The races at Watermelon Capital Speedway this weekend had a lot of NASCAR flavor involved in them. Bill Elliott’s son Chase was the fast qualifier in the Pro Late Model 150 lapper on Saturday, and parlayed that into a win Sunday over seasoned veteran Mike Garvey and youngster Daniel Hemric. The Super Late Model portion of the event had a great deal more NASCAR involvement, as at least 25% of the field had some ties to the upper echelon of NASCAR.

David Ragan would take fast qualifier honors on Saturday and after the invert would start fifth. Seven other racers have or come from a NASCAR background, they would include; John Hunter Nemechek (Joe Nemechek’s son), Kyle Busch, Johnny Sauter, Chase Elliott, Eric Darnell, Ross Kenseth (Matt Kenseth’s son), and Clay Rogers. Bubba Pollard (pole sitter for both races) and John Nemechek (leader at halfway) were the only two leaders of the first half of the race, battling on and off with Kyle Busch and others.

An interesting twist of this race was the halfway pit stop. Teams were allowed to change all four tires during the stop if they desired, but the twist was the less tires you changed the further forward you restarted (amongst lead lap cars). Chase Elliott elected to not change any tires so he lined up at the front of the pack for the restart. He employed this strategy to win last year’s event as well.

Unfortunately for Elliott, Kyle Busch started right alongside after taking on two new tires and by lap 102 was the race leader. Kyle led through lap 171 when Bubba Pollard retook the lead for the second time. Pollard would hold it until Busch got back by him on lap 184, going on to win the race for the third time. Bubba Pollard would hold onto second, with David Ragan coming home third. Chase Elliott, Ross Kenseth, and Clay Rogers also all finished in the top 10.

I’d like to say congratulations to A.J. Allmendinger and the Michael Shank team for winning the 50th anniversary of the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona. After leaving Richard Petty Motorsports and landing a ride with Penske Racing for the Sprint Cup Series, it looks like his future is really glowing right now. I wish the best to “dinger” throughout the rest of the year.

I hope a lot of you readers were amongst the near capacity crowd in Cordele. If you were you were treated to a great afternoon of racing.

Until next week keep the shiny side up….

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