ROUGEMONT, NC :: Making only his second start in an asphalt stock car, Oklahoma’s Christopher Bell dominated the second half of the Orange County 150 presented by CV Products Saturday night at Orange County Speedway for his first career Pro All Stars Series (PASS) South Super Late Model win. The victory was the second of the 2014 PASS season for the Kyle Busch Motorsports team to go along with a win by Busch at Canada’s Autodrome Chaudiere in August.
“This is just unbelievable to come out here and run with John Hunter Nemechek and all of these guys and come out on top,” said Bell after scoring the win in his PASS South Super Late Model debut. “I can’t thank all of my guys enough. They took me racing for the first time a few weeks ago and I really struggled. But, they believed in me and stuck with me and now here we are.”
In qualifying, Preston Pelter took his fourth straight quick qualifying time with a lap of 97.248 miles per hour around the high banked, 3/8 mile speedway. In the top 10 qualifiers redraw, Jared Irvan moved to the pole position with Bell flanked alongside and Peltier moving back to start fourth.
On a brisk and breezy night, Irvan led the field into turn one, but was soon overtaken for the top spot by Bell’s Toyota. John Hunter Nemechek quickly moved into second from the sixth starting position and set his sights on Bell. The two drivers would swap the lead back and forth several times throughout the first half of the race. Meanwhile, Peltier dropped back through the field, falling as far back as 13th by lap 20.
The first caution of the race would wave on lap 38 when the top 10 running cars of Karl Weber and Jody Measamer crashed entering turn three. Just two laps later, two-time Orange County Speedway winner Roger Lee Newton and Trey Jarrell made contact entering turn one sending Jarrell hard into the outside wall.
On the restart, Bell continued to lead with Joey Doiron moving around Nemechek into second. But, Doiron would have problems on lap 49 as his car careened hard into the turn one wall putting an early end to his night. Less than 20 laps later, Doiron’s teammate Rich Gould driving a second Woodman Racing entry had a similar fate ending his night along the turn one wall as well.
Following a qualifying infraction that resulted in starting outside the top 20, PASS South points leaders Tyler Church and Cole Timm steadily made their way through the field in the first third of the race and into the top ten. By lap 59, Timm was challenging Peltier for a spot in the top five followed closely by Church.
With Bell and Nemechek continuing to pace the field, Timm began to backslide while Church was surging, moving around Ryan Moore for fourth with 61 laps to go. Church would eventually make his way into third before a mechanical issue with 10 laps to go sent him to the pits and out of the race.
Bell and Nemechek masterfully worked lapped traffic over the last half of the Orange County 150 with Bell stretching his lead to as many as 15 car lengths at times. In the end, Bell cruised to his first major stock car victory by nearly a second over Nemechek, Peltier, Brandon Setzer, and Moore. Harrison Burton finished sixth followed by rookie Lucas Jones, Brandon Ward, Tyler Dippel, and Timm to complete the top 10.
Kodie Conner took the lead from Jeremy Haudricourt with 13 laps to go and held on to survive a wild PASS Pro Late Model race for his fourth win of the season. Hickory winner Nick Robinson led the first 33 laps before a slip in turn two allowed Haudricourt and Conner to move by. Robinson’s night got even worse from there, crashing hard into the turn one wall, along with Mason Diaz, with seven laps to go. Following Conner to the checkered flag was Ryan Krachun, John Holleman, Matt Murphy, and Haudricourt.
In the USAC Eastern Midget feature, Nikki Carroll took his first career win over Chris Lamb, Scott Hunter, Tyler Corriher, and Matthew Lundstrum.
The PASS South Super Late Models will be in action again on Saturday, November 1 as part of the North-South Shootout at Caraway Speedway. For more information, please go to ProAllStarsSeries.com, “Like” the Pro All Stars Series on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at @PASSSLM14.
