Brandon Setzer should have won the CARS Response Energy Super Late Model Tour race at Hickory Motor Speedway back in May. He got the win he deserved on Saturday night in the Throwback 276.
Setzer rocketed passed an ailing Bubba Pollard on lap 105 and held off Chandler Smith to score the victory in front of a hometown crowd that cheered him on every step of the way.
“Super special,” Setzer said of his redemption. “To beat these guys at racing. Preston [Peltier] probably has 15 wins here in a Super and anytime you can beat Bubba Pollard, what does that say? It’s just unreal. In front of the hometown fans. Redemption over last time. Awesome. A lot of fun.”
Setzer knew, as he climbed out of his car to a roar from the crowd that he was the fan favorite.
“I’m glad to put on a show,” Setzer remarked. “I can’t tell you how many autographs I signed, how many t-shirts. It’s so cool to have the hometown support and even all around. You hear people coming from Virginia, South Carolina. They’re not even Hickory people and they’re all about this. Very cool.”
Earlier this year, Setzer was leading in the closing laps over Raphael Lessard, but contact from Lessard on the last lap sent Setzer around. After the race, Setzer confronted the Kyle Busch Motorsports team with a flying Superman punch that met Cody Glick. Setzer was suspended for the incident, but it was reduced to one race. His father, Dennis, remains under suspension.
His suspension rallied support from fans which viewed it as an injustice against a throwback, independent driver.
“That was just, the whole community’s support was awesome,” Setzer explained. “Really appreciate all them and hope we put on a good show for them tonight. We’re old school. I work on the car. We were up until two o’clock Thursday morning overhauling this thing because it wasn’t right. We got here and it still wasn’t right so we wrenched on it and finally got it good. It means a lot to work on your car and do the whole deal.”
Chandler Smith finished in second while Kodie Conner, Preston Peltier and Jared Fryar rounded out the top-five.
Unofficial Results
- 6s Brandon Setzer
- 26s Chandler Smith
- 5 Kodie Conner
- 33 Preston Peltier
- 48 Jared Fryar
- 63 Matt Craig
- 34 Nolan Pope
- 28 Corey Heim
- 8 Tate Fogleman
- 7c Tyler Church
- 13 Jody Measamer
- 7 Molly Helmuth -1
- 2g Darrell Gilchrist -1
- 17 Mike Speeney -1
- 51 Raphael Lessard -2
- 2t Gracie Trotter -5
- 6w Matt Wallace -22
- 57 Austin Theriault OUT
- 26p Bubba Pollard OUT
- 2b Jeff Batten OUT
- 3j Anthony Cataldi OUT
- 24 Mason Diaz OUT
- 87 Matt Thomas OUT
- 3 Wayne Jefferson OUT
- 58 Tyler Ankrum OUT
- 9 Chris Dilbeck OUT
- 12 Taylor Stricklin OUT
- 4b Amber Balcean OUT
