Bubba Pollard Adds Another Southern Super Series Win at Cordele

Bubba Pollard completed the ASA Southern Super Series sweep at Cordele Motor Speedway Saturday night, winning the Georgia Summer Nationals 125.

Backing up his win at SpeedFest in January, Pollard returned to victory lane in the penultimate points-paying event of the 2024 Southern Super Series season. The win is Pollard's sixth with the ASA Southern Super Series at Cordele, and his fifth in the last seven series races at the Georgia track.

With all that success in his back pocket, Pollard had a game plan for the Summer Nationals, and executed it to perfection.

"I knew the race was going to play out in those 50-lap runs," said Pollard in victory lane. "The way the cars are and the way the race track is, it always races pretty good. I knew we had to save what we needed for that last 25.

"I didn't fire off that good the first caution with 25 to go. Once we cycled out there, those last two restarts, it was on point. I just can't thank all my guys enough."

Pollard dedicated the victory to the memory of Jeff Sandlin, a fixture in the short-track racing community both for his work at Strange Oval and as a friend.

"I've got to dedicate this one to my buddy Jeff Sandlin," said Pollard. "We lost him last week, a couple of weeks ago. He was a good friend of ours, and the whole racing community, really. We're going to miss him. He was a lot of fun to be around. He always brought a lot of joy to the race track."

Michael Hinde endured an up-and-down evening before coming home second. Hinde led the first 53 laps of the event before turning over the top spot to Pollard. Shortly thereafter, he faded to sixth with what Hinde believed was an electrical issue.

However, a chaotic end to the event highlighted by an incident involving Casey Roderick and Connor Okrzesik gave Hinde a chance to improve his finishing position. Ultimately, the Florida driver crossed the line second.

"It was really good the first 50 laps of the race," said Hinde. "He was coming quick, I was just trying to hold him off, try to have a good restart and try to get away from him. I had a pretty good restart, but it came off the corner and just started sputtering a little bit. I think we might have some sort of electrical problem.

"I fell back, I got kind of freight-trained on the bottom. I tried just staying there. Anything can happen in these races. I thought I had a sixth-place car after that, and we ended up finishing second."

Timothy Watson finished third, followed by Jake Finch and Tyler Tanner.

As for Roderick, he entered the evening with a chance to all but secure the ASA Southern Super Series championship with one points race remaining at Five Flags Speedway. Roderick briefly led during the halfway mark of the race, and was running second to Pollard for most of the second half.

However, a run-in with Connor Okrzesik with just two laps to go sent Roderick to the tail of the field, resulting in a seventh-place finish and ending Okrezik's night. The two drivers made contact on the backstretch, followed by heavier contact in turn three.

Matt Craig, who entered the race second in points, fell out of the race with six laps to go when his car failed to fire following a red flag.

The final race of the 2024 ASA Southern Super Series points battle takes place at Five Flags Speedway on September 28 at Five Flags Speedway.

-Photo credit: Jason Reasin

Georgia Summer Nationals Unofficial Results