Nick Smith wins convincingly in Late Model series race at SoBo

SOUTH BOSTON — The post-race fireworks were, as many fans and spectators put it, short.

It was quite ironic Friday night at South Boston Speedway. The list of drivers that could have caught and pass Nick Smith was short — no one.

Smith led wire-to-wire for the second consecutive race, leading all 200 laps from the pole position in a convincing victory in the Bailey’s 200 Whelen All-American Late Model Series race Friday night at South Boston Speedway.

“It’s a real big night. This is what we’ve got to do,” Smith said. “We were on a roller coaster ride at the beginning of the season and we really just got to stay consistent to finish the year out if we want to win this championship. I know we can do it, we just got to have some luck and keep running it good like we’re running.”

With all eyes on Philip Morris’ new paint scheme and the track points title battle between Deac McCaskill and Justin Johnson, it was Smith who constantly got the best jumps on restarts and within a handful of laps, had close to a full straightaway lead over the rest of the field.

“Maybe the first 50 laps I would have had something for (Smith), but I just burned my stuff up coming to the front,” second-place David Quackenbush said. “We had to start so far back tonight. They definitely have their car on a roll. They definitely had the best car here tonight and I’m thankful we got second.”

It became more apparent as the race went on that the real races were for positions back in the pack. Quackenbush had great battles with Morris and C.E. Falk and the duo of McCaskill and Wayne Ramsey both worked their ways up to the front from the middle of the field to top 6 finishes.

Aside from Smith and top drivers having major issues, Dane Rudolph made the biggest impression on the fans. After starting a career-best third, the Australian born driver for Sellers Racing rebounded from dropping to as far back as ninth at the beginning of the race to finish a career-best fourth.

“It was by far the best car on the long run,” Rudolph said. “I guess unfortunate we got shuffled there at the start, but hey, we had a really strong comeback there and I’m really pleased with everyone.

“It’s just fantastic and to do it in front of such a big field like this, it’s just great. This is like the Martinsville field, it’s good stuff.”

Rudolph feels that if he had five to 10 more laps, he could have recorded his first podium finish, but David Triplett’s car was too strong to overcome in third.

McCaskill finished fifth and Ramsey came home sixth. Jonathan Cash, Eddie Johnson, Josh Oakley and Jonathan Bailey rounded out the top 10.

“We had a good car. To come home third place in one piece, you can’t ask for nothing better than that,” Triplett said. “We were saving a lot too. We were trying our best to conserve as much as we could there.”

Morris, who entered the night second in the national points standings, challenged Smith early and ran in the top 5 in the early stages of the race. Uncharacteristically, the Ruckersville native fell like a brick as everyone passed him before being lapped by Smith on lap 198 and finishing 14th, the only car a lap down.

The big wreck of the night came took out one crowd favorite. Lee Pulliam and Michael Hardin’s battle for position came to a head in Turn 4 on lap 68 when both made contact. They remained close down the front stretch before both collected each other and crashed hard into the outside wall of the entrance of Turn 1. Woody Howard took a hard lick in the incident and the cars of Tommy Lemons and Kenny Forbes were involved, but still continued on in the race.

“It’s an OK points day. I’m losing points to the 88,” McCaskill said despite gaining points on Justin Johnson. “I lost 11 last week and I just lost 13 to him. He’s knocking the door down big time. We’ve just got to get better, I say that every week. I don’t know what happened in qualifying today. The car drove good, we just didn’t put down a good lap. 14th to fifth, I’m tickled to death.”

The race was slowed by six cautions, two of which took out cars. Greg Edwards, who started fourth, and Ronald Hill got together on the front stretch on lap 134, ending both drivers’ nights.

Not up to par

Amherst resident Wayne Ramsey battled an ill-handling car for the entire 200-lap race and somehow managed a sixth-place finish after starting 13th in the 33-car field.

“It was a hard fought race. We missed the setup tonight,” Ramsey said. “We decided to run the car like it was last race because it was so good. Just missed it tonight, the track was completely different and was way, way too tight. I was using way too much brake to carry it off the corner.”

While many would consider that a success, it was Ramsey’s worst finish of the season in his fifth start. Entering the Bailey’s 200, Ramsey was one of the top points-per-race drivers in the nation, averaging 41.3 per race with three wins and a second-place finish. By not driving in enough races this season, Ramsey is left outside the top 10.

“To come out here with a sixth-place finish with the way the car was handling tonight, it’s not what I wanted, but it’s in one piece,” Ramsey said. “We can go home and work on it and get it a little bit better, come out here the next time and be right back where we’re accustomed to being.”

Tough points day locally and nationally

Justin Johnson was in his car almost immediately after the driver/crew chief meeting and was ready to race. His car, however, was a different story. Johnson started 25th — almost a death sentence on the 0.4-mile oval. It came back to bite him on lap 91 when he was spun in Turn 4.

“We weren’t all that great anyway. We had some suspension problem,” Johnson said. “I’m not really sure what’s going on. Jonathan Cash… he moved me out of the way there pretty good there. I never even had a shot, just turned me completely around. Bad night for us.”

Johnson finished 15th, 10 positions behind Deac McCaskill. Based on the SoBo points system, Johnson would trail McCaskill by 22 points, but the official standings have not been released as of press time.

Philip Morris’ bid for a second consecutive and third overall Whelen All-American Late Model Series national championship took a major hit. After starting second and battling eventual winner Nick Smith harder than anyone did during the entire race, Morris faded quickly to the back and finished 14th, one lap down.

Morris credited the fall back in the field to the red flag on lap 70 that hurt his setup. He entered the day second in the national standings, 30 points behind Keith Rocco.

Making a comeback

Two weeks following a wreck much like Dane Rudolph’s on May 9, not many people expected Eddie Johnson to be back at SoBo for quite some time.

After replacing the whole frame section and putting countless hours into getting the car ready, Johnson was able to rebound from a 28th qualifying effort to finish eighth Friday night.

“We were a little bit off tonight to where we had been, but we got through the night unscathed,” Johnson said. “Can’t say enough for all the guys on the crew as hard as they worked for two weeks to get the car back together.”

Johnson entered the day fifth in points, two points behind winner Nick Smith and 23 ahead of Lee Pulliam. Pulliam finished 28th.

“You hate to miss a race and we’d like to try to run every race that we can,” Johnson said. “We’re not one of the best financed cars here. We’re struggling, but we’re still making it.”

Igdalsky can’t escape wreck

Nick Igdalsky, the senior vice president of Pocono Raceway, qualified eighth for the 100-lap Limited Sportsman race Friday night.

However, a lap 23 accident not of his doing severely damaged his car and relegated him to a 12th-place finish, 87 laps down.

Seeing red

The Limited Sportsman and Late Model races were halted for nearly 30 minutes Friday night due to red flags. The clean up for Brian Cole’s car catching on fire in the Limited Sportsman race took close to 20 minutes to finish up, with clean up crews and officials going back over the backstretch and into Turn 3 repeatedly to ensure the track was cleared for racing action.

The five-car pileup in Turn 1 on lap 69 of the Late Model race brought the field to a stall for 8 minutes as workers cleaned up the fluids that seemingly gushed out of Michael Hardin’s torn up racecar. Lee Pulliam’s car had to almost be pulled off the outside wall and the sheet metal on the right side of the car was completely gone.

- Contact Sordelett at or (434) 791-7998.