10]; 6. 17-Nick Hilt[7]; 7. 11-Stéphane Larivière[19]; 8. 32-Jonathan Levesque[1]; 9. 6-Stephane Lebrun[14]; 10. 14J-Johnny Rivers Jr[13]; 11. 9-Eric Jean Louis[20]; 12. 38JR-Justin Chaput[12]; 13. 09-Shawn Perez Sr[15]; 14. 63-Ryan Crellin[17]; 15. 09J-Shawn Perez Jr[16]; 16. 35-Jonathan Lemay[18]; 17. 4M-Jordan Modiano[9]; 18. 58-Roxanne Roy[21]; 19. 8C-Sean Corr[8]; 20. 72G-Denis Gauvreau[6]; 21. 6C-Brian Carter[22]; 22. 33-Bruno Cyr[11]

SPORTSMAN: Kevin Ridley captures Sportsman Modified Feature win on final night of World Short Track Championship

Kevin Ridley turned out a dominating performance on the final night of the World Short Track Championships, leading the entirety of the 30-lap Feature.

Ridley maintained his lead through several restarts, as the matchup was filled with cautions, requiring the contenders to continually refire efficiently to maintain their position.

“It was getting a little scary because Rogers was on the inside of them and he’s really good here,” Ridley said. “He won last year. So I was a little concerned. But there was a good patch of moisture on the top all the way around. As long as I hit that, I could drive down off the corner and then clear them guys and get right back to the bottom.”

Starting in the pole position, #410 Mike Fowler of Fulton, NY was overpowered by Ridley on the initial start. Fowler ran strong for the first 20-laps, fending off charging competitors running not far behind.

One of the most significant reshuffles of positions came with five laps to go, when after charging his way from an 11th place starting position to fourth, Dave Conant passed first night Feature winner David Rogers and Fowler.

“I had some good restarts,” Conant said. “I timed them good, and just had a really, really good race car to come from 11th. These are really tough cars and hard to pass.”

Rogers held his third-place position for the last five laps of the race, giving him a podium finish to go along with his first night Feature victory. Zachary Buff finished in fourth and Derrick McGrew finished in fifth.

RESULTS: 1. 20X-Kevin Ridley[2]; 2. 44C-Dave Conant[11]; 3. 44-David Rogers[8]; 4. 01-Zachary Buff[4]; 5. 26-Derrick McGrew[9]; 6. 410-Mike Fowler[1]; 7. 52-Jessica Power[13]; 8. 78-Michael Wright[10]; 9. 89-Dylan Madsen[6]; 10. 29-Tanner Forbes[15]; 11. 99-Jordan Millard[7]; 12. 18-Blayden Arquette[12]; 13. 5C-Ayden Cipriano[5]; 14. 7X-Chuck Miller[14]; 15. 73G-Gordon Hermanson Jr[20]; 16. 47-Walter Cook[21]; 17. 23C-Tommy D’Angelo[19]; 18. 92-Andrew Buff[3]; 19. 49-Chris Jakubiak[17]; 20. 23-Cole Perry[16]; 21. 1R-Ricky Thompson[18]

PRO LATE MODEL: Trent Ivey Wins Pro Late Model Feature at World Short Track Championship

Trent Ivey made a choice that paid off Saturday night at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.

After putting a soft right rear tire on his Rocket Chassis, the Union, SC driver stormed through the field to earn the Fox Factory Pro Late Model Feature win at the seventh annual World Short Track Championship.

Dillon Brown grabbed the lead in Turn 1 of the 30-lap Feature, driving away from Ricky Greene and holding on for the first 18 laps.

Behind them, Ivey moved up from his eighth starting spot, working his way into a battle with Jamison McBride for third in the first five laps.

Once he cleared McBride on Lap 8, Ivey needed a Lap 12 restart to get by Greene.

From there, it only took a few more laps for him to power underneath defending race winner Brown, thundering by him on Lap 19 to take the lead.

Ivey went unchallenged for the final 11 laps, scoring his first Pro Late Model Feature win at the World Short Track Championship.

The Palmetto State driver said he was trying to save his tire, hoping it would pay off when the race was over.

“I was caught between trying to save my soft right rear, which was a little different than anybody else,” Ivey said. “I was trying to blast to the front and hope everyone else went soft.

“The car was amazing, man, and it’s the first time I’ve ever driven this thing. I’m no stranger to Charlotte, but it’s been a while since I’ve won here.

From Gaffney, SC, Brown settled for second, falling short of his second straight win in the event. He said he made the wrong tire choice, which cost him a trip to Victory Lane.

“I reeled him back down there at the end, but he had a soft tire on, and we were hard,” Brown said. “It’s won me a lot of money the last two years. It lost me this one tonight. Ahhh, man. You just have to take it and go on.”

Ricky Greene rounded out the podium. The Newton, NC driver also said he felt he chose the wrong tire.

“We had a pretty good piece the first time in it,” Greene said. “I had high expectations, and it’s a pretty good car. I don’t know if we missed on the tire call a little bit. But the track blew off kind of quick on us.”

Jeremy Steele finished fourth, rising five spots from ninth, and Jamison McBride rounded out the top five.

RESULTS: 1. G4-Trent Ivey[8]; 2. 6-Dillon Brown[1]; 3. 18-Ricky Greene[3]; 4. 22-Jeremy Steele[9]; 5. 215-Jamison McBride[2]; 6. 55-Matt Long[6]; 7. 27H-Justin Hudspeth[15]; 8. 136-David Pangrazio[14]; 9. 55H-Benji Hicks[18]; 10. 08-Layton Sullivan[17]; 11. 114-Jordan Koehler[5]; 12. 31G-Stephen Pedulla[12]; 13. 24-Jacob Brown[13]; 14. 66-Jody Knowles[7]; 15. 615-Colton Trouille[23]; 16. 00-Kendal Tucker[19]; 17. 29-Dale Moore[24]; 18. 7J-Dalton Jacobs[10]; 19. 17-Jeffrey Johnson[25]; 20. 89-Timmie Harrelson[26]; 21. 74-Mike Franklin[22]; 22. 555-Brock Pinkerous[20]; 23. 5S-Joey Johnson[16]; 24. 12C-Cody Cubbage[11]; 25. 7-Daniel Breuer[21]; 26. 5Q-Colby Quick[4]

UMP MODIFIED: Cook Wins First UMP Modified World Short Track Championship Title

He’s finished fourth, third, second, and even won the All-Star Invitational in 2017. But now, at long last, Taylor Cook is a World Short Track Champion.

Cook, the 28-year-old Summit Racing Equipment DIRTcar UMP Modified standout from Stanley, NC, took the lead from a breaking Kyle Strickler in the early going and held-off a hungry Ethan Dotson behind him for the final 24 laps to secure the win Saturday night at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.

“It is a very big win, because all my family and friends are here,” Cook said. “My dad works full-time on a NASCAR Cup team, and he’ll be at Martinsville tomorrow. He doesn’t get to come to many races, so to have him here is awesome.

“To have all of our extended family and family friends, people I’ve grown up with in racing and people I’ve grown up with outside of racing here, it definitely makes it extra special.”

It’s been a long time coming for Cook and his team, who have appeared in every World Short Track Championship except for one (2020). Cook placed fourth in the inaugural event (2016), third in 2018, and was runner-up in 2017, but never could seem to find a way around the dominance of multi-time winners Nick Hoffman and Kyle Strickler. That was, until this year.

“It’s great to finally get the top step,” Cook said. “We work hard, even though we don’t race a whole lot. It’s just great to see that we’ve still got it.”

As the green flag dropped, Cook settled in behind Strickler after he bolted out to the lead in the first corner. Strickler cruised around the 4/10-mile with ease, opening up a nice gap on Cook through the first six laps.

“Kyle got the better start there, and he was setting the pace,” Cook said. “I felt like I was running in his crumbs a little bit, and I felt like I was keeping pace with him. I was just kinda biding my time and seeing what happens.”

And then, Strickler’s night turned sour.

A valvetrain issue struck the three-time World Short Track Champion as he rounded Turns 3-4 to complete Lap 7, causing him to slow suddenly down the frontstretch and bringing out caution. Strickler headed directly into the pits under yellow and parked it, done for the night.

“I hate it for him that he broke,” Cook said. “He’s a very deserving competitor as well, and I hate that for him. But when I saw him break, I knew that was going to be our best opportunity to get around him.”

Now holding the lead for the restart, Cook took the field back to the green and opened up a slight gap over second-place Justin Haley.

Longhorn Chassis house car driver Ethan Dotson had been gassing it up on the outside lane and made the move on Haley to take second on Lap 16. He immediately set his sights on Cook, who was well over a full second ahead and approaching lapped traffic.

“I didn’t have any idea where they were behind me,” Cook said. “I knew my car was really good, but I figured those guys were just as good. I was cautiously aggressive with the lapped cars, just trying not to give up too much time but not spin myself or wreck into one of the lapped cars.”

Cook soon found himself with a large pack of slower traffic ahead of him and Dotson rapidly closing the gap behind him. With 11-to-go, the two made some light contact when Cook tried to get around Jason Altiers and met Dotson’s left-front as he attempted the pass for the lead to his outside.

“The lapped car moved, and I was a little too high [on the track],” Dotson said. “I tried to go around him, tried to ask more than what was there.”

“That was pure, dumb luck,” Cook said with a chuckle about the move that held-off Dotson. “I had no idea where he was the entire time. If I took his line away, it was just dumb luck.”

The close-call seemed to be the wakeup call Cook needed to get going, as he sped away from the melee and pulled back out to a few car-lengths advantage on Dotson in the next few laps. Dotson also found his way around the lappers and made one last push for the lead in the final circuits but was unable to catch Cook in the end.

“I’d catch the leader, and then we got in lapped traffic and I just couldn’t move as good as he could,” Dotson said. “That’s kinda where he got me.”

Dotson settled for second as Justin Haley came in behind him to grab the final podium spot in his World Short Track debut. The NASCAR Cup Series full-timer qualified the Cup car earlier in the day in Martinsville, VA, then immediately made the trip back south to Concord to compete in the Feature event, which paid-off well for the young Indianan.

