Roderick Wins North South Super Late Model Challenge at Nashville
Salem, IN (April 10, 2017) – Georgia racer Casey Roderick kept his early season hot streak going by getting the victory in Saturday’s North/South Super Late Model Challenge 100 Presented by Team Construction at the famed Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville. The second annual event was Co-sanctioned by the ARCA/CRA Super Series Presented by JEGS and the Southern Super Series Presented by Sunoco.
“This is an emotional win for me,” Roderick said to a crowd of cheers. “I’ve wanted to win at Nashville for a long time; this victory was very important. I have to thank Ronnie Sanders and the Graham families for all their support and for letting me drive this awesome racecar. It’s been a great season already, I hope we can just keep the wins coming!”
Roderick came into this weekend’s event with four Pro Late Model victories on the season, including a win at CRA SpeedFest 2017. This was Roderick’s first win in a Super Late Model for the 2017 season.
Florida native and event Fast Qualifier Stephen Nasse took advantage of his outside pole starting position to grab the early lead. Cole Rouse rocketed to the front from his fourth place starting position to take the lead from Nasse on lap 12. Rouse would fight off several challenges over the next 50 laps, including several restarts, before a huge crash on lap 63 from fluid on the track that took out second place Brian Campbell and resulted in Nasse sustaining damage. 2016 event winner Donnie Wilson also received damage that resulted in his day ending.
Rouse spun after the lap 63 yellow came out and clipped the wall. On the next restart Rouse was unable to hold off Roderick who grabbed the lead on lap 64. Roderick still had to fight off Rouse on a couple of restarts, before Rouse fell back with suspension issues. A lap 84 caution for Paul Kelly’s spin, set up a late race restart were Roderick was able to hold off all challengers to get the win over second place Augie Grill and third place Kyle Plott, all three represented the Southern Super Series.
Travis Braden recovered from an early spin to come through the field to grab a fourth place finish for the ARCA/CRA Super Series and the AR Bodies Cool Move of the Race Award. Josh Brock had a great run to finish fifth for the ARCA/CRA Super Series and picked up the first Senneker Performance Rookie of the Race Award for the 2017 season and the FLUIDYNE High Performance Cool Under Pressure Award. Other top ARCA/CRA Super Series finishers included 2016 series Rookie of the Year Dalton Armstrong in seventh, and Johnny VanDoorn in ninth.
Roderick’s crew, led by Sanders, was awarded the PitBoxes.com Pit Crew of the Race Award for all their hard work throughout the weekend to get the win over a very talented field of entries from both series. Joey Miller was awarded the Hamner Racing Engines HardCharger Award after coming from his 30th starting position to finish 13th. Picking up Hoosier Racing Tire Performance Awards were Braden and Armstrong. Rookie Cassten Everidge was awarded the KRC Steering Hard Luck Award after an early exit with engine problems. Nasse was awarded the Sweet Manufacturing Sweet Move of the Race Award after battling back from damage in the lap 63 caution to finish 10th.
The next ARCA/CRA Super Series event will be on April 22nd at Toledo Speedway. For more information on the ARCA/CRA Super Series visit www.cra-racing.com.
Photo By: Speed51.com
