OPP, AL :: Georgia drivers Bubba Pollard and Anderson Bowen expected to contend for the win on Sunday in the Rattler 250 but found themselves out of contention and looking ahead to the CARS Tour opener at Southern National Motorsports Park on March 28.

Both drivers were involved in the Lap 2 pileup with Pollard receiving a tremendous amount of damage. The incident began when Bowen, the leader, was tagged from behind entering Turn 3 by Stephen Nasse. A slow, lazy spin ensued and the field piled into the crash hitting other competitors or the Turn 3 inside retaining wall.

The red flag was dropped over the field and it lasted nearly a full hour, allowing Pollard and his crew time to repair much of the damage and remain on the lead lap. By the halfway break, Pollard had replaced the nose on his damaged machine and reported that he had a “very fast race car” but that’s when his engine expired, ending his day on Lap 120.

The defending Southern Super Series champion was forced to accept a 24th place finish.

“We just ran hot there,” Pollard said of an overheating engine. “We tried to put a front end on it and had a real good race car with everything being bent on it. My guys worked hard to get it back out there. We tried to do what we could do and make something happen.

“I sure wish we could have raced with a car that wasn’t bent up. I think we would have had something for them. Just hate it for the guys who worked on my car all weekend. If you only realized how impressive of a feat it was for them to do what they did. I just wish I could have been there at the end for their sake.”

Bowen escaped without major damaged in the second lap ordeal and has worked his way up to the top-5 by Lap 120 when he spun Augie Grill on the frontstretch. Race director Dan Spence sent him to the back as a result and the best he could muster was eighth by the finish.

“It’s just a bad deal all around,” Bowen said. “The deal with Augie is that he was chopping us down pretty bad for a few laps so it was just rubbing. We got into each other and I spun him out. Then there wasn’t enough time to get to the front.

“It was a great race, I felt like. A lot of side-by-side racing. It has to be the best Rattler in a long time”

A short memory will go a long way for both star drivers as their attention will now turn to the CARS Tour inaugural event at Southern National — a track neither driver has seen before now. Pollard hopes to test at the Kenly, North Carolina track this weekend and is interested to learn more about how his Super Late Model will adapt to American Racer tire.

“Never been there,” Pollard said. “I heard it was fast — our kind of place. This is a new tire for us so that’s going to be new for us. It’s a big question mark, how it’s going to hold up for 150 laps so we’ll try to make the best of it.”

Bowen isn’t sure if he will test but he’s looking forward to hitting a new venue as well.

“I’m really looking forward to that race,” Bowen said. “I’ve never been to Southern National. It’s the first CARS Tour race so I expect them to have a lot of cars with the payout they’re offering so I think there is going to be a tremendous amount of competition between us and the guys from the Carolinas.”