RESULTS: 1. 21-Taylor Cook[1]; 2. 00-Ethan Dotson[5]; 3. 99H-Justin Haley[3]; 4. 8-Austin Holcombe[7]; 5. 96M-Mike McKinney[4]; 6. 99W-Chris Arnold[8]; 7. 79D-John DeMoss[15]; 8. 77-George Dixon[13]; 9. 5-Jonathan Taylor[9]; 10. 71D-Dan Davies[6]; 11. 7-Evan Taylor[11]; 12. 95J-Justin Cullum[14]; 13. 11-Troy Loomis[12]; 14. 88-Matt Crafton[21]; 15. 44-Jeff Parsons[17]; 16. 18-Brandon Kinzer[18]; 17. 4M-Tim Monroe[25]; 18. T2-Greg Hauger[22]; 19. 25-Jason Altiers[16]; 20. 99-Cole Hilton[20]; 21. 12R-Ty Rhoades[19]; 22. 55-Alyssa Rowe[26]; 23. 21S-Kenny Shaw[10]; 24. 74-Mike Franklin[24]; 25. 8S-Kyle Strickler[2]; 26. 6-Ryan Ayers[23]

STREET STOCK: Devon Morgan Wins Wild Street Stock Feature at World Short Track

Saturday’s ARP Street Stock Feature during the seventh annual World Short Track Champion at The Dirt Track at Charlotte saw a close duel for the lead, which ended with Devon Morgan picking up the win.

Morgan’s path to the victory wasn’t easy, having to race his way froward from 11th in the 20-lap Feature.

When the race commenced, he methodically sliced his way through the field, consisting of 26 cars overall.

Mirroring Morgan’s path was Patrick Lyon, who was also making a charge to the front from his 10th-place starting position. However, the Gastonia, NC driver found his way to the front a step quicker than Morgan.

By Lap 7, he’d grab the lead by working the high side of the 4/10-mile track and made his case that anybody that wanted to pass him would have to use the bottom of the track.

Morgan would be that challenger.

By the halfway point of the Feature, the two drivers had made it to the front two spots and used up all the room they could with their Street Stocks, utilizing every line. Lyon ran high – the line that got him the lead – while Morgan tried to master the bottom.

Morgan used the most he could of the bottom lane and kept getting his car in the right area to steal the lead and the win from Lyon.

“[The bottom] had a lot of moisture down there and my car was just about perfect to where I could still rotate the bottom,” Morgan said. “I just kept getting in the moisture pretty good with the left rear there, and I was getting really big runs off the end to where I wasn’t losing that much and I could really run the inside and it just worked out.”

Despite the track changing and the high line being used by many drivers, Lyon said that using the high line was the way he needed to get to the lead after starting 10th.

“Well, the track changes so much,” Lyon said. At first, the moisture on the racetrack was a lot different when we started, the grip was there (on the high line). Knowing that you’re starting further back, you gotta do something.”

Even though the two drivers were the ones that ramped up the excitement for the lead, David Duke, who started back in 17th, snuck past Lyon in the closing laps to finish second. Lyon had to settle for third, with Dalton Peavy and Andre Durham rounding out the top five.

RESULTS: 1. 17-Devon Morgan[11]; 2. 7DD-David Duke[17]; 3. 01-Patrick Lyon[10]; 4. 9P-Dalton Peavy[7]; 5. 06-Andrew Durham[18]; 6. 11L-Kade Langley[1]; 7. 83-Calob McLaughlin[23]; 8. 70-Mike Grady Jr[2]; 9. 92-Tanner Fortune[19]; 10. 00-Cody Ussery[20]; 11. 96-Dalton Pannell[6]; 12. 14-Megan Erwin[22]; 13. 91F-Chris Stowe[24]; 14. 9-Ronnie Mosley[8]; 15. 7-John Cagle[26]; 16. 17M-Cameron Martin[25]; 17. 18D-MItchell Duvall[4]; 18. Y44-Bailey Loftin[12]; 19. 18-Ricky Greene[16]; 20. 78-Blake Pryor[3]; 21. 41-Mattison Hoots[15]; 22. 26-Brandon White[5]; 23. 81-Justin Barber[13]; 24. 73-Timmy Smith[21]; 25. 2-Bradley Weaver[9]; 26. 51-Phoenix Lawter[14]

602 LATE MODEL: Gavin Cowan Wins 602 Late Model Feature at World Short Track Championship

Gavin Cowan earned a significant milestone Saturday night at The Dirt Track at Charlotte before he’s old enough to drive a car on the road.

The 15-year-old Rincon, GA driver, passed Daniel Parker on Lap 12 after battling for several laps to earn the Chevrolet Performance 602 Late Model Victory at the seventh annual World Short Track Championship.

Parker grabbed the early lead in a caution-plagued event but held off several challenges on restarts from Jordan Koehler.

Cowan joined the battle on one of the restarts, quickly dispatching Koehler before setting his sights on the lead.

The Peach State competitor rolled the bottom, throwing everything he had at Parker. However, Parker’s momentum was too strong, as he continued to inch ahead at the start-finish line.

Cowan finally got the break he needed on Lap 12, as he thundered under Parker in Turn 2, getting a monstrous run down the backstretch to take the lead.

That’s all Cowan needed as he led the rest of the way to score his first World Short Track Championship triumph.

Despite the booming pass for the win, Cowan said he wasn’t sure if he could pull it off.

“I don’t know, it was really crazy,” Cowan said. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it. But I was glad I had fun, and I want to thank all my sponsors and everything.

“It’s amazing. I never thought it’d come true.”

Parker, from Raeford, NC, settled for second, grabbing the runner-up spot for the second consecutive year.

“Yeah, it’s all good,” Parker said. “Second two years in a row. It is what it is.”

AJ Belanger rounded out the podium after starting seventh. The Vander, NC driver, stated he was happy with his team and their work before the event.

“I just want to give a big shoutout to my guys,” Belanger said. “They worked hard all week. We’ve had a lot of tough runs this year and a bunch of tough races.”

Koehler finished fourth, and Chris Joyce rounded out the top five.

RESULTS: 1. 19-Gavin Cowan[3]; 2. 10-Daniel Parker[4]; 3. 24-AJ Belanger[7]; 4. 114K-Jordan Koehler[5]; 5. 17-Chris Joyce[6]; 6. 2-Brady Cornett[15]; 7. 18M-Austin Mintz[13]; 8. 18-Preston Blalock[17]; 9. JR1-Jake Jackson[23]; 10. 57-Luke Cooper[18]; 11. 5-Robbie Gibson[26]; 12. T2-Travis Sharpe[22]; 13. 10P-Tyler Payne[10]; 14. 114-Evan Koehler[8]; 15. 9-Cole Hedrick[11]; 16. C10-Carl Currin[2]; 17. *1-Brad Rachels[25]; 18. 149-Seth Speed[1]; 19. 03W-Jason Welborn[21]; 20. 14M-Baron McDowell[12]; 21. 18D-Chuckie Duncan[9]; 22. 12-Justin Taylor[14]; 23. 27-Mike Davidson[24]; 24. P4-John Price[19]; 25. 67-Bryan Mullis[20]; 26. 66-Preston Dimsdale[16]

PRO MODIFIED: Ty Norder Drives to Pro Modified Victory Lane at World Short Track Championship

There’s nothing like the feeling of hoisting your first World Short Track Championship trophy in Victory Lane at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. Ty Norder got his first taste of that in only his second-career Feature win Saturday night with the Hoosier Racing TirePro Modifieds.

“This is only my second-ever win,” Norder said. “At this stage, I busted my butt off on this car. We struggled all week, and we bounced-back to Victory Lane.”

Norder had inherited the lead after a bit of foul play in the final laps with the leaders in front of him. Ryan Ayers made the move for the lead on Eric Bentley on Lap 12 and pulled out to a commanding advantage with a hungry Kevin Pangrazio rapidly closing in on him. Pangrazio sailed around Ayers on the outside on Lap 17 and suddenly looked to be the man to beat.

However, he and Ayers came together after a Lap 19 restart going into Turn 1, leaving Pangrazio stopped in Turn 2 after additional contact with the wall. Pangrazio retired to the pits, while Ayers was sent to the tail for the contact.

Norder had been riding third when the incident happened, and thus inherited the lead for the final restart with six-to-go. He stomped the throttle and took off, fending-off the pressure from behind to win his first career World Short Track Championship title.

Congratulated in Victory Lane by Longhorn Chassis executive Steve Arpin, Norder was ecstatic and nearly in tears with his friends and family around him to celebrate. The 18-year-old Crate Modified racer from Mooresville, NC, is an employee at Longhorn Chassis headquarters in China Grove, NC, and made it a big point to thank his company in his post-race interview.

One of his fellow employees finished right behind him in second – Michael Leach. The two put on a big chase for the lead after the final restart, but Norder was able to hold Leach off in the end.

“I work at Longhorn and his dad owns Longhorn,” Norder said. “We sit there and talk crap to each other each day at work… at the end of the day, we’re brothers. On the racetrack, we’re gonna race each other hard and clean.”

Leach earned the Hard Charger honors for the race in his impressive drive from 22nd-to-second. Though he couldn’t physically see him, Norder sensed Leach was coming and could feel his presence in the final laps.

“I knew he started deep, and I saw the scoreboard and he was fourth or fifth,” Norder said. “I knew at that point he was running the top. So, I just went to the top and ended up in Victory Lane.”

RESULTS: 1. 2T-Ty Norder[2]; 2. 09-Michael Leach[22]; 3. 14-Jeff Robinson[9]; 4. 8A-Austin Holcombe[17]; 5. 25-Robert Poole[7]; 6. 11-Eric Bentley[1]; 7. 59-Grayson Wells[14]; 8. 83-Kevin Vanhorn[6]; 9. 2J-Jake Barneycastle[11]; 10. 20S-Trey Stamper[8]; 11. 5W-Ethan Wilson[21]; 12. 23B-Spencer Boyd[10]; 13. 13-Quentin Haley[24]; 14. 23-Buck Stevens[13]; 15. 121-Chase Cardwell[16]; 16. 312-Greg Brown[18]; 17. 00-Preston Blalock[19]; 18. 44-Brian Nickerson[3]; 19. 17-Case Daniels[25]; 20. 04-Cole Wagoner[20]; 21. 18-Ray Suman[26]; 22. 18D-Phillip Benfield[23]; 23. 56-Justin Blevins[15]; 24. 6-Ryan Ayers[4]; 25. 42-Kevin Pangrazio[5]; 26. 45-Cambridge Gann[12]

THUNDER BOMBER: Rod Tucker wins inaugural Thunder Bomber Feature at World Short Track

Rod Tucker became a two-time World Short Track Championship winner Saturday night at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. However, this time, also counted as another first-time win.

Tucker won the inaugural SRI Performance Thunder Bomber Feature at the prestigious short track event – four years after winning his first World Short Track Championship race in a Monster Mini-Stock.

“It feels awesome,” Tucker said after celebrating in Victory Lane. “Like I said, I haven’t won here since 2018, but the cream did rise tonight. We fought our way up here. Played the restarts into our favor. This thing was really good through the slick and that’s how we set it up to run.”

