PENSACOLA, FL :: Bubba Pollard has led more laps than any other driver in the brief history of Southern Super Series but has had trouble making it to the finish — a malady that cost him the championship last season.
A similar scenario could have played out on Friday night at Pensacola Five Flags Speedway when championship leader Anderson Bowen tagged Pollard, sending him near-sideways off Turn 4, while fighting for the lead. Instead, Pollard fought the car straight and pointed it back towards the front and won his fourth career tour event in the Mountain Dew Kick Start 125.
“It was just a good race car,” Pollard said. “We get around here good. I enjoy coming here and it’s one of my favorite places. It’s a great race track. Two weeks ago, this car was just a bare chassis. We had to rush it together and it turned out fast.”
As for the contact with Bowen, Pollard called his save off Turn 4 ‘luck’ and expressed extreme displeasure with the 16-year-old and the rest of the roster, following several races dating back to last season where he was crashed late.
“You know, I’m tired of getting raced like that for one thing,” Pollard said. “It’s 50 laps to go and I’m getting door slammed. If you want to have it, have it. He got under me clean. But then John Hunter ran me against the wall late and I’m done playing nice guy and I hate to be a hard butt but it’s part of racing and I’m not going to let them take advantage of me anymore.”
Bowen simply called it a product of hard racing.
“I was just racing hard and I feel like it was just a racing incident,” Bowen said. “I got in there a little too hot and got loose and I chased it up the track. He was racing hard, trying to keep me pinched down like he’s supposed to do and I just slid up into him.
“I feel bad about it because that’s not really what you’re supposed to do, but we had a really good car all night. I just hate it for my guys that I messed up on that part.”
He went on to finish sixth and retained his championship lead heading into Saturday’s race at Mobile International Speedway.
Nemechek battled Pollard hard at the end of the race and off the final restart but just didn’t have enough car, the 16-year-old explained.
“Bubba had a little bit better car there at the end,” Nemechek said. “We were just trying some different stuff tonight trying to get ready for the Snowball (Derby) and try to win that at the end of the year. It’s all a learning experience. It’s good to finish second, but it’s better to finish a spot ahead. We’ll go back and think on it and see what we need to do to get that next spot.”
Pollard will now look to clean sweep the Gulf Coast doubleheader on Saturday and take aim at the championship that eluded him last season. The event is called the Mobile Lumber 125 presented by VDL Fuel Systems and is round four of the championship. Pollard has often called Mobile is ‘home track’ due to the amount of success he has achieved there over the past several seasons.
The complete finishing results of the Mountain Dew Kick Start 125 can be found below.
Results
1. Bubba Pollard
2. John Hunter Nemechek
3. Donnie Wilson
4. Augie Grill
5. Anderson Bowen
6. Mike Garvey
7. Stephen Nasse
8. Casey Smith
9. David Rogers
10. Chris Davidson
11. Hunter Robbins
12. Daniel Hemric
13. Justin South
14. Kyle Grissom
15. Kyle Bryant
16. Landon Cling
17. Allen Karnes
18. Spencer Wauters
19. Keith Cahela
20. Daniel Webster
21. Johanna Long
22. Casey Roderick
23. Nathan Davis
24. Jeremy Pate
25. Chase Spradlin
26. Jake Perkins
27. Will Gallaher
Notes:
Johanna Long made her third career Southern Super Series start on Friday night at her home track in Pensacola. She never really contended, despite an eighth-place starting position and her day ended prematurely when she was spun into the wall by Kyle Bryant with 13 laps to go. The damage ended her day and Long pointed her finger at Bryant on the track under caution.
“We were racing for 15th,” Long said. “I don’t understand why he would race like that. It killed my car … the Carlson’s car … and I don’t understand why he was that aggressive.”
Mike Garvey made his season debut on Friday night and finished sixth. The defending fourth-place finisher in the Southern Super Series championship has dropped to a part-time schedule this season after a rash of mechanical failures last season ended his shot at winning the championship and a chance to win the Snowball Derby.
Casey Roderick, the winner of the season-opening Rattler 250 was parked by Southern Super Series officials in the middle stages of the race, when it was alleged that his team was illegally scuffing tires near an official. Additional details will be reported and tweeted out on Twitter via the author’s account @MattWeaverSBN
