Joshua Yeoman recovered from an early race spin to score his first career Late Model victory in the Budweiser Short Track Shootout at Carteret County Speedway on Saturday night. While Yeoman celebrated, tempers flared later in the evening in the U-CAR feature.
Yeoman qualified on the pole and dominated early in the race, but a caution came out due to problems on Jim Kelley’s car erased his lead. He fended off several challenges from Chris Burns but, on lap 32, Yeoman got loose and spun on the frontstretch. The incident relegated Yeoman to the rear of the field and he had only 28 short laps to rebound.
Yeoman made his move, quickly working his way up to third, then getting around Tim Allensworth for second with 18 laps to go. Yeoman then closed in on race leader Chris Burns and challenged him for the lead. With 10 laps remaining, Yeoman made the pass on Chris Burns and held him off several times to score the victory – his first career Late Model victory.
“When we started the race, I knew the car was good,” Yeoman said. “Ever since we unloaded it, it unloaded great. Ever since last time, we should’ve won that one but it was good clean racing with Chris. I love racing with him, he’s a good guy. I want to thank [Bobby Watson] for putting it on. He’s got the best racetrack in the Carolinas.”
Yeoman recalled his spin in the closing laps in the season opening race, which handed the win to Burns and how he had to rebound once again from his lap 32 spin.
“Last time, we made it back to third in five laps,” Yeoman elaborated. “I had that one. When I spun out, I came on the radio and said ‘sorry guys, I blew this one’. My uncle told me to take my time and he spoke the truth because we’re here in victory lane. I want to thank Archie Adams and his entire family have gotten me where I’m at. We’ve run top three all year and I’m glad it’s here.”
When Yeoman spun, Burns inherited the lead and it was like déjà vu all over again but Burns knew Yeoman was fast and would be back to him before the race was over.
“I knew he was fast enough to come back,” Burns remarked. “I wish it was a 55 lap race, we might have been alright. Congratulations to Josh, he deserves it. We didn’t have the car we should have had tonight. It was decent but not good enough. We’ll regroup, come back next time and we’ll be better.”
Dillon Motor Speedway competitor Tim Allensworth went on to finish third in his Carteret County Speedway debut.
“We can’t complain,” Allensworth stated. “This was the first time that we got to see the track. We came up here last year for a tire test with American Racer and got 10 laps before the bottom fell out and it poured down rain all day. We were happy with as little testing as we got to run as well as we did. I’ve got to give it up to Josh and Chris, they put on a heck of a show for the fans.”
Zachary Marks, a regular at Wake County Speedway, finished fourth in his second Carteret County Speedway appearance while Zach Henshaw finished fifth.