Tucker started 11th in the 20-lap Feature but powered to eighth on the initial start. However, that start was short lived when one car spun and collected others in its path, taking out Friday night Heat winner Steve Greene.

When the race resumed, Hunter Funderburke and Greg Carroll dueled for the lead in front of the field.

Funderburke eventually slid over the cushion in Turn 4, allowing Carroll to pass him for the lead.

Then, another caution on Lap 4, and another chance for Tucker make quick work of stealing a few more positions on the restart. This time going from eighth to fifth.

Back out front, Fundkerburke got a strong run to the outside of Carroll and reclaimed the lead before another caution on Lap 8.

Like clockwork, when the race resumed, Tucker turned up his thrusters to speed his way from fourth to second down the front stretch. Two laps later, Tucker dove under Funderburke into Turn 3 and then slid ahead of him off Turn 4.

Mark Towell, who was also on a charge forward from eighth, followed Tucker’s line and passed Funderburke for second with eight laps to go. However, he didn’t have anything for Tucker.

Once the Greenville, SC driver got the lead and clean air, he pulled further away every lap, closing the Feature with a more than five second lead over Towell.

“[I needed] a little bit more drive off the corner,” Towell said. “I think I would have been better then. We didn’t adjust quite far enough. We were good, though.”

Along with the track conditions falling into Tucker’s favor, he said some advice from his friend Trent Ivey, who had won the Fox Factory Pro Late Model race earlier in the night, gave him all the confidence he needed to win from 11th.

“I watched Ivey earlier in that other race. He came from deep in the field,” Tucker said. “Me and him are good buddies. He told me, ‘Just bide your time. You know you’re fast. Take your time. You’ll be there.’ And sure enough, we was.”

Due to that approach, Tucker will now be etched in the World Short Track Championship history books as the first SRI Performance Thunder Bomber winner.RESULTS: 1. 12-Rod Tucker[11]; 2. 97T-Mark Towell[8]; 3. 12X-Benji Knight[7]; 4. G1-Greg Carroll[2]; 5. 78-Hunter Funderburke[1]; 6. 12B-Blake Bentley[9]; 7. 47-Tyler Guice[5]; 8. 14-Jonathan Hinson[6]; 9. B4-Brandon Satterfield[10]; 10. 2F-Bradley Weaver[18]; 11. 19-Stetsen Todd[13]; 12. 2-Ricky Bogan[20]; 13. 46-Bailey Hipp[17]; 14. 04-Nate Jackson[12]; 15. 32-Brandon Greene[23]; 16. K10-Josh Ayers[22]; 17. 20-Isaiah Parker[14]; 18. 43-Jacob Funderburke[19]; 19. 48-Grant Parr[4]; 20. 16-Benny Peeler[25]; 21. T2-Tyler Abernathy[26]; 22. 54-Daniel Massey[24]; 23. 912-John Williams[16]; 24. 02-Lloyd Dean Burgess[21]; 25. 39-Steve Greene[3]; 26. 97-Luke Doggett[15] MONSTER MINI-STOCK: Matt Gilbert Goes Wire-to-Wire With Monster Minis at World Short Track

Below a dim, waxing, crescent moon the COMP Cams Monster Mini-Stocks took over The Dirt Track at Charlotte for a 25-lap thriller Saturday night during the World Short Track Championship.

Starting from the pole, the #117 of Matt Gilbert launched ahead of the field faster than you could say “Trick or Teat!”

He was in full possession of the race, leading from the green flag to the checkers, bagging the biggest win of his career.

Gilbert may have made it look easy, but he said he didn’t even realize how good his car was throughout the Feature.

“This win means everything,” Gilbert said. “It didn’t feel like I was that dominant (in the car)… I thought the field was all over me the whole race. I am so glad we were able to pull this off. Big thanks to all of my family, crew, team, and sponsors for all the support and trust in me to wheel this car.”

The cars that followed him in the running order, the #96B of Stacy Brock and the #17 of Nick Broome, respectively, kept Gilbert in their sights if he had slipped once. However, there were no scares. Gilbert was flawless.

Though the lead never exchanged hands, the action around the 26-car field provided chaotic excitement throughout the race.

Multiple packs of cars saw consistent position changes, with no one willingly giving up a fight for their spot. Through the excitement that left fans at the edge of their seats, the field survived the Monster Mash and gave everyone a scary-good time.

The top five consisted of Stacy Brock in second, Nick Broome in third, Kevin Cooper in fourth, and Dustin Bolin in fifth.

RESULTS: 1. 117-Matt Gilbert[1]; 2. 96B-Stacy Brock[2]; 3. 17-Nick Broome[18]; 4. X-Kevin Cooper[23]; 5. 8-Dustin Bolin[20]; 6. 96X-Tyler Riddle[16]; 7. 21-JR Warren[24]; 8. 19-Travis Mosley[5]; 9. 24-Josh Bryant[8]; 10. 10-Logan Richey[4]; 11. B03-Damien Bryant[17]; 12. 56-Nick Fulcher[26]; 13. 96-Tanner Cook[22]; 14. 5-Bryan Harrelson[19]; 15. 04-Austin Brown[6]; 16. 2W-Dylan Warden[11]; 17. 69-Billy Cline[14]; 18. H3-Harley Holden[15]; 19. 28C-Brent Couch[10]; 20. 8J11-Ronnie Johnson[3]; 21. 212-Greg Brew[21]; 22. 44-Marcus Hughes[13]; 23. 84-Kyle Cooper[7]; 24. 7X-Jessie Richardson Jr[12]; 25. 98-Michael Webb[9]; 26. 37-Ben Burnett[25]

HORNETS: Windham, Presnell, Benson Win Saturday World Short Track Hornet Features

For the second night in a row at the World Short Track Championship, the DIRTVision Hornets saw two veterans rise to the top and another first-time winner at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.

John Windham and Newman Presnell earned back-to-back Features this weekend – having also won Friday night – and Dan Benson won his first World Short Track Championship Hornet title.

The paths to their victories became highlights of the weekend with each 15-lap DIRTVision Hornet Feature producing eye-widening action to conclude the 2022 edition of the event.

Here is how each Feature played out…

FEATURE #1
When the first DIRTVision Hornet Feature of the night officially commenced, the entire field fanned out into Turn 1, scattering three and four wide.

Daniel Wright led, but was under attack by almost the entire top-five, including Ricky Weaver who made a charge on the start from third to underneath Wright for the lead.

Behind them, John Windham was the kid who brought a time machine to the science fair, warping his way from 13th to the top five in the opening lap.

On Lap 2, riding the low line, Windham powered his way by Weaver and Wright down the backstretch with ease to claim the lead and never look back. Eddie McGrew followed Windham through the opening and also passed the two drivers to move into second.

“I saw [the low line for the lead] open and decided to take it,” Windham said. “It was getting a little hairy at first, so I was trying to get out of there before I got my car tore up.

A caution on Lap 3, halted Windham’s pace and gave McGrew a chance to try and mirror the #65 car’s pace. But when the race resumed, Windham picked up where he left off and darted away.

By the end of the Feature Windham had a 5.2 second lead over McGrew to earn his fourth DIRTVision Hornet World Short Track Championship victory.

“We’re happy with his,” Windham said. “It’s a new car. We’ve ran it four time now and it’s getting better each time we drive it.”

RESULTS: 1. 65-John Windham[13]; 2. 4E-Eddie McGrew[11]; 3. 21-Ricky Weaver[6]; 4. 4-Daniel Wright[1]; 5. 2-Kylee Laws[10]; 6. 5T-Reggie Twing[5]; 7. 5H-Tyler Hopkins[16]; 8. 05-Jammie Kelly[18]; 9. 00-Michael Wallace[9]; 10. 14-Jonathan Leophard[8]; 11. 15-Kenneth Colf[15]; 12. 5R-Rusty E Catoe[20]; 13. 18E-William Estep[7]; 14. D2-Danny Tate[14]; 15. H2-Alex Brooks[3]; 16. 0S-Tony Slack[12]; 17. 4X-Cookie Thompson[2]; 18. 1H-Justin Harris[17]; 19. (DNS) 13X-Ben Messer; 20. (DNS) 0-Shawn Peche

FEATURE #2
Chaos ensued on the start of the second DIRTVision Hornet Feature of the night. No position was safe.

The entire field looked like puzzle pieces arguing where they belong.

Dustin Miller, who started on the pole, fell to ninth on the opening lap. CJ LaVair, who was on the outside pole, tried to escape the mayhem, taking the lead from Miller. However, behind him, Newman Presnell was on the move from 11th.

Maneuvering his way through traffic, as if he’d designed the obstacles himself, Presnell found himself in second on the first lap. And with nothing stopping him from keeping that momentum going, passed LaVair on Lap 2.

“It was a little wild,” Presnell said. “I stayed on the bottom, and I could tell I had a little momentum and could stay on the bottom and get by them there. I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen. It got a little wild watching them there. But I had a good car. It was dialed in. Bottom, top, it would go anywhere.”

The field then spread out and Presnell pulled away to about a three second lead.

A caution on Lap 8, brought the field back together and reminded LaVair what Presnell’s rear bumper looked like. But when the race resumed, the view became short lived as Presnell gapped the field by seconds every lap.

He ended the Feature with a 5.6 second lead over Wayne Taylor, who moved past LaVair for second in the closing laps of the race.

The victory is his fourth straight World Short Track Championship win as he also won back-to-back races at the event last year.

“It feels pretty good,” Presnell said about his accomplishment. “Right now, we’re undefeated here with this car… Hopefully we can continue this momentum into next year. It’s fun to come here to Charlotte.”

RESULTS: 1. 48-Newman Presnell[11]; 2. 14T-Wayne Taylor[7]; 3. C4-CJ LaVair[2]; 4. 0H-Jacob Hayes[17]; 5. 58-Ronnie Hall[9]; 6. 41JR-Kolten Saam[3]; 7. 04-Dustin Miller[1]; 8. 7X-Joseph Franklin[18]; 9. 2020-James Harrelson[14]; 10. 359-Michael Lambert[19]; 11. 38-Rodney Grant[10]; 12. 25J-Josh Whitfield[8]; 13. 7L-Marcus Locklear[6]; 14. 91Z-Zack Slone[5]; 15. 243-Seth Smith[4]; 16. 4M-Billy Mack[15]; 17. 5B-Chris Baker[13]; 18. (DNS) 41-Parker Griffin; 19. (DNS) 5-Sean Vardell

FEATURE #3
The final DIRTVision Hornet Feature Saturday night maintained the theme of early battles for the lead with Brad McManus and Cale Deese dueling for the top spot in the opening laps.

