Barnes Jr. Wins Third Straight Short Track U.S. Nationals CRA Street Stock Event at Bristol
Salem, IN (June 3, 2019) – Louisville, Kentucky native used patience and saved his tires for a late race run to pass fellow Kentucky native Brett Hudson to get his third consecutive Short Track U.S. Nationals Presented by Vore’s Welding & Steel at Bristol Motor Speedway win with the Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks Powered by JEGS Saturday evening. With the win Barnes Jr. is the only three-time Short Track U.S. Nationals winner.
“This is awesome,” remarked Barnes Jr. “We knew we had a good car, and if I was patient and take care of the car and my tires that we could get back into victory lane. This is a new car we built over the winter, and we’ve just got the bugs worked out. The field was full of a bunch of great racers, I feel privileged to get this win!”
Barnes Jr. started the day by setting a new track record in Allstar Performance Qualifying. Barnes Jr. drew a six for the events inverted start. Jason Atkinson took full advantage of his pole position starting spot to grab the early lead. Brett Hudson quickly worked from his fifth place starting position to second place right behind Atkinson.
Hudson would get past Atkinson on lap 15 to grab the lead, while Barnes Jr. and Chuck Barnes Sr. were battling with Skeeter Crum for top five positions. Barnes Jr. moved into second place and would start to apply pressure to Hudson. The two Kentucky rivals battled for several laps before Barnes Jr. got by to grab the lead on lap 31and cruise to the win. For his pass of Hudson, Barnes Jr. picked up the KRJ Race Products Sweet Move of the Race Award.
Chuck Barnes Sr. would make a late run and pass Hudson to finish in second and received the AR Bodies Cool Move of the Race.
Barnes Jr. added, “It’s cool to have a win at this track, but to get three in a row is just spectacular and talks about how good this team is. I want to that my car owner Scotty Holbert and all these guys that work had on this car. We had a quick turnaround from our race at KMS last week, and they got it done. It was great having my dad finish in second, it was a good day for our family!”
Hudson would finish in third after finishing in second the previous two years in this event. Crum would hold on to finish in fourth place. Former CRA Champion Jeff Lane would round out the top five. David Bayens would come from his 16th place starting position to finish in sixth. Buck Purtee would come from his 22nd starting position to finish in seventh. J.J. Schafer finished in eighth, Atkinson in ninth and Jacob McElfresh in tenth.
Kentucky veteran racer Shawn Smith won the 25 lap B Feature to advance into the A Main. In all there were 63 cars who signed in for the event.
The Van Hoy Oil CRA Street Stocks next event will be the first 200 lap Four Crown event, which will take place at Anderson Speedway on Saturday, June 15th. For more information on all the CRA series go to www.cra-racing.com.
