Brandon Setzer continued what has been a wildly successful 2015 season, claiming the victory in the 125-lap Super Late Model feature of the Thanksgiving All-Star Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park.

Setzer claimed the lead on a lap 90 restart, passing Kevin Floars on the outside line. From there, Setzer led the remaining 35 laps en route to the victory.

“We just bided our time, saved tires at the end there,” Setzer said. “Whenever it was time to go, we had a little bit left to go. We had just enough, because Fryar was running us down there towards the end. Luckily we had that lead.”

While Setzer had saved his tires throughout the race, he was experiencing some issue with his brakes overheating, which allowed second-place finisher Jared Fryar to close in over the final laps.

“The biggest thing was I was fighting brakes. Our tires were fine, I was just fighting brakes a little bit.”
Setzer started on the pole for the race, but quickly gave up the lead and dropped outside the top five in an effort to save tires. Floars and Chad Finley paced the early stages of the event, but both fell off the pace in the second half after burning up their tires.

Setzer won the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Super Late Model Tour event at Myrtle Beach Speedway earlier this year, another track known for abusing tires. That experience, along with a second-place finish in a Pro All Stars Series (PASS) race at Southern National in May 2014, played into Setzer’s victory.

“Myrtle Beach is a big tire-saving track and so is this during the day. I got beat last year by Daniel Hemric [in the May 2014 PASS race], and I learned a bunch of things. He’s the king of saving tires, so I think I learned a thing or two from him.”

Fryar finished second, while Jared Irvan, son of 1991 Daytona 500 winner Ernie Irvan, came home third. Mike Darne finished fourth, with Tyler Ankrum rounding out the top five.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS

1. #6 Brandon Setzer
2. #16 Jared Fryar
3. #2I Jared Irvan
4. #99 Mike Darne
5. #58 Tyler Ankrum
6. #71 Nick Robinson
7. #54 Jeff Fultz
8. #55 Kevin Floars
9. #41 Jamey Caudill
10. #2 Sarah Cornett-Ching
11. #67 Curtis Venable
12. #M3 Shelton McNair
13. #24 Mason Diaz
14. #75 Chad Finley
15. #05 Alex Fleming
16. #17 Clay Rogers
17. #17 Kevin Jeffreys
18. #77 Logan Jones (Did Not Start)