The two drivers ran side by side the first lap before a caution ended their battled. When the green flag flew again, they made sure to resume that battle by racing side by side into the first turn before Deese edged ahead.

He held the top sport for four laps before Dan Benson’s charge forward found Deese’s #35 car. Benson dove under Deese into Turn 3 and took the lead off Turn 4. However, Deese had the better run down the front stretch and returned the favor, diving under Benson into Turn 1.

Benson proved to have the better car, powering ahead of Deese of Turn 2 and gaining distance the further he got down the backstretch.

With no cars in front of him, Benson then cruised to his first World Short Track Championship DIRTVision Hornet victory.

“Oh man, it feels incredible,” Benson said in Victory Lane, while shaking with joy. “I have to thank my family and my sponsors. That’s what got me here. I’m a loss for words. I don’t even know what to say.

“The car was fast. The corners seemed slick, but I just adjusted and kept it out front.”

RESULTS: 1. 21C-Dan Benson[14]; 2. 35-Cale Deese[3]; 3. 95-Chris Harvell[19]; 4. 11-Jonathan Sarratt[13]; 5. 3B-Brad McManus[2]; 6. 1X-Hunter Wallace[17]; 7. 74N-Allen Wyatt[8]; 8. 12X-David Laney[12]; 9. 25X-Daniel McManus[7]; 10. 12Y-Lonnie Laney[18]; 11. 13B-Brandon Collins[15]; 12. 23-Eric Grant[10]; 13. 64-Mike Budka Jr[6]; 14. 77-Dallas Griggs[11]; 15. (DNS) A23-Andrew Rich; 16. (DNS) 2D-Daniel Tate; 17. (DNS) 711-Kenneth Long Jr; 18. (DNS) A2-Carson Venable; 19. (DNS) 41K-Kelly Rash

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Hagan and Dodge Power Brokers Funny Car Qualify No. 2 at Nevada Nationals, the Penultimate Event of NHRA ‘Countdown to the Championship’

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) driver Matt Hagan qualified his Dodge Power Brokers Funny Car No. 2 for the 22nd edition of the Nevada Nationals and heads into the penultimate event of the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) “Countdown to the Championship” still in contention for the crown
Hagan earned the second place position on the eliminations ladder with the quickest run of the final qualifying session
A three-time event winner in the last five years at Las Vegas, Hagan goes into race day 83 points behind the points leader Robert Hight
TSR Top Fuel pilot Leah Pruett qualified her Dodge Power Brokers dragster 11th in a competitive field for Sunday’s eliminations
Defending Funny Car event winner Cruz Pedregon qualified 13th aboard his Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat

October 29, 2022, Las Vegas, Nevada – Just two race days remain in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) “Countdown to the Championship” and Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) driver Matt Hagan showed he is determined to stay in the heat of the battle for the Funny Car crown by qualifying his Dodge Power Brokers charger SRT Hellcat No. 2 for the 22nd annual Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the penultimate event of the six-race playoff series.

The three-time world champion sits third in the Funny Car standings going into Sunday’s elimination rounds after finishing runner-up to Ron Capps (second in points) at the previous race in Texas to put himself within 78 markers of the category leader Robert HIght heading into the weekend.

Following a pair of qualifying passes on Friday, the Dodge Power Brokers Funny Car was provisionally fifth after setting the third-best run of the first session with a 3.898-second lap at 333.25 mph to earn a bonus point. But Hagan, who has three wins (2017, 2019 and 2020) in the last five fall editions of the Las Vegas event, pressed even harder on Saturday to record a strong 3.862 sec./330.23 mph final qualifying run and earn three additional bonus points for the quickest pass of Q4. More importantly, that also put his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat in the No. 2 spot on the eliminations ladder behind Hight who leads Hagan by 83 points heading into race day. Hagan’s opening round opponent will be No. 15 seed Steven Densham.

TSR Top Fuel pilot Leah Pruett and her Dodge Power Brokers dragster were provisionally ninth after two Friday qualifying laps with a best run of 3.746 sec./329.18 mph, then improved their performance in the third session with a strong 3.716 second pass at 331.69 mph in a competitive field. That run put Pruett 11th on the eliminations ladder and paired her with No. 6 seed Mike Salinas for Sunday’s first round. Pruett is focused on going rounds on Sunday to help her break back into the Top Fuel top-ten as the team’s first season nears an end.

Last year’s Nevada Nationals Funny Car event winner Cruz Pedregon comes into the weekend ninth in points and while his team may not be in the championship hunt the way they were last season coming into Las Vegas, the team continues to make performance gains with the Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and is ready to play spoiler. Pedregon qualified 13th with the 3.945 sec./ 318.77 mph pass he made on his first qualifying pass and will battle No. 4 seed J.R. Todd in the first round.

Two shows with qualifying highlights from the NHRA Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will air on FS1 on Sunday, Oct. 30, at 9:30 a.m. ET (Q1 and Q2) and 12:30 p.m. ET(Q3 and Q4). Race day coverage on FS1 will begin at 5 p.m. ET.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

Leah Pruett, Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Power Brokers Top Fuel Dragster

(No. Qualifier – 3.716 seconds at 331.69 mph)

Qualifying 1: 12.009 seconds at 55.93 mph

Qualifying 2: 3.746 sec./329.18 mph

Qualifying 3: 3.716 sec./331.69 mph

Qualifying 4: 3.960 sec./228.15 mph

Matt Hagan, Tony Stewart Racing Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car

(No. 2 Qualifier – 3.862 seconds at 330.23 mph)

Qualifying 1: 3.898 seconds at 333.25 mph (1 bonus point for third quickest of session)

Qualifying 2: 4.353 sec./199.67 mph

Qualifying 3: 5.066 sec./147.09 mph

Qualifying 4: 3.862 sec./330.23 mph

Cruz Pedregon, Cruz Pedregon Racing Snap-on® Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat

(No. 13 Qualifier – 3.945 seconds at 318.77 mph)

Qualifying 1: 3.945 seconds at 318.77 mph

Qualifying 2: 6.963 sec./102.64 mph

Qualifying 3: 4.967 sec./153.70 mph

Qualifying 4: 5.085 sec./146.10 mph

NHRA CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS:

Following Nevada Nationals qualifying at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

FUNNY CAR (season wins in parentheses)

1. Robert Hight 2532 (8)

2. Ron Capps: 2511 (5)

3. Matt Hagan (Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat): 2449 (3)

4. John Force: 2386 (1)

5. Bob Tasca III: 2351(3)

6. Tim Wilkerson: 2261

7. J.R. Todd: 2255

8. Alexis DeJoria: 2239 (1)

9. Cruz Pedregon (Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat): 2222

10. Blake Alexander: 2150

11. Jim Campbell: 2149

TOP FUEL (season wins in parentheses)

1. Justin Ashley: 2461 (3)

2. Brittany Force: 2388 (4)

3. Antron Brown 2370 (3)

4. Steve Torrence: 2361 (2)

5. Mike Salinas: 2342 (4)

6. Josh Hart: 2307 (1)

7. Austin Prock: 2302 (1)

8. Doug Kalitta: 2284

9. Shawn Langdon: 2270

10. Clay Millican: 2249

11. Leah Pruett (Dodge Power Brokers): 2211 (1)

12. Tony Schumacher: 2184 (1)

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BRITTANY FORCE AND ROBERT HIGHT EARN TOP SPOTS AT THE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

BRITTANY FORCE AND ROBERT HIGHT EARN TOP SPOTS ATTHE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

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ASHLEY LOOKS TO EXTEND POINTS LEAD FROM THIRD STARTING SPOT

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

Former champ J.R. Todd leads the Toyota Funny Car contingent

LAS VEGAS (October 29, 2022) – Justin Ashley saved the best for last as he moved inside the top half of the ladder in the final qualifying session. The points leader ran a 3.686 to move up to third and draw Clay Millican. Shawn Langdon also had a strong qualifying effort inside the top-five.

In Funny Car, former Las Vegas winner and Funny Car champion J.R. Todd qualified a season-best fourth. Ron Capps, who began the weekend just 10 points out of the Funny Car points lead, qualified his GR Supra in sixth.

Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap

NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series

The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Race 21 of 22

TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS

Name	Car	Qualifying Position	First Round Opponent
Brittany Force*	Flav-R-Pac Top Fuel Dragster*	*1st (3.665)*	*Bye*
Justin Ashley	Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	3rd (3.686)	C. Millican
Shawn Langdon	DHL Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	5th (3.696)	K. Baldwin
Steve Torrence	Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	7th (3.698)	J. Hart
Doug Kalitta	Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	8th (3.708)	A. Brown
Antron Brown	Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	9th (3.710)	D. Kalitta

(*non-Toyota driver)

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS

Name	Car	Qualifying Position	First Round Opponent
Robert Hight*	AAA of Southern California Funny Car*	*1st (3.857)*	*T. Haddock*
J.R. Todd	DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	4th (3.870)	C. Pedregon
Ron Capps	NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	6th (3.889)	J. Campbell
Alexis DeJoria	Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	8th (3.919)	P. Lee

(*non-Toyota driver)

TOYOTA QUOTES

JUSTIN ASHLEY, Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Davis Motorsports

TF Qualifying Result: 3rd

How much confidence does that run in the final session give you going into tomorrow?

“A lot of confidence. To wrap up qualifying with a nice solid run like that – and to be truthful – no matter how we ran in that last session, I would have had a tremendous amount of confidence, and rightfully so, because this team has gotten up on race day every time, no matter where we qualified, but that is a really good base for us. Conditions are going to be similar tomorrow, so it gives us more data and information to overlay going into race day.”

What are your goals for tomorrow?

“For right now, my goals are to win round one. I will take it from there. Every race we come into trying to win, so that goal is not going to change – not that we are now in the Countdown, we are not going to change what we do. We are going to keep everything consistent and the same. Our goal tomorrow is to make it a long day and to put this Phillips Connect Toyota in the winner’s circle, but right now we are focused on Clay Millican. He’s a really tough competitor and we want to put our best foot forward in the first round.”

J.R. TODD, DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Kalitta Motorsports

FC Qualifying Result: 4th

How much are you looking forward to race day?

“That Friday night run was really encouraging. We’ve been trying to run like that for a while, just need to work on our consistency a little bit. We were definitely trying to run better tonight, and for whatever reason, it slowed down. The car is going down the track. I feel like we definitely have a really good DHL Toyota GR Supra that is capable of winning here. We’ve won here in the past – a few times – and it would be nice to leave here with a trophy on Sunday.”

