Austin Thaxton felt like two wins slipped away from him a week ago at South Boston Speedway but this week he wasn’t about to let that happened despite a green, white, checkered finish and having to hold off a three-time NASCAR National Champion and last weeks two-time winner.
Thaxton started on the outside pole and let pole winner Peyton Sellers set the pace early. Sellers led through the first green flag run which lasted until Philip Morris and Bobby McCarty were involved in a crash with Maddy Ryan Mulligan who was laps down at this point in the race. Morris’ car had tremendous damage and was done for the day. McCarty would fall out of the race soon after.
Thaxton took the lead on the ensuing restart and would grab a huge lead over the course of the next green flag run which would stretch until lap 95, just five laps short of the finish. The caution would erase over a 1.6 second lead that Thaxton held over Lee Pulliam.
The final restart would prove to be a wild one for the second week in a row. Thaxton would spin his tires on the restart a little allowing Pulliam to get the lead on the outside line. Thaxton and Pulliam made slight contact with Thaxton grabbing the top spot and taking the win but fate wasn’t so good to Pulliam as he was run over on the final lap and finished seventh.
Pulliam’s bad luck was good luck for last weeks winner Matt Bowling who capitalized on Pulliam’s contact with Thaxton to grab a second place finish after starting mid-pack due to winning two straight races. Mark Wertz, who finished in the top ten in both races last week, was able to get to third at the finish.
Thaxton was excited to get to victory lane after two third place finishes last week.
“I thought we had a good car there when that caution came out,” said Thaxton. “I want to thank Lee (Pulliam) for racing me clean. I got into him but we were just racing hard. To be able to race him for the win means a lot to me. It’s a good feeling to be here.”
Bowling was happy to get back to second position after having to start mid-pack due to a track rule for winning two races in a row.
“I don’t know it got pretty wild at the end,” said Bowling after the race. “Hard to make much happen from the back. Thought we had a top three car but we got second and we’ll take it but it’s hard to make up a lot when you have to start toward the back.”
Wertz knew he didn’t have a third place car but was happy to get the finish.
“Well you know things happen just like the Hamlin race last year,” said Wertz. “We take what we can get. Probably not a third place car but we’ll take what we can get. We’re slowly chipping away at it. We’ll be here as much as we can this year and I think if I can get the car to turn in the middle we’ll be in victory lane soon.”
Brenden Queen was able to get back to running at top form this week with a top ten qualifying effort and racing among the top ten the entire race and taking advantage of the late race contact with Sellers and Pulliam to finish fourth. Sellers was able to hang on to finish fifth with Josh Oakley sixth, Pulliam seventh, Justin Carroll eighth, Dennis Holdren ninth and Chuck Lawson rounding out the top ten.
Unofficial Finish:
1 – Austin Thaxton #12
2 – Matt Bowling #83
3 – Mark Wertz #55
4 – Brenden Queen #03
5 – Peyton Sellers #26
6 – Josh Oakley #8
7 – Lee Pulliam #5
8 – Justin Carroll #91
9 – Dennis Holdren #12
10 – Chuck Lawson #42
11 – Nathan Crews #3
12 – Terry Carroll #90
13 – Kyle Dudley #4
14 – Brandon Pierce #2
15 – Alex Brock #9
16 – Eric Winslow #22
17 – Jason Barnes #28
18 – Bobby McCarty #6
19 – Philip Morris #01
20 – Maddy Ryan Mulligan #10
DNS – Dusty Ellington #14
