Ashton Higgins pulled his car into victory lane on Friday night at Anderson Motor Speedway in Williamston, SC. For Higgins, it was his second career NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Car victory but this one unlike his first came with a little controversy.
Higgins had a really fast car. He was the fastest in practice but only managed a third-place qualifying effort in qualifying. However, his car would start on the pole after the original pole winner Luke Sorrow found that his engine had blown on his qualifying run and he would be forced to a backup car. Higgins and the rest of the inside line moved up for the start of the race.
Neil Meredith would qualify second, Trey Gibson fourth and RA Brown fifth among a 12-car field. Higgins and Brown moved up to first and third respectively. Before the field could get their green flag for the start of the season, their race was pushed back one division on the night’s schedule as the track gave Sorrow the opportunity to get his backup car ready for the race.
Sorrow still nearly missed the green flag and his battery eventually let him down in the race after only running about half the race and never making up much ground from starting in the rear of the field. Once the field did go green Meredith jumped to the lead right away from the outside line.
Higgins meanwhile would slip back after the start with Gibson moving to second, Brown to third and Higgins fourth early in the race. A caution would wave on lap four, this would give Kenneth Headen and his team a chance to work on their car as they went under the hood.
This time the outside line again was the fastest place to be and Gibson took the lead on the restart. Meredith fell into second but was quickly under fire from Brown for second. Further back in the field Brandon Lemke was making moves toward the front of the field and was all over Archie Adams, Jr. for fifth.
Lap 19 and David Roberts, who had been struggling all night driving for Tom Buzze parked his ride and upfront Gibson still led Meredith and Higgins who would get around Brown for third. With just over 20 laps to go in the 50-lap race Higgins was able to get around Meredith for the second position and began to give chase to Gibson.
Sorrow slowed on the track as his battery finally gave up on lap 33 and brought out another caution. Under this caution, Brown would limp to pit road as well giving up his top five position. Gibson still held the lead over Higgins, Meredith, Lemke, and Adams.
Brown would make it back out and after the field went green his car slowed again and the caution would wave again as Brown limped back to pit road and parked it for the night. Despite the outside line being the place to be earlier in the race, Gibson would make the inside line work on the restart and put a small gap between him and Higgins.
With five laps to go Higgins had closed the lead down to one car length and then he quickly took the lead with a little contact between the two. Higgins pulled away at the finish with Gibson finishing second. Meredith, Lemke, and Adams completed the top five finishers.
On the cool down lap, a little flame began to spark as Gibson ran into the right rear quarter panel of Higgins car. Gibson was unhappy about the contact and showed his displeasure.
One of the first to meet him at his car was a member of Trey Gibson’s team and victory lane was a firestorm for a few minutes following his arrival. The member of Gibson’s crew was Gibson’s brother Corey, he was unpleased with how Higgins had moved Gibson for the lead in the closing laps.
After Corey was removed from victory lane, Trey made his way over to talk with Higgins. Members of Higgins team attempted to keep him back but eventually, he was able to discuss the finish with Higgins without any further incident.
Higgins was calm in victory lane after the race.
“It was a really good race,” Higgins told RACE22.com. “Kinda stayed calm at the beginning and saved my stuff for the end. Ended up having a good car there at the end. Ended up being able to get by Trey and never looked back.”
“I caught him in a hurry and it was nothing on purpose. I was faster than he was getting in and about the same getting off. It’s four to go and you gotta do what you gotta do. I hate it ended that way and I definitely didn’t mean to do it that hard.”
Gibson wasn’t happy with the contact and said that Higgins didn’t have to do that to get by.
“I like to race people and I like to win for my trophy,” Gibson told RACE22.com. “I don’t like to just go in there and hit people. I was in front of him the whole race and he just goes off in turn three with using the brakes and about dumps me.”
“I told him he might be young but he needs to earn his trophy. He usually don’t race like that. I don’t who’s on the other end of the radio or whatever but we’ll be back.”
Higgins and Gibson will square off against one another again on April 5th in twin Late Model Stock Car races and things could get exciting between the two once again.
Results:
1 – Ashton Higgins #9
2 – Trey Gibson #112
3 – Neil Meredith #36
4 – Brandon Lemke #22
5 – Archie Adams, Jr. #17
6 – Magnum Tate #5
7 – Jake Garcia #35
8 – Kenneth Headen #99
9 – Nick Thunder #8
10 – RA Brown #60
11 – Luke Sorrow #9
12 – David Roberts #40
