Bubba Pollard says he enjoyed his Christmas break but the little bit of snow remaining from the recent winter storm may have left some metaphorical rust over the Pollard Racing shop in Central Georgia.

Pollard posted the 11th best time in CRA Super Series qualifying at the Watermelon Capital Speedway on Saturday and the result left him feeling disappointed and looking for more speed. While Pollard has been good since Friday, a group of drivers that includes Zane Smith, William Byron and John Hunter Nemechek have looked exceptional.

Pollard has only raced once since the Snowball Derby in December and little has changed to improve his tenth-place rut from the Super Bowl of Short Track Racing. He finished second at the Red Eye 100 at New Smyrna but wasn’t entirely pleased with the result/

“I enjoyed the time off but I thought we would have started off a little better than what we have,” Pollard said. “We’re just struggling lately.”

Speedfest has traditionally been a demolition derby of sorts and Pollard suddenly finds himself in a hot zone for the start of the race. With that said, the 2014 Southern Super Series champion doesn’t feel any real urgency to get to the front.

Pollard says track position will not be as important until the second half, and he also believes the improved competition level of the field will lend itself to a cleaner overall race than in recent seasons.

“You just have to be smart and put yourself around the right people,” Pollard said. “There’s fast cars up and down the pit area. The competition level has gotten a lot better over the past couple of years — last year and this year.

“Everyone has seemed to step up their program and is working hard. The race cars have gotten a lot better so the drivers have gotten a lot better too. I think you’ll see a good clean race.”

It’s worth noting that Pollard testing two cars at the speedway on Saturday. The first was the car he had been using while the second was a brand new car built just before the Derby that didn’t see track time until Friday.

He’ll run his trusted car on Sunday in Speedfest and save the new car for the SRL Winter Showdown at Kern Country Speedway. A similar decision last year saw him take a new car to California and with the inaugural event.
He’s hoping for deja vu.

“We built a new car and were trying to do something different,” Pollard said. “I felt comfortable in the car we had been racing and I just knew what it was going to do. So we’re going to take the new car to California like we did last year.

“But it was good to shake it down and get a notebook on it before we get down there.”

Donnie Wilson Versus Cordele Speedway Part Five

A part of Donnie Wilson just hates pulling into Watermelon Capital Speedway.

This is the fifth time that Wilson has tried his hands at the third-mile venue and it has challenged him like no other track in his 20-year-career. In four starts between Speedfest and the Southern Super Series summer event, Wilson has posted only a single top-10.

His other finishes at the track were 27th, 24th, and 12th — leaving him frustrated and committed to turning around his luck on Sunday in his most recent attempt.

“It’s just tough to get a hold of,” Wilson said. “It’s a tricky little track. You have to have a good turning car and a car that gets off the corners good. And you have to qualify good and we didn’t.”

Wilson qualified 18th but it wasn’t entirely for a lack of speed. He broke something on the rear end and was forced to drive with oil splashing all over his left rear tire. So making the show on time was a major achievement in itself.

Unfortunately, it also places him right in the middle of the grid, where he expects the racing to be intense and combustible.

“It always has been here and it will be tomorrow too,” Wilson said. “Same thing — our biggest thing is just getting to the halftime break and making adjustments. From there, we just want to make it to the finish.”

CRA Speedfest will be televised online via Speed51.com’s 51 TV Pay-Per-View service.  The entire Sunday event features a 100-lap JEGS Tour Pro Late Model race, followed by the 200-lap CRA Super Series main event. The broadcast can be purchased for $27.99.