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Sheldon Creed and the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Team Fight Hard for a Top-Five Finish at Martinsville Speedway

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

“I had a really fast Whelen Chevrolet today. I put us in a hole early by getting a speeding penalty, but luckily we were able to work as a team to recover and ultimately finish second. Our Chevrolet was tight all day, but our RCR team worked on it every chance we got. Towards the end of the race, it was crazy with guys moving and wrecking each other. I knew to have a shot for the win I needed to be aggressive, and that’s what I did. It feels good to leave Martinsville with second-place finish. I love racing here and RCR brought me a Chevrolet where I could race like i needed to.”

-Sheldon Creed

Austin Hill and the No. 21 Global Industrial Team Grab Ninth-Place Finish at Martinsville Speedway

“Our Global Industrial Chevrolet was good at the start of the race. We got up to 10th by the end of Stage 1 and had a really good car during Stage 2. We kind of started falling off toward the end of the run in that stage. As the race went on, we just lost a little bit of the handle. We were getting too loose on entry and too loose on exit and it was hurting our pace. It was really hard to attack the corners. The No. 51 got into me and that put us in the back with all the mess again. While I was trying to come back through the field the wreck happened between Turns 3 and 4 and I got a ton of damage on our car. I don’t know how we finished ninth. I was doing all I could to get back up there but was just nursing it at the end. Unfortunately, we’re out of the NASCAR Playoffs but will still go to Phoenix with the goal of winning and finishing the year on a strong note.”
-Austin Hill

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Burton Qualifies 10th at Martinsville

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

October 29, 2022

With a lap at 94.998 miles per hour in Saturday’s qualifying session at Martinsville Speedway, Harrison Burton and his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team earned a top-10 starting spot for Sunday’s Xfinity 500.

It was Burton’s fourth top-10 start of the season and his second in the past three races, the first being an 8^th-place start two races back at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

He turned a lap at 95.917 mph in the opening qualifying round, where he was third-fastest in his group and earned a trip to the final round, where he wound up 10^th.

Burton’s speeds in qualifying were faster than he ran in practice earlier in the day where he was 20^th on the speed chart with a best lap at 94.181 mph. That came on the 19^th of the 35 laps he ran in the session.

Sunday’s Xfinity 500 is set to get the green flag just after 2 p.m., with TV coverage on NBC.

Stage breaks are set for Laps 130 and 260.

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KYLE LARSON TO LEAD FIELD TO THE GREEN FROM THE POLE AT MARTINSVILLE

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY XFINITY 500 TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT OCTOBER 29, 2022

KYLE LARSON TO LEAD FIELD TO THE GREEN FROM THE POLE AT MARTINSVILLECamaro ZL1 Sweeps Front Row

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Win Press ConferenceALL OF THIS SEEMS TO BE COMING TWO OR THREE WEEKS LATE FOR YOU, AS FAR AS MAKING A PLAYOFF RUN. DO YOU LOOK AT THIS AS BUILDING FOR 2023 AT THIS POINT? “No.. I view it as we need to keep running good so we can go win an owner’s title next week. I don’t view it any differently than if I was in the Round of 8 or not. Maybe I would think differently had I not won the championship last year. I would probably be a little bit more bummed internally. But I’m just as motivated now as I was four weeks ago. It was great to win last weekend and get the pole here today, and I would love to continue the momentum throughout the race tomorrow to help us go have a good run next week.” IS THE CAR AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS?“Yeah, probably a lot better than I am (laughs). I struggle at this place. I can put some good laps together, but I’m pretty inconsistent. I don’t think that’s a car thing. I think my car is really good; that shows with my teammates and how well they’ve run here the last few years. I’ve worked really hard to get better here. I still don’t quite have it figured out, or even close to figured out, but days like today help give you a little more confidence. The good track position with how difficult it is to pass in this car will help us for tomorrow and hopefully I can be good enough to keep it up front and have a good finish.” BUBBA (WALLACE) ADDRESSED THE MEDIA THIS MORNING AND HE SAID YOU GUYS HAD A GOOD TALK. DID IT MATTER, IF AT ALL, THAT YOU GUYS HAD THAT TALK? “Yeah, it was great to have that talk. I said the same thing. I came downstairs and told my wife that Bubba (Wallace) and I had a great conversation. I thought it went really well and I think we’ve both moved on from it really fast. It was good to have a talk; good to just talk over the frustrations and mistakes on both of our parts. Move on and forget about it, and get back to racing. I feel like we’ve raced really well together in the past. Hopefully I don’t make any more mistakes and we can continue to race good.” HOW MUCH DIFFERENT DOES THE CAR FEEL NOW THAN IT DID IN THE SPRING?“It was so long ago that I don’t really remember. I don’t think it’s way different. You’re still loose in; still loose off. I don’t know. The track lays more rubber, but I don’t really think that’s changing things quite like it did with the old car. I’m not sure. I think it’s going to be a similar race to what we saw earlier this year.” WITH SOME OF THE DESPERATION FROM SOME OF THE GUYS IN THE ROUND OF 8 TO MAKE IT TO THE FINAL FOUR.. HOW DO YOU KEEP YOURSELF OUT OF GETTING INVOLVED IN AN INCIDENT?“I don’t know.. try to lead every lap I guess (laughs). I look at really the No. 14 (Chase Briscoe); he looked really strong in practice. He’s definitely one of the most aggressive drivers in the field, and then you throw in the fact that he has to win to advance. I’m sure if he’s anywhere near the front of the field at the end, it’s going to get wild. We’ll see.. hopefully I’m in front of it or in front of him, and can avoid any issues. He could get to the lead and walk away with this thing too. That’s how good I thought his car looked in practice.” WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON ALEX (BOWMAN) BEING MEDICALLY CLEARED TO RACE BEFORE THE SEASON ENDS?“Yeah, that’s huge. I wasn’t quite sure if he would be able to race before the end of the year or not. I think that will be great for himself; his mind and knowing that he can do it, or just give him the confidence to get out there, race and compete. If things don’t quite feel 100% once he gets out there, now he knows and he has the whole off season to prepare. I think it’s good that he’s getting the opportunity to race and got cleared. He’s been working really, really hard. I don’t get to work out in the gym quite as often as he does, but I know he’s been working out multiple times a day, every day, and trying his best to get back in. Great to see the improvement from the hard work pay off. I hope he can have a good run next weekend. It’s just great to have him back in the car.” IT DIDN’T LOOK LIKE A LOT OF GUYS IN PRACTICE RAN IN TRAFFIC THAT MUCH. OBVIOUSLY, AFTER THE FIRST RACE, THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF TESTING THAT NASCAR HAS DONE ON BOTH THE TIRE AND ALSO PARTS OF THE NEXT GEN CAR. WERE YOU ABLE TO FEEL ANYTHING THAT FELT SIMILAR OR DIFFERENT TO WHAT YOU GUYS EXPERIENCED IN THE SPRING HERE?“Somebody would have to tell me if there is anything different. I don’t really know if there is anything different, so I’m not sure how to answer that. If there is something different, I didn’t feel a difference. And if there’s not a difference, that’s probably why I didn’t feel a difference. I don’t know how to answer that. It felt similar to earlier this year.”

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chevy racing–nascar–martinsville–pole winner Kyle larson

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY XFINITY 500 TEAM CHEVY POLE WINNER QUOTE OCTOBER 29, 2022

   KYLE LARSON TO LEAD FIELD TO THE GREEN FROM THE POLE AT MARTINSVILLECamaro ZL1 Sweeps Front Row ·       Last week’s NASCAR Cup Series winner, Kyle Larson, will lead the field to the green in tomorrow’s Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway. Larson clocked in a fastest lap of 19.709 seconds in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 to capture the pole.
·       The feat marks Larson’s fourth NASCAR Cup Series pole win of 2022; and his 14th career pole in 294 starts in the series.
·       Larson’s pole gives Chevrolet its 11th NASCAR Cup Series pole win of 2022; and 734th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series history.
·       Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, qualified second in his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1, giving Chevrolet a sweep of the front row starting spots for tomorrow’s NASCAR Cup Series Round of 8 elimination race.
TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-20 STARTING LINEUP:  POS.   DRIVER1st      Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 2nd     Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL17th      Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Worldwide Express Camaro ZL19th      Ross Chastain, No. 1 Moose Fraternity Camaro ZL114th    Corey LaJoie, No. 7 ARK.io Camaro ZL116th    Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Camaro ZL117th    Noah Gragson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL STARTING LINEUP: POS.  DRIVER1st      Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)2nd     Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)3rd      Chase Briscoe (Ford)4th      Ryan Blaney (Ford)5th      Cole Custer (Ford)
KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner Quick QuoteKYLE, WHAT A RUN YOU GUYS ARE ON. DID YOU FEEL LIKE THAT WAS A POLE LAP? “I don’t know.. I just tried to be smooth, keep traction the whole lap and it worked out. I tried to go a little bit harder the first lap than I did the round before. I kind of locked up, so I just kind of backed it down the second lap. I feel like a lot of times here, slower is faster, so I just tried to be smooth with it. I’m surprised I did anything good here at Martinsville (Speedway), so off to a good start so far. Hopefully we can keep it going tomorrow.” YOU GUYS ARE ON SUCH A GOOD RUN. DO YOU EVER THINK ABOUT, IF YOU DID MAKE IT THROUGH TO THIS ROUND, WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN? “No, my mindset hasn’t really changed at all, really. Just grateful to still have the opportunity to race for an owner’s championship. Yeah, three more points would be good, but I honestly don’t lose any sleep about it. I’ve got one championship under my belt and going for another one these next couple of weeks. I feel like going for an owner’s title is really what’s important.
Looking forward to it. Thank you to everybody at Hendrick Automotive Group, HendrickCars.com, Hendrick Motorsports. Chase (Elliott) and I on the front row will be pretty cool. Hopefully we’ll get Chase and William (Byron) locked-in through this round and give Mr. H a few shots at the championship.”

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chevy racing–nascar–martinsville–william byron

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES

MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY

XFINITY 500

TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT

OCTOBER 29, 2022

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Martinsville Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:

DENNY HAMLIN IS THE BEST ACTIVE DRIVER HERE, IF YOU LOOK AT THE STATS. YOU ARE THE MOST RECENT WINNER HERE; HE DID NOT DO WELL IN THE SPRING. WHO HAS THE ADVANTAGE?

“I don’t know.. you tell me. I feel like we’ll know when we get done today a little bit; and then we’ll know more halfway through the race tomorrow. Martinsville (Speedway) has been a good track for us for the last two, two and a half years. Really my rookie year was probably my biggest struggle; and then after that, it pretty much clicked. I like this place. It’s where I grew up watching races, so I feel like I have a good idea of what to look for and how the track changes. When you enjoy coming to a place, you seem to have some success there.”

