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While it may have been a hot one with a high temp of 94 degrees making for a track slick which had drivers searching endlessly for grip, and a threat of thunderstorms all day, nothing would keep the North/South Super Late Model challenge from being run in its entirety. Darrell Waltrip’s “vortex theory” was in full effect as rain and storms skirted all around the historic Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, even dropping a few sprinkles from time to time, but never once hindered the racing action. It wasn’t until the final victory lane celebrations of the evening commenced that the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down.
With air and track temps soaring and grip on the racing surface hard to find, local standout Jackson Boone would find just enough to set the fast lap in each Super Late Model and Pro Late Model qualifying with laps of 18.718 and 19.660 respectively. Unfortunately, during the redraw, Boone would end up pulling an 8th place starting spot for the Super Late Model feature and 7th place starting spot for the Pro Late Model feature.
Speaking with Jackson Boone prior to qualifying he was excited about his new super late model car saying, “We just got this car, and this is the first race in it. This thing is fast.”
Picking up the hat with the number 1 starting position for the Super Late Models was last year’s All American 400 winner, Stephen Nasse. Dawson Sutton would end up drawing the pole position for the Pro Late Model as well.
North/South Super Late Model Challenge
As the threat of inclement weather continued to loom over the speedway, the Super Late Models would take to the track for the first feature on the 5/8 mile track for the evening. Stephen Nasse would take full advantage of his pole position and jump out to a lead right away. While Nasse was commanding control of the race Bubba Pollard, who was expected to contend for the win, would drop back through the field and eventually end up well behind seemingly well off the pace. Once the first caution flag waived on lap 15, involving Jackson Boone, Pollard would also pit for adjustments which would seem to help as he would begin to make headway back through the field over the next 25 laps.
Through a series of mid race restarts, Nasse would maintain lead of the race while Jackson Boone who was involved in a lap 15 incident would quietly make his way up through the field and find himself restarting in 3rd place on lap 45 restart and move into 2nd by lap 64. On lap 73 Boone, with a damaged car catches Nasse and would race side by side for the next 6 laps, finally inching forward on lap 79 and ultimately taking the lead on Lap 80, and increasing his lead to a half straightaway four laps later.
Lap 89 brought out another caution for debris on the front straightaway. Boone would maintain the lead, now over Jake Garcia who would send Nasse back to third. 3 laps after the restart on lap 92, damage that Boone received early in the race would end up becoming his Achilles heel when damaged brake duct components broke and took out a radiator hose with eight laps to go, ending his day.
“What a heartbreaker man. I thought we were gonna have a shot at possibly sweeping the day. We put together a real good piece and it showed all day”, said Boone.
Garcia would get the jump on the final restart of the race and never look back. Stephen Nasse would finish second and Giovanni Ruggiero third. Matthew Craig and Jesse Love would round out the top five.
Garcia was unsure if he would have had the same result had Boone not ended up retiring from the race. “I think we were kinda maintaining with him there once he had gotten in front of us, so I’m not sure how it would have ended up if he was on the race track”, said Garcia. “It made it a little bit easier when he broke. Hate it for those guys. Jackson is a really good friend of mine, so hopefully they can get their car put back together, and bring the same speed back to the race track.”
Pro Late Models
In the final race of the evening the Pro Late Models would take the track for their usual 100 lap distance. Hunter Wright starting on the outside pole along side of Dawson Sutton and jump out to the lead on lap 2. Behind him Sutton and Michael Bolden would battle side by side for 2nd place for multiple laps before Sutton would claim the spot as his own, putting Bolden 3rd. By lap 10 Jackson Boone would advance 1 position to 6th from his 7th place redraw starting position. After a restart for a lap 39 caution brought out by the 95 car of Bennie Hamlett spinning off of turn 2, Hunter Wright would maintain the lead while Dylan Fetcho advanced to third and Boone now up to fourth.
Three laps after the restart Boone would make a move and pass Fetcho for the third spot. At halfway things would settle down and top three would be Wright, Sutton, and Boone. By lap 63 all three cars in the top three would have no more than a car length between their respective machines and on lap 79 Sutton would fall tow third as Boone made his way to second. A mere few laps later the Wright and Boone would be side by side racing for the lead, but Boone would end up dropping back in line in second. With 10 laps to go, it was clear that anyone in the top 4 spots had a shot at winning, but it was Boone that would make the right moves, as he passed Wright with 8 laps to go, but Wright would fight back with a cross-over move in turns 1 and 2. This would not keep him in the lead for long as Boone would pass him back the next lap and go on to lead the final 7 laps to claim his third straight Pro Late Model feature win at the fairgrounds, by 1.6 seconds over Hunter Wright. Dawson Sutton would wind up third, with Dylan Fetcho and Michael House as the rest of the top 5.
“The car was a little bit looser than we’re normally used to. It actually ended up coming to us a little bit later on in the race and sure enough I had just enough tire at the end to get around the leaders”, said Boone in victory lane. “They definitely made me earn it.”
Super Trucks and ¼-Mile Action
In the super trucks, Jeremy Burns won a nearly uneventful 30-lap feature. The super trucks were halted by a lap red flag for a wreck involving the 7 truck of Quinn Davis and 05 truck of Brittany Climer. Kyle Ivey would bring his tuck home second, followed by Nicholas Formosa, Tannner Arms, and Frank Bauer.
Colt Johnson lead wire to wire in the Bandoleros feature to bring home the victory. In Legends Pro/Masters, it was Kevin Rollins taking the victory.
The real excitement however was in the Semi Pro/Young Lions Legends division. Sam Mazzo would jump out to an early lead and lead most of the 20 lap feature, but would have many challenges from Michael Crafton on restarts throughout the race. With 2 laps to go, a three car wreck in turn 3 involving Dylan Faulkner, Austin Harrison, and Michael Crafton would bunch the field up one final time. Crafton would drive continue on from the wreck and keep his position. On the restart, Mazzo was unable to hold off the car of Travis Oliver who would take the lead. On the last lap there was contact between Crafton and Oliver and Craft on would take the lead and the checkers with Oliver coming across the stripe in second. After the race was over, Oliver would pay Crafton a visit in victory lane to vent his frustrations with the winning driver.
