An early accident involving several top contenders of the CARS LMSC Tour opened the door for Bobby McCarty to run away with the Mid-Atlantic Classic at Orange County Speedway in dominating fashion on Saturday, and secured a firm grip on the overall points lead.
“We haven’t been the best lately,” McCarty said. “We’ve been working and we’ve been trying a lot of new things, and it’s finally starting to pay off. We didn’t really get a chance to show off everything we had in qualifying, but I was able to dodge that deal in Turns 3 and 4 and take the lead a few laps later.”
McCarty blamed his mid-pack qualifying effort on the rainy condition that hit Orange County during the afternoon, all while CARS LMSC Tour set a blistering lap that put him on the outside of the front row alongside Craig Moore.
The wet weather proved to be a blessing in disguise for McCarty, as Berry lost an engine while leading the race, which triggered a multi-car pileup that involved several contenders such as Moore, Deac McCaskill, Layne Riggs and Brandon Pierce.
McCarty drove his car to the bottom of the track to avoid the chaos and lined up third on the ensuing restart, where he would end up catching leader Justin Carroll after a few laps to assume the top spot.
McCarty would not relinquish the lead for the rest of the evening, as he secured his second CARS LMSC Tour victory of the season while his teammate Sammy Smith, who was also involved in the Lap 3 crash, rebounded to give Nelson Motorsports a 1-2 finish.
With Berry finishing in 19th due to his expired engine, McCarty is expected to leave Orange County with a double digit lead in the points standings, but he reiterated that the focus of him and Nelson Motorsports will not change heading into South Boston.
“We’re just going in there to win,” McCarty said. “I can’t get caught up in the points battle because at the end of the day, our cars need to be better. If you win races, you win championships and everything takes care of itself. We have some time to prepare for South Boston, so we’re just going to keep working on these cars and get better.”
Jonathan Findley survived the chaos and picked up his best career CARS LMSC Tour finish in third, while Justin Carroll held on to fourth. Deac McCaskill rounded out the Top 5 despite sustaining significant damage to his door while trying to avoid slipping in Berry’s oil.
LMSC Race Results:
1. 22 Bobby McCarty
2. 12 Sammy Smith
3. 4 Jonathan Findley
4. 57 Justin Carroll
5. 08 Deac McCaskill
6. 17 Taylor Gray
7. 63 Tyler Matthews
8. 54 Drew Dollar
9. 74 Ronald Hill
10. 07 Camden Gullie
11. 81 Mini Tyrrell
12. 2 Brandon Pierce
13. 98 Adam Lemke -1
14. 11 Jeff Oakley -1
15. 17c Sarah Cornett-Ching -2
16. 19c Jessican Cann -3
17. 99 Layne Riggs OUT
18. 1d Terry Dease OUT
19. 88 Josh Berry OUT
20. 1m Craig Moore OUT
21. 77 Trevor Ward OUT
22. 1p Brody Pope OUT
