It’s crunch time for Matt Bowling.
The young Ridgeway driver who calls South Boston Speedway his racing home has led the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national points race all year. But with just three weeks remaining in the season, that lead has dwindled to a single point.
And that makes this Saturday night’s “Italian Delight Family Restaurant Presents Frutopia Not Just Frozen Yogurt” NASCAR Late Model 100 even more important to Bowling.
“This is a big one for us. Unfortunately, it’s just a single race and we’ll have to start mid-pack because we won the last two. But we’ve got a good car and hopefully we can contend for it. If we win, it will be big,” said Bowling.
Bowling has been dominant at South Boston this season with eight wins. He has 11 wins overall in 35 starts throughout the region. He’s scored 27 top five finishes and 33 top 10s as he traveled to seven different tracks.
But he has been shadowed in the second half of the season by northern Modified racer Keith Rocco. He has 12 victories in 35 starts, but has fewer top five and top 10 finishes than Bowling.
Bowling admits he has been looking over his shoulder recently.
“I’m feeling the pressure. We’re winning races and so is he (Rocco),” said Bowling, who has just one more race this season at South Boston after Saturday night, but plans to race at as many other tracks as possible. “We just have got to keep doing what we’ve been doing. It takes a lot (chasing the national title) and it’s been working on us. We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing all year. If we keep that up, we’ll be OK.”
Racing returns to South Boston Speedway Saturday with the 7 p.m. running of the “Italian Delight Family Restaurant Presents Frutopia Not Just Frozen Yogurt” NASCAR Late Model 100 racing program.
