Bubba Pollard Kicks Off ASA STARS Season With Clyde Hart Memorial Win

Bubba Pollard continues to flex his muscle to start the 2024 season, picking up the win Tuesday night in the ASA STARS National Tour Clyde Hart Memorial 200 at New Smyrna Speedway.

Pollard took the lead on lap 183 from Ty Majeski and distanced himself from the field to pick up the win in the ASA STARS season opener, backing up his win at SpeedFest in January.

"I felt good in practice," said Pollard in victory lane. "I knew we didn't have a short-run car. I knew we needed some time. I knew we could fire off on those new tires, I just needed some laps to get going and it would come to me.

"I always have the confidence when I strap in we're going to win. It's just putting all of the rest of it together. I've got confidence in the race carI made a few mistakes tonight. Picking lanes, not doing what I needed to do on those restarts to put me in a better position. I had to work for it a little harder.

The win is Pollard's first in the Clyde Hart Memorial, adding that accomplishment to one of the most impressive resumes in Super Late Model racing. Pollard admitted this is a race he had been wanting to check off the list for some time.

"Man, that feels good. I wanted that one bad. You outrun some of the best here at the racetrack. I'll tell you what, the racing here in the past has been off a little bit, it's been hard to pass. These new Hoosier tires, that's where it's at. They made it fun tonight."

Unfortunately for Majeski, a strong showing to start his ASA STARS National Tour title defense went away shortly after he lost the lead, as a mechanical issue relegated him to a 16th place finish.

Even without the issue, however, Majeski felt Pollard was the man to beat on Tuesday night.

"The drive plate came out and spit the axle out," explained Majeski. "Obviously, we were probably going to finish second there. Bubba had everybody covered. I've never seen a car go around one and two like that on the bottom. He had a Pensacola-type line where he just wrapped the bottom. I've never seen a car able to do that here. I could maintain in three and four, but he just had us beat.

"Overall, a good debut for us on this new Hoosier tire. We weren't able to go to Cordele or be here earlier in this week. To come here and have a good strong showing here the first time on this tire, I thought it was a pretty good run for us."

Another driver who has impressed in recent months is Jett Noland. Noland won the Bill Bigley, Sr. Memorial 128 at the Freedom Factory last November, and started this year's World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing with a third-place showing.

Noland continued his good showing at New Smyrna with a runner-up finish on Tuesday.

"The race car was just really tight," said Noland. "We've been trying to work it out since we got here, but we've been getting a little bit better at it."

"We're chipping away at that first-place position. I think this year's going to be a great year with the team that we're slowly developing."

Casey Roderick, the winner of last year's ASA STARS National Tour season opener at Five Flags Speedway, once again started the campaign with a podium finish by crossing the line third.

"It's always good to get a podium finish," said Roderick. "We were really good to start the race with, I thought. The longer we ran, the tighter we got.

"I thought we had a chance to take the 91 there, but we kept having those cautions. Then we just plateaued once we went back green after the stage break."

-Photo credit: Will Bellamy/Racing America

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
CLYDE HART MEMORIAL 200 - ASA STARS NATIONAL TOUR