Bubba Pollard Outduels Casey Roderick, Earns 25th Blizzard Series Victory

Bubba Pollard scored the 25th Blizzard Series victory in his illustrious career on Friday night, winning the Busch Light 100 at Five Flags Speedway.

Pollard took the lead from Casey Roderick with 19 laps to go and pulled away from Roderick and Stephen Nasse for the milestone win in the 90th Blizzard Series race in history.

Pollard’s mastery of the Blizzard Series is well-known, with a knack for charging to the front at just the right opportunity. However, the Georgia driver insisted there was no biding his time on Friday night.

“I was pulling the trigger the whole time,” said Pollard in victory lane. “You can’t save nowadays. There are too many good race cars, too many good race car drivers. The tires are too good. Everybody’s so equal. It ain’t like it used to be. You’ve got to get with it and get it done.”

A large crowd gathered at Five Flags, watching the Super Late Model stars square off against NASCAR Cup Series champions Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick. However, the race came down to three of the best in the Blizzard Series, with a combined 38 wins between the trio of Pollard, Roderick and Nasse.

After Pollard took the lead from Roderick, Nasse made his way around Roderick shortly thereafter. However, Pollard quickly distanced himself from Nasse to secure the win.

“I know Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott brought all y’all fans, but I hope you come back.” Said Pollard. “When I turn around and do a victory lap, it feels good when those guys are cheering for you. That’s what it’s all about. I love it.”

While Pollard celebrated his 25th Blizzard Series win, he acknowledged there’s still the one vacancy in his trophy case, the Tom Dawson Trophy given to the winner of the Snowball Derby each year.

“That just means I’ve been doing it too long. It might be time to quit, I guess. I’ve still got a few years left in me. We still want that one in December. That’s what it’s all about. We can win all these Blizzard races we want, but we want that one in December. We were so close last year, but we’ll see if we can’t get it this year.”

Nasse started 10th in the 22-car field and drove his way to second. Ultimately, the fifth-row starting position was a hole too big for the Pinellas Park, Florida driver to overcome.

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“Bubba had a good car tonight,” said Nasse. “We just had a bad qualifying spot, and that really put us behind. There were a lot of good cars out there tonight. Everybody was able to hold the bottom pretty good. It was tough to get around them.

“I was able to make some pretty good ground there and I thought I’d have a shot. I guess I didn’t have more left than Bubba did. Good job to those guys. We’re just going to have to work on it. We’ve got a pretty good car.”

Casey Roderick entered the night as the ASA Southern Super Series points leader and added to that advantage with a third-place finish. He also sits atop the points standings in the ASA STARS National Tour.

However, Roderick is hungry to return to victory lane, and leading three-quarters of Friday’s race only added to that.

“I want to get them the win,” said Roderick. “We are wearing second and third out right now. We’re really close and led a lot of laps tonight, more than we have all year long. I’m proud of that. Made some gains in practice this weekend. Now that we’ve made the front end better.

“We’re leading ASA and Southern Super Series, and that’s great. We’ve just got to get some wins. I’m more worried about some wins right now. We’re getting closer, and we’re going to get one eventually.”

Matt Craig finished fourth, with Cole Butcher rounding out the top five.

Both Harvick and Elliott struggled for pace on Friday night. Elliott qualified sixth and started on the front row after the top-eight redraw, but quickly faded out of the top 10 and pitted during the lap 50 caution for adjustments.

Harvick finished 13th in the final running order, while Elliott crossed the line 16th.

The Deep South Crane Blizzard Series champion will be crowned on September 28in Five Flags Speedway’s Night of Champions #2. That night will also be the season finale for the Allen Turner Pro Late Models, with Late Model teams taking the track one last time before the 57th Annual Snowball Derby.

The entry form for the Snowball Derby will be available on Monday, July 1 for competitors looking to take part in the biggest race in pavement Super Late Model racing.

The next stop for the ASA Southern Super Series is Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway on July 13 for the North/South Super Late Model Challenge. That event is co-sanctioned with the ASA/CRA Super Series.

-Photo credit: Will Bellamy, Racing America

Busch Light 100 Unofficial Results