Jared Irvan Delivers Father’s Day Gift For 1st PASS South Win At Anderson
WILLIAMSTON, SC (June 19) – Jared Irvan took the lead from Roger Lee Newton with six laps to go following a long side-by-side battle to win the Electric City 125 Friday night at Anderson Motor Speedway. The win was Irvan’s first career victory in the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) South Super Late Model division.
“My car really wasn’t that good in practice and even at the beginning of the race, but I definitely saved my stuff and was able to come back to the front,” said Irvan alongside the Kia Of Anderson Chevrolet in victory lane. “Roger Lee [Newton] and I raced each other hard, but we raced it other clean and I’m glad he raced me that way. I didn’t think I was going to get by him for a while, but finally I got a good run coming off turn two and I got by him.”
The win was especially sweet for Jared’s dad, Ernie, and proved to be an early Father’s Day present for the 1991 Daytona 500 winner.
“Any time you can your son take after you and win races means a lot, especially since we haven’t been able to race Jared a whole lot this year,” said Ernie Irvan. “It’s great for him to be able to win on Father’s Day weekend. It’s really neat. I’m kinda stuck for words.”
On an extremely hot day that saw track temperatures well exceed 100 degrees during the afternoon, second year driver Lucas Jones paced the 24 car field in qualifying with a lap of 94.149 miles per hour around the 3/8 mile speedway. Following the top 10 qualifiers redraw, Jones would move back to the eighth starting position while Roger Lee Newton and PASS South points leader Zane Smith would move to the front row.
At the drop of the green flag, Newton assumed the lead, but was overtaken on lap 25 by Clay Rogers for the top spot. The first caution flag of the night would not wave until lap 48 when Cole Timm and Lee Hansard made hard contact exiting turn two to put their night to an early end. Just five laps later, the caution waved again for a spin in turn two by Spencer Wauters following contact from Colt James.
On the restart, Smith would get the better of Rogers to take the lead for the first time of the night. The two would go back-and-forth for the lead, while Matt Craig joined the fight back in third. Rogers and Craig both moved by Zane Smith as the caution would wave for the stalled car of Kyle McCallum on lap 64.
Craig made an aggressive move following the restart to take the lead from Rogers on the outside as they entered turn one. Rogers once again found himself in a tussle as he and Craig exchanged the lead amongst themselves.
After a spin by Lee Tissot and Wauters in turn one on lap 77, Craig again assumed the lead but was now challenged by his teammate, Zane Smith. Smith moved around the outside to take the lead from Craig with 42 laps to go. At this point, Craig appeared to struggle with the handling on his C&C Boiler Sales Chevrolet and started to drop back. As Craig dropped back, rookie Chandler Smith challenged him for fifth, but the two cars made contact down the back straightaway sending Smith hard into the outside wall.
Following the restart, Rogers again moved to the lead around Zane Smith. Newton joined the fray to move around Smith and take second. With 23 laps to go, Newton made slight contact with Rogers exiting turn two which allowed him to move underneath and in to the lead.
All the while, Irvan patiently waited back in the fourth position and was now ready to make his charge. Irvan moved by Zane Smith and Rogers in to the second position and then set his sights on the leader, Newton. Irvan’s car seemed to handle extremely well on the inside groove and moved down low to challenge Newton for the lead with 15 laps to go. Lap after lap, Irvan and Newton ran side-by-side for the lead before Irvan was finally able to clear him with six laps to go. Irvan stretched his lead and held on to capture the win in the Electric City 125 over Newton, Rogers, Zane Smith, and Jody Measamer. Rounding out the top 10 were Joey Padgett, Jones, Brandon Ward, Tissot, and Craig.
Austin Thompson was able to overcome a penalty to take his second career PASS Pro Late Model division win. Kodie Conner led until there were 17 laps to go when he and Thompson made contact in turn two. Thompson was sent to the rear for rough driving handing the lead over to Cameron Burke. Thompson made his way back through the field to take the lead from Burke with less than five laps to go. Following Thompson and Burke at the checkered flag were Jake Spillers, Jordan McCallum, and Matt Murphy.
In local division action, Will Ragsdale held off Austin Northcutt for the BM Modified win, while Chase Purdy claimed the Legends win and Tommy Davis took the Front Wheel Drive win.
The PASS South Super Late Models and PASS Pro Late Models will be in action once again on Saturday, July 25 at Caraway Speedway in Sophia, NC. Entry forms and more information can be found at ProAllStarsSeries.com. Be sure to “Like” the Pro All Stars Series on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at @PASSSLM14.
PASS South Super Late Model – Electric City 125 – Unofficial Results
- 28 – Jared Irvan
- 33 – Roger Lee Newton
- 2 – Clay Rogers
- 77 – Zane Smith
- 98 – Jody Measamer
- 83 – Joey Padgett
- 16 – Lucas Jones
- 62 – Brandon Ward
- 27 – Lee Tissot
- 54 – Matt Craig
- 5w – Spencer Wauters
- 15x – Colt James
- 49 – Jeff Batten
- 26 – Chandler Smith
- 10 – RS Senter
- 8f – Tate Fogleman
- 8m – Kyle McCallum
- 58 – Tyler Ankrum
- 5m – Vinnie Miller
- 57 – Cole Timm
- 89 – Lee Hansard
- 71 – Jimmy Doyle
- 02 – Walker Yates
DNS 15 – Ron Young
PASS Pro Late Models – 50 laps
- 2 – Austin Thompson
- 82 – Cameron Burke
- 55 – Jake Spillers
- 3 – Jordan McCallum
- 7 – Kodie Conner
- 45 – Kodie Conner
Sources: Alan Dietz/PASS PR