MONTGOMERY, AL :: The Southern Super Series started the day off with 18 cars entered in the Alabama 200 at Montgomery Motor Speedway. After a hung throttle, resulting in a hard hit and subsequent fire in practice, the number 11 of Logan Boyett, who walked away, was out for the night. Seventeen cars qualified for the Alabama 200 with the fastest 8 drawing for their final starting position. The 18 of Hunter Robbins qualified fastest but drew a seventh place starting position. Daniel Hemric and Harrison Burton started on the front row with Augie Grill in third and Bubba Pollard in eighth.
Augie Grill took the lead early on lap one and continued to hold onto it throughout 4 different cautions involving the cars of Jimmy Doyle, Nathan Davis, Kyle Grissom, Allen Karnes, and Spencer Gallaher. The race was red flagged on lap 72 when the oil dry truck broke down on the backstretch while cleaning fluid that leaked from the 5 of Gallaher. The action picked back up on lap 73 as Grill continued to put on a dominating performance with Anderson Bowen in second. On lap 91 Mike Garvey, while racing with Hunter Robbins, hit the wall hard in turn four bringing out what would be the competition caution. Having just been on pit road before the competition caution Anderson Bowen decides to stay out.
Coming to the green on lap 95 Bowen leads Grill in second and Roderick in third. Anderson Bowen and Augie Grill put on a captivating performance as they battled side by side for the lead until Grill made his way around Bowen on lap 116. They rode single file with Augie Grill continuing to put on a dominating performance until lap 181 when the 05 of Nathan Davis spins spins in turn four and again in turn two. Harrison Burton’s night ends due to the engine overheating, Anderson Bowen comes to pit road to change right side tires. Grill restarts in first with Donnie Wilson in second. Grill, Wilson, and Bowen fight for the lead with 9 laps remaining. Bowen took it three wide coming out of turn 4 on lap 194 and made contact with Wilson who then made contact with Grill, who hit the wall, ending his dominating performance.
With six laps to go the top five were: Wilson, Bowen, Roderick, Pollard, and Hemric. Coming out of turn two after the restart Donnie Wilson holds onto first place with Anderson Bowen close behind. The 26 of Bubba Pollard falls off the pace after the restart to finish ninth. With three laps reaming the 29 of Anderson Bowen gets the lead from Donnie Wilson. Daniel Hemric, Donnie Wilson, and Casey Roderick race three wide for spots two through 4. Anderson Bowen wins, Daniel Hemric second, Casey Roderick in third, Donnie Wilson fourth, and Nathan Davis rounds out the top five. Only seven cars finish on track and only the top four cars finish on the lead lap.
Anderson Bowen wins his first Southern Super Series race of the year. When asked how he feels going in to the final double-header weekend in Pensacola and Mobile, “I feel really good and we’ve had really good cars in the past.”
After having a motor overnighted to the track and replacing it this morning Daniel Hemric said “We’re as happy as we could be” with his second place finish, “It’s what a team effort is all about.” Asked about how he feels going into the Pensacola/Mobile weekend Hemric said, “As confident as we can be, going into what I feel is one of our best race tracks, Pensacola. Mobile we tend to run decent there, we’ve had success there in the past. We’ll have to be on point.”
Augie Grill was frustrated after his dominating performance came to an end on lap 194. When asked about the night Grill said, “My performance I felt pretty good about, some others performance I’m kinda iffy about,” in reference to the incident on lap 194 involving himself, Wilson, and Bowen.
A long night of racing from Montgomery resulted with Anderson Bowen coming out on top to win the Alabama 200 with Daniel Hemric in second and Casey Roderick in third. The Southern Super Series will be back in action on September 19th from Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola and then finish the season in Mobile on the 20th! You will not want to miss that.
Currently unofficial results
- Anderson Bowen
- Daniel Hemric
- Casey Roderick
- Donnie Wilson
- Nathan Davis
- Bill Bethea III
- Augie Grill
- Hunter Robbins
- Bubba Pollard
- Harrison Burton
- Jimmy Doyle
- Mike Garvey
- Allen Karnes
- Bobby Knox, Jr.
- Spencer Davis
- Will Gallaher
- Kyle Grissom
