Bobbie Tumbleston, III Battles to Second New Year's Bash Victory at Dillon

From the grandstands, it appeared Bobbie Tumbleston, III cruised to his second New Year's Bash victory. Inside his No. 00, the race was far more intense.

Fighting a stuttering, stumbling car and overcoming emotion, Tumbleston held off Aaron Plemons in the closing laps to secure the victory in the 15th Annual New Year's Bash at Dillon Motor Speedway.

Tumbleston stressed in the cockpit throughout the 100-lap feature. After starting on the pole, Tumbleston fell out of the top 10 in the first 20 laps as he fought carburetor issues that never fully went away.

“I’ve definitely got an issue," said Tumbleston in victory lane. "I don’t know what’s going on with the carburetor on this motor, but that thing almost got me tore all to pieces at the beginning of the race. Even in the second half, I thought I had it figured out.

“It was very stressful. It wouldn’t idle, it’d skip out on restarts. This race right here was pretty stressful. That’s about the farthest back I’ve been in several laps."

That even put Tumbleston in the thick of a multi-car incident on lap 20, which started as Jeff Sparks and Ronnie Bassett, Jr. came together battling for the lead.

“When you get back there, those boys race hard every lap. Things happen. I almost got tore up on the backstraightaway. I’m not sure who hit me or what happened, but I know I went airborne."

Tumbleston was also emotional in victory lane, thinking about the family members he raced with for years.

“This win is for all my loved ones up in heaven," said Tumbleston. "I took a year off last year. I wasn’t sure if I was coming to this race or not. I came here a couple of months ago. I put the wrong tire on in qualifying for myself and my guys. I decided to load up. I wasn’t ready to come racing.

“It’s just different without your loved ones here. Without the Lucas family, Randy Montgomery, my wife, my pastor, if they didn’t keep pushing me, I don’t know if I’d be here or not.

“Honestly, last week, I didn’t care if I came here or not. We came here about three weeks ago, and we practiced for this thing about 300 laps, just trying to get me back in shape for it and trying to figure out the balance of the car. We found some speed there. We weren’t sure if it was long-run speed or short-run speed but it proved itself tonight.”

While Plemons finished second to Tumbleston, the 2024 track champion at New London-Waterford Speedbowl took pride in representing the north and proving his team's ability against top Street Stock competitors from across North America in the New Year's Bash.

“This is crazy, man. We’ve never ever qualified in the top 25 here due to bad luck. When we finally put it together, this is what happens. We have a very good team. We’re from the north. Coming here once a year racing with these guys kind of sucks, we don’t get as much practice.

“We showed what we can do today. We’re a top-tier team, we’re coming off a championship. We’re only getting better.”

Tommy O'Sullivan, the 2023 New Year's Bash victor, rounded out the podium, overcoming an up-and-down night fighting both the handling of his race car and the attrition-filled race.

“We started off, we weren’t good. I thought we were going to be okay there and we weren’t. They kept telling me to hang on and I was like, we’ve got to pit.

“We pit and made it better. They knew what they wanted to do at the halfway break. We put a tire on the right-front and it just wouldn’t hook up, so we came back in and made another change.

“So many people to thank, they really worked hard this week. They don’t get paid. They just do it for the love of it, to support me and my nephew.”

-Photo credit: Zach Evans

New Year's Bash Unofficial Results