WHAT HAS THIS PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE BEEN LIKE FOR YOU, AS OPPOSED TO THE LAST ONE?

“It’s been enjoyable. I think there has been little check marks along the way. I think in a lot of ways, we had a little bit of a better performance throughout the entire year last year, and then we got to the playoffs and we kind of stumbled. But I feel like this year, we put a lot of emphasis on getting a couple wins early. We spent the summer trying to learn, and then we showed up to playoffs with good speed. We won the first stage of the playoffs at Darlington (Raceway) and we’ve scored a lot of points. I feel good about our playoffs. I think there’s been a couple of missed opportunities here and there that we could do a little bit better at executing the entire race, but we’ve had speed every week, so now is the time to show that.”

DO YOU ENJOY THE PLAYOFF ATMOSPHERE AND THE DIFFERENT THINGS THAT COME WITH IT?

“I do. I enjoy the competition. I don’t enjoy some of the other things that come outside of it, but I enjoy the competition. I was driving up here last night thinking that there’s no other feeling like this. You don’t get this feeling at the beginning of the year; you don’t get it in the middle of the year. You get this feeling now. So, I think that’s the cool thing; the thought process and the feelings you get knowing that you’re doing something important.”

YOU’VE TALKED MANY TIMES ABOUT HOW JIMMIE JOHNSON WAS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITES. IS THERE ANYTHING FROM YEARS OF BEING A KID, WATCHING HIM, THAT YOU’RE USING THIS WEEK AND POTENTIALLY NEXT WEEK?

“Yeah, that’s a good point. I haven’t really thought of it. But yeah, certainly some of those things are engrained in my memory of how he and Chad (Knaus) did things on that No. 48 team and how Jimmie executed races here for wins. A lot of that stuff is way back in my head somewhere, but it probably factors in a little bit to my instincts.”

I SAW CHAD (KNAUS) HERE THIS MORNING. WHAT’S IT LIKE TO HAVE HIM AROUND? THAT’S THE GUY WHO’S BEHIND ALL OF THAT SUCCESS AND NOW HE’S THERE BEING A MENTOR TO YOU. THAT HAS TO BE A BIG ASSET TO HAVE.

“Yeah, it is. Chad (Knaus) and I were on the phone this week talking – not anything about racing, at first – but we were talking about where he wants to get Kipling into school. We started talking about this weekend a little bit. I asked him a couple of questions for advice. It’s really cool to have that.. to have him in our corner and have someone that’s been there, done that; and been in these exact situations and has an idea of how to handle it. I thought it was really cool trying to pick his brain a little bit and get an idea of what it’s like.”

YOU DON’T SEEM NERVOUS AT ALL.. EMBRACING THIS OPPORTUNITY AND LOOKING FORWARD TO IT, RATHER THAN BEING ANXIOUS ABOUT IT. WHAT’S THAT EVOLUTION BEEN LIKE FOR YOU? THREE OR FOUR YEARS AGO, WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN THIS CALM?

“Number one, I feel like I’ve been in this position a couple of times. I just know how it was for me at the start of my career when I was nervous for every practice session. Nervous for every qualifying session and dreading the race, not knowing what’s going to happen. I think I’ve just matured, like you said, and learned how to approach it. I’ve learned what’s worked for me and I think that’s what’s led to this mindset. It’s like self-growth. I don’t think it’s taken any certain thing to happen from the outside to grow that, but I think it’s been the experiences that I’ve had at a young age that I’ve learned what works for me. I’ve learned what I want to feel before I get in the race car and what I want to feel in these moments.

Also, this is a situation that is an opportunity. I’ve never been in this position and I hope to be in it many times. But it’s something I look at as an opportunity that I want to make the most of.”

DOES THE FACT THAT YOU CAME HERE EARLIER IN THE YEAR AND WON.. DOES THAT GIVE YOU ANY EXTRA CONFIDENCE COMING INTO THIS WEEKEND; OR HAS TOO MUCH CHANGED SINCE THEN?

“Yeah, certainly. I think I was more nervous for Homestead. I didn’t feel like we had a great test down there, but I was pleasantly surprised by the speed that we brought to the race. I think I was more nervous last week, not knowing what the performance was going to be like.

Yeah, there’s a little bit of confidence going into this race since we had a good race in the spring. But at the same time, we had a test here, and you don’t know who’s going to be good or not, based on that test.

It’s kind of up in the air. I feel good about this race track, but you just don’t know until you get out there. That’s honestly my mentality.. just try to get in the car and not think too much.”

DOES WHERE YOU QUALIFY DETERMINE HOW YOU’RE GOING TO RACE; OR DO YOU AND RUDY (FUGLE) KIND OF ALREADY HAVE A PLAN GOING IN?

“Yeah, it’s going to definitely factor into how you approach that first stage. So I think a good qualifying effort, it’s good for pit selection. We’ve all talked about that stuff. But I think you just have to roll with the punches. If it doesn’t go well in qualifying for some reason, we still start the race with the same amount of points above the cutline. We will still have an opportunity in the first stage to go get them, it’s just going to make it a little bit more difficult. We pride ourselves on good qualifying efforts in the fall so far, so hopefully we can do that again.”

THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF CRITICISM AS TO HOW THE RACING WAS HERE IN THE SPRING. BUT FROM YOUR VIEW, I WOULD IMAGINE IT WAS PRETTY GOOD. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT, WHEN YOU HEAR PEOPLE CRITICIZE RACES WHERE YOU KIND OF STUNK UP THE SHOW?

“Yeah, I liked it. I thought our car was really good and we got to show that. The race certainly could have been better. I think we’ve seen at the road courses and the short tracks, it’s hard to pass. I want it to be better, for the sake if I’m having a bad day, that I can improve it. If we get the car a little bit better, we can make passes. But selfishly, in the spring, it was a great race.”

HAVE YOU TALKED TO JIMMIE JOHNSON AT ALL IN THE LAST MONTH OR TWO? IF SO, WHAT ADVICE HAS HE GIVEN YOU ABOUT NAVIGATING THESE PLAYOFFS?

“We haven’t talked. I think I’m just trying to experience it all for the first time. I don’t know what questions I have, yet. I think maybe the second go around, when I get through this year and experience what I’ve experienced, then I will have an idea. But luckily, I have some good people in my corner – within my team and outside of my team – so I just try to stay focused on the task at hand and not overthink it too much.”

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Slone, Presnell, Windham score World Short Track Hornet Friday Feature wins

November 1, 2022 ARP Trish

CONCORD, NC (Oct. 28, 2022) – The first three DIRTVision Hornet Features for the seventh annual World Short Track Championship at The Dirt Track at Charlotte saw two repeat victors and a first-time winner.

With 55 Hornets entered for the division’s marquee event, the field was split into three 15-lap Features Friday night.

Zack Slone, in his first ever World Short Track Championship start, claimed his first event victory in the first Feature, while Newman Presnell and John Windham returned to Victory Lane in the proceeding two.

Here is how each Feature played out…

FEATURE #1
When the green flag flew for the first DIRTVision Hornet Feature of the night, Seth Smith earned the title as the first Hornet driver to lead a lap this weekend. However, his claim to the lead was short lived.

After a restart on Lap 4, Smith became prey to two starving hunters. Brad McManus and Zack Slone stayed within inches of Smith on the restart, making a tight three-way battle for the lead.

The trio dueled for multiple laps before McManus and Slone overpowered Smith for the top two spots.

Ripping the high side of the 4/10-mile track, about bicycling his car every lap with the left rear leaving the ground on corner entry, Slone found an opening to the outside of McManus and passed him for the lead by the halfway point of the race.

With four laps to go, Smith suffered an issue, bringing his car to a stop in Turn 4, and brought out a caution. On the restart, McManus looked low on Slone into Turn 1, but Slone had the better momentum up top and drove away with his first career World Short Track Championship victory.

“It feels amazing, man” Slone said, trying to catch his breath with every word. “Literally built this motor… had it built last week and blew it up in four laps, rushed to get it together for tonight and bring it out here and win in my first try. It feels great.

“I’m known for finishing second a lot. Leading the whole race and losing it on the last lap. I’m happy to finish it off this time.”

McManus settled for second, CJ LaVair finished third, Ricky Weaver fourth and Hunter Wallace rounded out the top five.

FULL RESULTS (Feature #1 – 15 laps):
1. 91Z-Zack Slone[9]; 2. 3B-Brad McManus[7]; 3. C4-CJ LaVair[16]; 4. 21-Ricky Weaver[15]; 5. 1X-Hunter Wallace[10]; 6. 4-Daniel Wright[18]; 7. 5H-Tyler Hopkins[2]; 8. 74N-Allen Wyatt[8]; 9. D2-Danny Tate[5]; 10. 12Y-Lonnie Laney[14]; 11. 04-Dustin Miller[3]; 12. 58-Ronnie Hall[12]; 13. A2-Carson Venable[6]; 14. 243-Seth Smith[1]; 15. 25X-Daniel McManus[17]; 16. 0H-Jacob Hayes[4]; 17. 0-Shawn Peche[13]; 18. 4M-Billy Mack; 19. 4X-Cookie Thompson[19]; 20. (DNS) 41-Parker Griffin

FEATURE #2
After crowning a first-time DIRTVision Hornet World Short Track Championship winner in first Feature, a multi-time winner reigned supreme at the conclusion of the second.

When the second Feature commenced, polesitter Wayne Taylor could barely get a step ahead before being pulled into a battle for the top spot by Cale Deese and Newman Presnell – who had already worked his way from fifth to third.

Deese edged ahead of them down the backstretch to claim the early lead. However, his moment of glory was also short lived. After stalking Deese for a couple laps, Presnell threw a slide job into Turn 3 and cleared Deese by the next turn.

From there, Presnell – who won both of his World Short Track Championship Hornet races last year – put his #48 car on cruise control and drove to his third straight Dirt Track at Charlotte victory.

“We had a pretty good car,” Presnell said. “We won here last year in both our races. I knew we had a good car and a good setup. Just stay smooth. Fifteen laps. That’s a lot of time to make it to the front. The track is big and wide. Just stay smooth. Stay consistent. Run my own race and it worked out good for us.”

Deese finished second with Taylor third, Justin Harris fourth and “Top-Five Ken” Kenneth Colf in fifth.

