Twice As Nice for Seuss at SoBo
Dominates To Claim 17th Southern Modified Tour Victory
SOUTH BOSTON, Va. – It was a nice afternoon for a drive for Andy Seuss.
The Hampstead, N.H., driver dominated and won Saturday’s South Boston 150 in NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour action under a blue sky at South Boston Speedway. Seuss became the first repeat winner in six visits to the .4-mile Virginia oval for the tour. He won the Southern Tour’s inaugural visit to the track in 2009. The victory was the 17th of Suess’ career and the second in three outings this season behind the wheel of his No. 11 Ideal Finance/Phoenix Motors Chevrolet.
Seuss, who started second on the grid, took the lead from pole sitter Danny Bohn, who won his second career Coors Light Pole Award earlier in the day, in the opening laps and made it look easy from there.
“I got to go out front, set my pace and save my tires how I wanted,” said Seuss. “These guys just gave me a great car and I can’t thank Eddie Harvey and the crews that put this together enough.”
Seuss had to survive five restarts, but was able to handle challenges from Bohn, JR Bertuccio and Kyle Ebersole in short order.
“It’s a bunch of great competitors out there,” Seuss said about his fellow Tour drivers. “You never know with these Southern Modified Tour races. The competition is getting stiffer.”
Four-time and defending Southern Modified Tour champion George Brunnhoelzl III charged to the front and finished second after starting from the rear of the field. He qualified seventh, but had to drop to the rear prior to the initial green flag due to an unapproved adjustment to the car following qualifying.
“The guys did great today to get me a great car,” Brunnhoelzl III said. “We had a minor mishap and had to start shotgun on the field for unapproved adjustments. We definitely passed the most cars today, but just needed one more.”
Bohn crossed the line in third for his first top-five finish of the season followed by Luke Fleming in fourth and JR Bertuccio in fifth. Brothers Burt and Jason Myers, Gary Putnam, rookie Joe Ryan Osborne and Ebersole completed the top 10.
With the win, Seuss wrestled the points lead from Bertuccio, who led by a single point coming into the event. Seuss now holds an eight-point advantage over Bertuccio with Brunnhoelzl lurking at just 10 tallies off the pace.
Seuss’ 17 victories is second only to Brunnhoelzl’s 20 on the all-time wins list for the Whelen Southern Modified Tour.
The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour is back on the track on Saturday, April 12 for the Courtyard By Marriott/Pepsi 150 at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Va.
RESULTS | RACE CENTRAL LIVE RECAP | POST-RACE AUDIO: WINNER ANDY SEUSS | POST-RACE AUDIO: 2ND-PLACE GEORGE BRUNNHOELZL III | POST-RACE AUDIO: 3RD-PLACE DANNY BOHN
Sources: Shon Sbarra/NASCAR WSMT PR