NEWTON, NC – Matt Craig held off Bubba Pollard and then Brandon Setzer in a heated conclusion to the Super Late Model portion of the Throwback 276 at Hickory Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
Craig took the lead for the final time on lap 32, passing Donnie Wilson, and then held back challenges throughout the night from Wilson, and later Pollard. In the final two laps, Setzer, who won last year’s Throwback 276, passed Pollard to move into the runner-up position, where he would finish.
The win, the fourth of Craig’s career and his first since 2017, was a meaningful one.
“Huge crowd here tonight,” Craig said in victory lane. “This race is becoming a marquee event in Super Late Model racing. It was really awesome. The way we won it was probably the best thing, beating Bubba. Nobody’s beaten Bubba for a while now. That feels pretty good and shows everybody that we’re here to play and ready to run the big races.”
Prior to celebrating in victory lane, Craig and Pollard exchanged words in a heated confrontation after Pollard took a swing at Jeff Craig – an exchange which Nick Payne recorded video of.
“I’m not really sure what he was upset about,” Craig stated. “I feel like I never roughed him up. I feel like he started to roughen up and he roughed me up all the way to the checkered. I was just able to stay out in front of him. We’ve had some past races where I roughed him up and he roughed me up so, I don’t know, a little rivalry going on.”
Bubba Pollard declined to comment when approached by Race22.com’s Corey Latham.
CARS SLM Hickory 8/3/19 Results
- Matt Craig
- Brandon Setzer
- Bubba Pollard
- Tate Fogleman
- Donnie Wilson
- Jared Fryar
- Corey Heim
- Kodie Conner
- Carson Kvapil
- Nolan Pope
- J. Duke
- Derek Lemke
- Molly Helmuth
- Brandon Johnson
- Dylan Bigley
- Jared Irvan
- Jeff Batten
- Lee Tissot
- Daniel Webster
- Justin Crider
- Gus Dean
- Harold Crooms
- Kyle Ivey
