NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. :: Steven Wallace won the Clyde Hart Memorial 100 Super Late Model race at New Smyrna Speedway on Thursday night, taking advantage of a late race accident by a dominant Stephen Nasse while also defending against a hard-charging David Rogers in the final stint.
The victory cements Wallace as the man to beat at the high-banked short track just south of Daytona this season as he is also the defending champion of the World Series of Asphalt held annually during Speedweeks.
Wallace led the first lap from the front row but Nasse passed him on the second lap and maintained the position until lap 77 when his brakes failed entering Turns 1 and 2, looping him around hard into the outside retaining wall.
As a result of the accident, Wallace inherited the lead and never looked back, holding off a furious final assault over the final 20 laps from Rogers — the 1994 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series champion and New Smyrna veteran. More astounding is that Wallace trashed his car off Turn 4 in practice on Wednesday night and spent the twilight hours working on his machine.
All told, he slept only three hours and admitted to feeling queasy all day leading up the drop of the green flag. After rebuilding the car to spec, Wallace believes he was going to pass Nasse one way or the other.
“I thought I had the better car to be honest with you,” Wallace said. “Nasse backing into the wall certainly helped us a little bit. But my car was so strong on the long run. His car was really loose off so I think I would have had him anyway.
“I cannot thank my crew enough. I messed up and I crashed this car last night at about 9 o’clock. I pounded the wall and we worked until 5 a.m. and busted our butts to get this car rebuilt and patched back together and to go back with the Clyde Hart Memorial 100 is a big deal.”
Rogers said after the race that Wallace had the fastest car on Thursday and that wrecking him was the only way to get around him — something that wasn’t an option.
“It’s always fun, anytime you can run near the front,” Rogers said. “But here for the Clyde Hart Memorial Race — I really wanted to win that thing — but I want to win every race I’m in. Steven and his team did good to get the car ready after the race. I could run with him but the only way I could have got by him is to wreck him — and that isn’t how David Rogers races.”
Nasse took the brake failure that ended his day in stride, feeling optimistic that his No. 51 team was capable of outrunning both Wallace and Rogers.
“The brakes just went out,” Nasse said. “We had a great car but this was something that we just couldn’t help. It started going out 10 laps before I wrecked and actually, they were going soft the whole race. Again, it couldn’t be helped but I know we had the fastest car and they knew we were here.”
The complete results for the 2014 Clyde Hart Memorial 100 can be found below:
- Steve Wallace
- David Rogers
- Daniel Keene Jr.
- Travis Cope
- Joe Boyd
- Jake Perkins
- Rich Clouser
- Ray Black Jr.
- Chris Fontaine
- Anthony Sergi
- Daniel Webster
- Michael Atwell
- Jesse Dutilly
- George Gorham Jr.
- Johanna Long
- Stephen Nasse
- Tim Russell
- David Green
- Bobby Good
- Dakotah Stephens
- Mario Maresca
- TJ Duke (DQed)
Post-race Video Interviews with Steve Wallace and Stephen Nasse
