Casey Roderick Dominates ASA STARS National Tour Glass City 200 at Toledo

Casey Roderick left no doubt in the ASA STARS National Tour's Glass City 200 at Toledo Speedway on Saturday night.

The STARS points leader led all but seven laps in the event, taking his first win with the series in the 2024 season ahead of the Wilson Motorsports duo of Gio Ruggiero and Gavan Boschele.

"I'm pumped, man," said Roderick in victory lane. "I appreciate every one of you fans coming out and watching this race. Without you, we don't have a show to put on. That was a good, old-fashioned ass-whooping right there."

Roderick led the first 182 laps with little challenge from the competition. However, that all changed on a lap 183 restart.

At the time, Roderick held a lead of approximately 3.5 seconds when the yellow flag flew for an incident involving Brian Campbell, Billy VanMeter and Chase Burda. Race control deemed Roderick guilty of a restart violation and waved off the first attempt. On the second attempt, Ruggiero pulled to the lead from the outside line while Roderick fought for control after contact from behind by Boschele.

Roderick quickly worked his way past Boschele for second, then chased down Ruggiero and retook the lead on lap 190. Roderick beat Ruggiero to the checkered flag by 1.3 seconds.

"A little rough driving on those restarts," said Roderick. "I get jacked up from behind. The second-place guy tried to jump the start there. I jumped the one and they called it back, but they never called his back. I don't know what to say. I try to do right, but sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do.

"I passed them back clean, never touched anyone, then he wants to jack me up going into one. I don't know what his deal is, but I raced him clean all day."

While Roderick leads the ASA STARS National Tour points and added to that advantage Saturday night, the individual results have been several near-misses. Roderick entered the Glass City 200 with four podium finishes in STARS competition during the 2024 season.

Now, he can add the Glass City 200 victory to a season that included wins in the Alabama 200 at Montgomery Motor Speedway and the North/South Super Late Model Challenge at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.

"We've been so close each week, we just haven't had that longevity. We had it tonight. The car was very, very good, on a rail."

Ruggiero settled for a second-place finish after his effort to snag the win in the closing laps. While it wasn't a win, it was a strong showing leading into the next event with the tour, the Winchester 400 at Winchester Speedway - which Ruggiero won in 2023.

"It was a dog fight," said Ruggiero. "We put on a great show for the fans. Solid effort by our whole team, everyone works so hard on this car. Just super tight. He had a super fast car, props to them. They did a great job."

Boschele scored his second consecutive ASA STARS National Tour podium with a third-place finish, backing up a third-place effort at Owosso Speedway in August.

"We were definitely really good," said Boschele. "Not sure if we had anything for Casey. It was a good, successful first trip. Hopefully, when we come back next year, we can be two spots better. I can't thank all these Wilson guys enough, they gave me a great car tonight.

"I had a really good start that last one, and I accidentally picked Casey's tires up off the ground, I think he spun them a little bit. Other than that, it was a pretty good race. A little bit rough, but hopefully the fans enjoyed it."

Matt Tifft made his first start in a pavement circle track race since retiring from NASCAR competition in 2019. However, it ended after an incident on lap 47 with Van Meter and Evan Shotko.

Dawson Sutton ran in the top three for the first 55 laps of the race, but also saw his contest end early after a wicked crash in turn three.

The last two races for the ASA STARS National Tour season take place at two of the crown jewel events in Super Late Model Racing. The tour's next stop is the Winchester 400 at Winchester Speedway on October 13. The finale takes place in the All American 400 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway on November 3.

-Photo credit: Reid Scott, Liberty Racing Review

Glass City 200 Unofficial Results