Super Late Models
2023 World Series Points Standings After Night #5
Feb 15, 2023
Through three nights of Super Late Model competition at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway, Casey Roderick hasn’t finished worse than third.
With runner-up finishes on Sunday and Monday night before finishing third to William Byron and Jake Finch on Tuesday in the Clyde Hart Memorial, Roderick leads the World Series points standings by 10 markers over Gio Ruggiero.
Roderick’s closest competition for the points title, William Sawalich, fell out of Tuesday’s race with a mechanical failure, as did Conner Jones after entering Tuesday fourth in points.
As big as a World Series championship would be, Roderick doesn’t want to leave New Smyrna without a victory.
“I just want to win,” Roderick told Racing America. “That’s all that matters to me. It’s good for points. It was definitely a good points night tonight with a couple of these cars falling out. I’m happy about our points lead, but I don’t want to win this championship without a win. We’ll see what we can do.”
On all three nights, he has watched a Wilson Motorsports car pull into victory lane. Sawalich won the first Super Late Model feature, while Byron won on Monday and Tuesday nights before he heads to Daytona International Speedway to qualify for the Daytona 500.
“It’s another good night, of course. The car is clean, that’s good. We’ll continue on. We’re lacking a little ‘HP’ down the straightaway right now. I feel like we’ve had our car really good, handling-wise, through the corners.”
Roderick and the team adjusted for Tuesday’s 100-lap race hoping to close the gap, but after the race, Roderick said the changes did not have the intended effect.
“We made some changes today to try to overcome what we’re lacking in a certain section here, and just took grip away from the car off the corner tonight. It wouldn’t have changed the result. If I were a little tighter off the corner, the result would have still been the same. You can’t overcome power down the straightaway. For this track here, you need ‘HP.’ It’s pretty much a drag strip here. You stop in the corners and drag race off the corners, and that’s what we’re lacking.”
Roderick’s next chance to score a win comes Wednesday night, as the Super Late Models compete for 35 laps on the sixth night of racing in the World Series. The evening’s card is headlined by the John Blewett III Memorial 76 for Tour-type Modifieds. Pro Late Models and Florida Modifieds will also be on track.