FULL RESULTS (Feature #2 – 15 laps)
1. 48-Newman Presnell[5]; 2. 35-Cale Deese[2]; 3. 14T-Wayne Taylor[1]; 4. 1H-Justin Harris[4]; 5. 15-Kenneth Colf[12]; 6. 05-Jammie Kelly[16]; 7. 359-Michael Lambert[13]; 8. H2-Alex Brooks[10]; 9. 12X-David Laney[17]; 10. 23-Eric Grant[18]; 11. 41JR-Kolten Saam[3]; 12. 0S-Tony Slack[7]; 13. 2020-James Harrelson[14]; 14. 7L-Marcus Locklear[6]; 15. (DNS) 5-Sean Vardell; 16. (DNS) 2D-Daniel Tate; 17. (DNS) A23-Andrew Rich; 18. (DNS) 4M-Billy Mack

FEATURE #3
The war for a World Short Track Championship win continued into the final DIRTVision Hornet Feature of the night, with John Windham and Dan Benson breaking out the boxing gloves in the opening laps.

When the cars exited Turn 4 and saw the green flag on the initial start, Windham dove underneath Benson into the first corner. Inches apart, and at times rubbing fenders, the two ran side by side the first lap, arguing over who would sit on the Victory Lane throne.

Windham got the advantage their second time around the track, pulling ahead of Benson for the lead in Turn 3. But keeping his foot in the throttle, Benson stayed on Windham’s rear bumper through the corner, nearly getting his rival out of shape.

“Heck, I thought he was about to take me out a couple of times,” Windham said. “I thought I was about to get wrecked.

Windham managed to keep control of his car and power away from Benson once he found clean air. Then, he continued to put seconds between them.

In the closing stages of the race, Benson, again, found himself in a side-by-side battle to defend his spot. Chris Harrell, who started 18th, had been on a charge all race. He found himself in the top 10 on the first lap and then methodically worked his way forward. He caught Benson by the halfway point and eventually stole second with five laps to go.

By that point, Windham was too far ahead for Harrell to try and catch.

While everyone dueled for positions, Windham was making qualifying laps and crossed the finish line with a more than four-second lead to claim his second World Short Championship victory.

“It felt good,” Windham said. “It wouldn’t get through the center real good. But it was fast. It felt good.”

Harrell settled for second, Benson was third, Kylee Laws finished fourth and Chris Baker rounded out the top five.

FULL RESULTS (Feature #3 – 15 laps)
1. 65-John Windham[8]; 2. 95-Chris Harrell[18]; 3. 21C-Dan Benson[2]; 4. 2-Kylee Laws[3]; 5. 5B-Chris Baker[13]; 6. 11-Jonathan Sarratt[17]; 7. 711-Kenneth Long Jr[7]; 8. 41K-Kelly Rash[12]; 9. 14-Jonathan Leophard[15]; 10. 13X-Ben Messer[1]; 11. 18E-William Estep[5]; 12. 5T-Reggie Twing[14]; 13. 64-Mike Budka Jr[10]; 14. 38-Rodney Grant[16]; 15. 25J-Josh Whitfield[6]; 16. 00-Michael Wallace[4]; 17. 77-Dallas Griggs[11]; 18. (DNS) 13B-Brandon Collins

UP NEXT: The DIRTVision Hornets will run three more Features on Saturday, Oct. 29, to conclude the seventh annual World Short Track Championship. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch the full day of racing, starting at 4pm (ET), live on DIRTVision – either at DIRTVision.com or by downloading the DIRTVision App.

FULL FRIDAY RESULTS:

Summit Racing Equipment DIRTcar UMP Modifieds
Last Chance Showdown 1
1. 44-Jeff Parsons[1]; 2. 18-Brandon Kinzer[4]; 3. 12R-Ty Rhoades[5]; 4. 99-Cole Hilton[2]; 5. 88-Matt Crafton[8]; 6. T2-Greg Hauger[3]; 7. 74-Mike Franklin[9]; 8. 12-Skylar Marlar[12]; 9. 4M-Tim Monroe[20]; 10. 9T-Mason Canter[19]; 11. 22-Donnie Levister[16]; 12. 814-Samuel Lamborgini[11]; 13. 55-Alyssa Rowe[14]; 14. 463-Daniel Sanchez[13]; 15. (DNS) 6-Ryan Ayers; 16. (DNS) 52-Colin Green; 17. (DNS) 72-Todd Neiheiser; 18. (DNS) 5CS-Curt Spalding; 19. (DNS) 35-David Stremme; 20. (DNS) 7T-Drake Troutman

Heat 1
1. 21-Taylor Cook[2]; 2. 00-Ethan Dotson[1]; 3. 5-Jonathan Taylor[4]; 4. 77-George Dixon[3]; 5. 44-Jeff Parsons[5]; 6. 12R-Ty Rhoades[6]; 7. 74-Mike Franklin[9]; 8. 463-Daniel Sanchez[8]; 9. (DNS) 7T-Drake Troutman

Heat 2
1. 8S-Kyle Strickler[2]; 2. 71D-Chris Madden[1]; 3. 21S-Kenny Shaw[4]; 4. 95J-Justin Cullum[9]; 5. 99-Cole Hilton[7]; 6. 72-Todd Neiheiser[6]; 7. 52-Colin Green[5]; 8. 55-Alyssa Rowe[8]; 9. (DNS) 5CS-Curt Spalding

Heat 3
1. 96M-Mike McKinney[5]; 2. 8-Austin Holcombe[2]; 3. 7-Evan Taylor[3]; 4. 79D-John DeMoss[6]; 5. T2-Greg Hauger[7]; 6. 35-David Stremme[1]; 7. 814-Samuel Lamborgini[9]; 8. 6-Ryan Ayers[4]; 9. 9T-Mason Canter[8]

Heat 4
1. 99H-Justin Haley[1]; 2. 99W-Chris Arnold[2]; 3. 11-Troy Loomis[3]; 4. 25-Jason Altiers[4]; 5. 18-Brandon Kinzer[5]; 6. 88-Matt Crafton[6]; 7. 12-Skylar Marlar[9]; 8. 22-Donnie Levister[8]; 9. 4M-Tim Monroe[7]

Hoosier Racing Tire Pro Modifieds
Heat 1
1. 42-Kevin Pangrazio[2]; 2. 25-Robert Poole[3]; 3. 23-Buck Stevens[7]; 4. 00-Preston Blalock[5]; 5. 09-Michael Leach[9]; 6. 18F-Jordan Fegter[4]; 7. 20-Blake Hedrick[6]; 8. 21A-Adam Favors[8]; 9. 66-Jamie Throckmorton[1]

Heat 2
1. 6-Ryan Ayers[1]; 2. 20S-Trey Stamper[3]; 3. 59-Grayson Wells[4]; 4. 20H-Brandon Hall[5]; 5. 16-Daniel Allen[8]; 6. 92-Larry Martin[6]; 7. 17-Case Daniels[7]; 8. 00B-JP Blalock[9]; 9. 42X-Michael Selig[2]

Heat 3
1. 11-Eric Bentley[1]; 2. 14-Jeff Robinson[6]; 3. 56-Justin Blevins[5]; 4. 18D-Phillip Benfield[2]; 5. 73-Chris Nickerson[9]; 6. 06-Sean Meeks[7]; 7. 15-Morgan Widener[8]; 8. 71-Dennis Kirk[3]; 9. 7D-JR Davis[4]

Heat 4
1. 83-Kevin Vanhorn[1]; 2. 23B-Spencer Boyd[9]; 3. 121-Chase Cardwell[7]; 4. 04-Cole Wagoner[5]; 5. 28-RK Dix[8]; 6. 89-Heath Martin[3]; 7. 69-Harley Stanley[6]; 8. 8P-Jason Powers[2]; 9. 27-Bryan Martin[4]

Heat 5
1. 44-Brian Nickerson[1]; 2. 2J-Jake Barneycastle[7]; 3. 8A-Austin Holcombe[8]; 4. 5W-Ethan Wilson[9]; 5. 19-Ryan Morgan[6]; 6. 50-Ronald Covey[2]; 7. 18-Ray Suman[5]; 8. 12-Jerry Reich[4]; 9. 58-Brady Pyrtle[3]

Heat 6
1. 2T-Ty Norder[2]; 2. 45-Cambridge Gann[3]; 3. 312-Greg Brown[4]; 4. 23A-Austin Self[6]; 5. 13-Quentin Haley[1]; 6. 1G-Grayson Keaton[7]; 7. 29-Brandon Bentley[9]; 8. 35-Ryan Dolan[5]; 9. 72-Patrick Field[8]

Fox Factory Pro Late Models
Last Chance Showdown 11. 08-Layton Sullivan[1]; 2. 00-Kendal Tucker[2]; 3. 7-Daniel Breuer[3]; 4. 615-Colton Trouille[5]; 5. T20-Taylor Wood[8]; 6. 17-Jeffrey Johnson[4]; 7. 15M-Gary Mabe[6]; 8. 17M-Billy Martin[7]; 9. 70-Roger Lankford[13]; 10. 25M-Marc Berzowski[12]; 11. 10E-Patrick Evatt[10]; 12. (DNS) 10-Matt Ashworth; 13. (DNS) 20G-Chub Gunter

Last Chance Showdown 21. 55H-Benji Hicks[1]; 2. 555-Brock Pinkerous[2]; 3. 74-Mike Franklin[7]; 4. 29-Dale Moore[5]; 5. 2-Shawn Martin[4]; 6. 89-Timmie Harrelson[3]; 7. 57-Keaton Smith[10]; 8. 143-Brian Ledbetter[6]; 9. 62-Jacob Lehn[9]; 10. 228-William Russell III[8]; 11. 15-Chuck Melton[12]; 12. 37-Tommy Eastridge[13]; 13. 12-Randy Pinnix[11]

Heat Race 1
1. 5Q-Colby Quick[1]; 2. 114-Jordan Koehler[2]; 3. 22-Jeremy Steele[6]; 4. 24-Jacob Brown[4]; 5. 08-Layton Sullivan[7]; 6. 7-Daniel Breuer[5]; 7. 615-Colton Trouille[11]; 8. 17M-Billy Martin[9]; 9. 10-Matt Ashworth[8]; 10. 20G-Chub Gunter[3]; 11. 70-Roger Lankford[10]

Heat Race 2
1. 18-Ricky Greene[1]; 2. 55-Matt Long[2]; 3. 7J-Dalton Jacobs[3]; 4. 136-David Pangrazio[5]; 5. 00-Kendal Tucker[4]; 6. 17-Jeffrey Johnson[7]; 7. 15M-Gary Mabe[8]; 8. T20-Taylor Wood[6]; 9. 10E-Patrick Evatt[10]; 10. 25M-Marc Berzowski[9]

