LUCAMA, NC :: Matt McCall used a little muscle to get around Dillon Bassett in the final laps of the second of two Late Model races en route to victory at Southern National Motorsports Park on Saturday night.  The win was McCall’s first win since September 2011.

McCall executed the bump-and-run on Bassett with just five laps remaining.  The move sent Bassett up the track as McCall sailed by and set his racecar on cruise control.  Bassett managed to save the car but was relegated to a fourth place finish after dominating much of the race.  After the race, McCall celebrated, stating that his job as an engineer with Richard Childress keeps him away from the racetrack.

“We don’t race very much,” McCall said.  We’ve got what we bring to the track and we’re up against people that race every week so it’s good that we can show up and keep up.  It was fun racing Dillon for the win.  Last year, it was a similar scenario.  It’s nice to come to Southern National when you’ve got two of the top-five in the nation and to outrun them, it’s a pretty cool deal.”

Prior to Saturday’s win, McCall’s last win had come at Hickory Motor Speedway on September 10, 2011.

Southern National Late Model points leader Tommy Lemons, Jr. scored a pair of podium finishes – a third place finish and a second place finish.  In the second race, he spent much of the race trying to fend off McCall.  A series of cautions on lap 33 gave Lemons several opportunities to get around Bassett on the outside but Lemons just could not complete the pass.  Bassett started the race on the outside of the front row and inherited the lead on the first lap when Dalton Sargeant, who got the pole when the top-six cars from the first race were inverted, had problems on the initial start of the race.

A competition caution came out on lap 31.  On the restart, Pulliam and Mike Darne got in to some hard racing.  The field was stacked up behind Pulliam triggering a caution.  On the next restart, Bassett and Lemons raced side-by-side as the field went four-wide behind them resulting in Rusty Skewes going around.  The next caution, this time on lap 33, came out for Terry Dease and Dalton Sargeant.  Then, it would be Ryan Wilson and Dease bringing out the following caution.  The final caution of the race came out with the field still on lap 33 when Rusty Skewes looped around once more.  The rest of the race went clean and green to the conclusion.

McCall, Lemons, Snider, Bassett and Darne rounded out the top-five in that race.

Pulliam Gains Ground on Anders

Lee Pulliam scored the victory in the first of the two races.  With Anthony Anders not racing as a result of Greenville-Pickens Speedway cancelling due to weather, the win allowed Pulliam to gain points on Anders and keep his hopes for a third straight NASCAR Whelen All American Series National Championship alive.  Myatt Snider finished in second with Lemons, McCall and Bassett rounding out the top-five.

Southern National Motorsports Park will be back in action on August 2nd for the final Dirty Dozen race that will be held at Southern National in 2014.  The Limited Late Models will also be in action in two weeks.