Pollard Checks Off the Second of Three Boxes at Anderson
Anderson, SC — Bubba Pollard checked off the second of three boxes in his quest to make history this weekend, as he took down a convincing victory in the Southern Super Series/CARS Super Late Model Tour Border War 150 Saturday night at Anderson Motor Speedway (SC).
Just 24 hours after taking the win in the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour Masters of the Pros 200 at Birch Run Speedway in Michigan, Pollard and the entire No. 26 team landed in South Carolina with little sleep, but a big goal of winning their second of three scheduled races this weekend.
Pollard started the day off by qualifying second alongside polesitter Kyle Plott.
After a rocky start to the race, in which a missed shift by Plott stacked up the field, Pollard got the lead on Lap 6, going on to control much of the race. But he got a stiff challenge from Casey Roderick, who tailed Pollard for much of the race’s second half. Despite some pressure from Roderick’s No. 18, Pollard felt he still had some extra speed in reserve.
“I had a little left in the tank. I didn’t really wanna use it because you never know when the caution is gonna come back out,” Pollard explained after the race. “He had a good car. I thought he was getting some good restarts there, maybe jumping a little bit. The last restart we were able to get clear on the outside.”
While Roderick came up short, he has been happy with the gains the Ronnie Sanders Racing Super Late Model operation has made.
“I could really roll into the center good but I couldn’t get in the gas like (Bubba) could. Being a crate car you need to keep your momentum up and just not being able to get the throttle down was just killing us up off the corner,” Roderick stated. “He would just little by little get an edge on us. I’m proud of our progress. I feel like I’ve learned a lot the last few weeks and I’ve been able to apply that everywhere we go. We’re getting better. We’re not quite there yet but we’re getting better. Just gotta race a lot and work hard and that’s what we’re doing.”
Meanwhile, Pollard’s weekend is not yet over, as he will return to Michigan to participate in the ARCA/CRA Super Series Money in the Bank 150 at Berlin Raceway on Monday.
“I just love racing. We had a month off to prepare all the race cars. As soon as the schedule came out I said that’s something I want to do. I like doing things that are different. It’d be awesome to win all three, just to win two of them is good but I really want that one on Monday. We’ll get some good rest tomorrow and hopefully have a good show on Monday.”
Behind Pollard and Roderick, Kyle Plott made it a clean sweep of the podium for the Southern Super Series and the State of Georgia, as he fought back through the field to finish third. Raphael Lessard and Matt Craig rounded out the top five.
The Southern Super Series presented by Sunoco will have a weekend off next weekend before the second round of the Blizzard Series at Five Flags Speedway (FL) on Friday, June 22.
For more information on the Southern Super Series, visit www.southernsuperseries.com
Border War 150 Unofficial Results
Anderson Motor Speedway (SC) – June 9, 2018
1 26 Bubba Pollard
2 18 Casey Roderick
3 4 Kyle Plott
4 51 Raphael Lessard
5 54 Matt Craig
6 33 Peltier
7 6 Matt Wallace
8 16 Molly Helmuth
9 83 Scotty Ellis
10 00 Anthony Cataldi
11 22 Tim Hollis
12 78 Corey Heim
13 66 Steve Wallace
14 14 Jared Fryar
15 49 Jeff Batten
16 16M Chad McCumbee
17 14B Greg Burgress
18 3 Shane Chastain
19 21 Lance Moss
20 27 Lee Tissot
21 14C Connor Okrzesik
22 20 Anthony Sergi
23 67 Collin Allman
24 23 Hudson Halder
25 50 Jett Noland
26 32 Harold Crooms
27 2 Darrell Gilchrist
Sources: 51 Sports/Southern Super Series PR