Heat Race 3
1. 215-Jamison McBride[1]; 2. 66-Jody Knowles[7]; 3. 12C-Cody Cubbage[2]; 4. 27H-Justin Hudspeth[6]; 5. 55H-Benji Hicks[5]; 6. 89-Timmie Harrelson[3]; 7. 29-Dale Moore[4]; 8. 74-Mike Franklin[9]; 9. 62-Jacob Lehn[10]; 10. 12-Randy Pinnix[8]; 11. 37-Tommy Eastridge[11]

Heat Race 4
1. 6-Dillon Brown[1]; 2. G4-Trent Ivey[3]; 3. 31G-Stephen Pedulla[2]; 4. 5S-Joey Johnson[4]; 5. 555-Brock Pinkerous[6]; 6. 2-Shawn Martin[5]; 7. 143-Brian Ledbetter[10]; 8. 228-William Russell III[7]; 9. 57-Keaton Smith[8]; 10. 15-Chuck Melton[9]

Chevrolet Performance 602 Late Models
Heat Race 1
1. 149-Seth Speed[1]; 2. 114K-Jordan Koehler[6]; 3. 18D-Chuckie Duncan[4]; 4. 18M-Austin Mintz[10]; 5. JR1-Jake Jackson[5]; 6. 6C-Brian Carter[2]; 7. P4-John Price[12]; 8. 1-Morghan Johnson[7]; 9. 5S-Robbie Stevens[11]; 10. *1-Brad Rachels[8]; 11. 41-Mike Lemley[9]; 12. 7-Ronnie Long[3]

Heat Race 2
1. C10-Carl Currin[2]; 2. 17-Chris Joyce[3]; 3. 10P-Tyler Payne[5]; 4. 12-Justin Taylor[7]; 5. 18-Preston Blalock[12]; 6. 03W-Jason Welborn[4]; 7. 92-Tanner Fortune[6]; 8. 27-Mike Davidson[9]; 9. 22-Caleb Simmons[8]; 10. 22T-Steven Thompkins II[10]; 11. (DNS) U2-William Sullivan; 12. (DQ) 300-Bill Tesh[1]

Heat Race 3
1. 19-Gavin Cowan[8]; 2. 24-AJ Belanger[2]; 3. 9-Cole Hedrick[3]; 4. 2-Brady Cornett[5]; 5. 67-Bryan Mullis[7]; 6. T2-Travis Sharpe[9]; 7. 7J-Dalton Jacobs[10]; 8. 32W-Tony Whittier[6]; 9. 81-Keith Hart[1]; 10. 28-Keith Hawkins[4]; 11. 33-Jeremy Fowler[11]

Heat Race 4
1. 10-Daniel Parker[4]; 2. 114-Evan Koehler[1]; 3. 14M-Baron McDowell[9]; 4. 66-Preston Dimsdale[6]; 5. 15-Daniel Durham[2]; 6. 22W-Nathan Walker[3]; 7. 32K-Tyler Kussman[10]; 8. 57-Luke Cooper[11]; 9. 0-Olivia Gentry[7]; 10. LIL17-Jeremiah Johnson[5]; 11. 5-Robbie Gibson[8]

MSD Pro Stocks
Heat 1
1. 72G-Denis Gauvreau[1]; 2. 2-Pete Stefanski[4]; 3. 9S-Luke Horning[5]; 4. 17-Nick Hilt[3]; 5. 4M-Jordan Modiano[2]; 6. 33-Bruno Cyr[7]; 7. 14J-Johnny Rivers Jr[6]; 8. 09-Shawn Perez Sr[8]; 9. 63-Ryan Crellin[11]; 10. 11-Stéphane Larivière[9]; 11. 58-Roxanne Roy[10]

Heat 2
1. 8-Marc Lalonde[1]; 2. 32-Jonathan Levesque[4]; 3. 00X-Josh Coonradt[3]; 4. 8C-Sean Corr[2]; 5. 92-Sheldon Martin[6]; 6. 38JR-Justin Chaput[5]; 7. 6-Stephane Lebrun[11]; 8. 09J-Shawn Perez Jr[7]; 9. 35-Jonathan Lemay[9]; 10. 9-Eric Jean Louis[10]; 11. 6C-Brian Carter[8]

VP Racing Fuels Sportsman Modifieds
Heat 1
1. 89-Dylan Madsen[1]; 2. 5C-Ayden Cipriano[2]; 3. 20X-Kevin Ridley[3]; 4. 99-Jordan Millard[6]; 5. 26-Derrick McGrew[4]; 6. 44C-Dave Conant[5]; 7. 52-Jessica Power[8]; 8. 29-Tanner Forbes[9]; 9. 49-Chris Jakubiak[7]; 10. 23C-Tommy D’Angelo[11]; 11. 47-Walter Cook[10]

Heat 2
1. 01-Zachary Buff[1]; 2. 92-Andrew Buff[2]; 3. 410-Mike Fowler[4]; 4. 44-David Rogers[3]; 5. 78-Michael Wright[5]; 6. 18-Blayden Arquette[6]; 7. 7X-Chuck Miller[7]; 8. 23-Cole Perry[8]; 9. 1R-Ricky Thompson[10]; 10. 73G-Gordon Hermanson Jr[9]

COMP Cams Monster Mini-Stocks
Heat 1
1. 117-Matt Gilbert[10]; 2. 19-Travis Mosley[9]; 3. 98-Michael Webb[3]; 4. 44-Marcus Hughes[1]; 5. B03-Damien Bryant[8]; 6. 2-James Manning[5]; 7. X-Kevin Cooper[4]; 8. 56A-Ken Appleton[7]; 9. 21-JR Warren[6]; 10. 62-Jason Adams[2]

Heat 2
1. 8J11-Ronnie Johnson[6]; 2. 04-Austin Brown[10]; 3. 28C-Brent Couch[9]; 4. 69-Billy Cline[2]; 5. 5-Bryan Harrelson[5]; 6. 37-Ben Burnett[7]; 7. 212-Greg Brew[4]; 8. 07G-Raylee Shatley[1]; 9. 56-Nick Fulcher[3]; 10. (DNS) 71-Bradley Southern

Heat 3
1. 96B-Stacy Brock[1]; 2. 84-Kyle Cooper[3]; 3. 2W-Dylan Warden[9]; 4. H3-Harley Holden[4]; 5. 12-Pete Brew[10]; 6. 8-Dustin Bolin[2]; 7. 72-Travis Harden[7]; 8. 95-Kevin Atwell[6]; 9. 15-Zach Lankford[5]; 10. 12M-Randy Melton[8]

Heat 4
1. 10-Logan Richey[6]; 2. 24-Josh Bryant[8]; 3. 7X-Jessie Richardson Jr[4]; 4. 96X-Tyler Riddle[7]; 5. 17-Nick Broome[9]; 6. 5C-Connor Keaton[1]; 7. 04W-Phillip Wilson[10]; 8. 99-Daniel Coffey[2]; 9. 96-Tanner Cook[3]; 10. 1G-Grayson Keaton[5]

ARP Street Stocks
Heat 1
1. 70-Mike Grady Jr[1]; 2. 26-Brandon White[6]; 3. 2-Bradley Weaver[4]; 4. 81-Justin Barber[7]; 5. 92-Tanner Fortune[9]; 6. 73-Timmy Smith[11]; 7. 7B-Mickey Barnes[5]; 8. 40B-Todd Bolin[2]; 9. 7-John Cagle[3]; 10. 83-Calob McLaughlin[8]; 11. 5N-Nick Evans[10]

Heat 2
1. 18D-MItchell Duvall[3]; 2. 96-Dalton Pannell[5]; 3. 01-Patrick Lyon[4]; 4. 51-Phoenix Lawter[9]; 5. 7DD-David Duke[10]; 6. 15-Rick Potter[8]; 7. 11-Robbie Mooneyham[6]; 8. 9S-Chris Steadman[2]; 9. 40-TJ Bolin[1]; 10. 1-Brandon Blair[11]; 11. 39-Steve Greene[7]

Heat 3
1. 78-Blake Pryor[3]; 2. 9P-Dalton Peavy[6]; 3. 17-Devon Morgan[7]; 4. 41-Mattison Hoots[9]; 5. 06-Andrew Durham[10]; 6. 91F-Chris Stowe[2]; 7. 14-Megan Erwin[5]; 8. BB2-Jesse Wall[8]; 9. 17D-Russell Douville[1]; 10. 17M-Cameron Martin[4]

Heat 4
1. 11L-Kade Langley[2]; 2. 9-Ronnie Mosley[7]; 3. Y44-Bailey Loftin[5]; 4. 18-Ricky Greene[10]; 5. 32-Garrett Killman[1]; 6. 00-Cody Ussery[9]; 7. 15L-Donovan Long[3]; 8. 53-Eric Grant[6]; 9. 11W-David Wells[4]; 10. (DNS) 5-Junior Johnson

SRI Performance Thunder Bombers
Heat 1
1. G1-Greg Carroll[2]; 2. 47-Tyler Guice[11]; 3. 12B-Blake Bentley[6]; 4. 19-Stetsen Todd[7]; 5. 75-Travis Jamieson[5]; 6. 40-Todd Bolin[3]; 7. 43-Jacob Funderburke[10]; 8. 08-Duce Miller[8]; 9. 32-Brandon Greene[4]; 10. 6-Dylan Montgomery[1]; 11. 54B-Brian Bentley[9]

Heat 2
1. 48-Grant Parr[10]; 2. 14-Jonathan Hinson[4]; 3. B4-Brandon Satterfield[1]; 4. 20-Isaiah Parker[3]; 5. T2-Tyler Abernathy[8]; 6. 54-Daniel Massey[11]; 7. 02-Lloyd Dean Burgess[6]; 8. 34-Joey Powell[7]; 9. 16-Benny Peeler[2]; 10. 28XI-Bailey Hipp[5]; 11. (DNS) 54A-Ashley Massey

Heat 3
1. 78-Hunter Funderburke[1]; 2. 12X-Benji Knight[7]; 3. 12-Rod Tucker[6]; 4. 97-Luke Doggett[8]; 5. 2F-Bradley Weaver[11]; 6. 2-Ricky Bogan[3]; 7. K10-Josh Ayers[4]; 8. 10W-Justin Watts[2]; 9. 14P-Tyler Parker[10]; 10. (DNS) 15-Garrison Krentz; 11. (DNS) 19F-Willie Fowler

Heat 4
1. 39-Steve Greene[5]; 2. 97T-Mark Towell[10]; 3. 04-Nate Jackson[4]; 4. 912-John Williams[11]; 5. 64-TJ Penfield[1]; 6. 75EC-James Gottlieb[3]; 7. 483-Hann