Jason Myers Tops Bowman Gray Field
Saturday, August 7, 2021
Bowman Gray Stadium, Winston Salem, N.C.
After running time trials Jason Myers turned the Bowman Gray oval with a time of 13.366 which was the 6th fastest of the day, but with a redraw of the entire 27 car field, Myers drew the number one card putting him on the pole with Brian Loftin starting alongside.
Coming to starter Randy Smith’s green flag Myers shot out to the lead, the lead he would never relinquish for the next 100 laps. Behind him veteran Randy Butner quickly came from his third row starting spot to fall in behind Myers and follow him for the next 32 laps until a caution slowed the action for a spinning Bobo Brown and James Civali in turn one.
At the restart, Butner chose the inside lane behind Myers while Burt Myers chose the outside. On the restart, the two Myers brothers ran wheel to wheel for two laps before Jason prevailed on the inside. Through the next four yellow flag periods, the Myers brothers ran first and second with Burt committing himself to the outside on each restart.
That’s when the head games started with Burt holding back on the start which caused two false starts. When racing did get underway Jason and Burt ran side by side again but Jason was not letting this one getaway.
Behind the two, the battle was raging between Tim Brown, Butner, and Bobby Labonte. By lap 70 Brandon Ward flexed his muscle picking off competitors one by one until he fell in behind Brown who could do no better than third.
For the next 30 laps Jason, Burt, Brown, and Ward pulled away from the rest of the pack with Jason streaking to his 36th career Bowman Gray victory, which tied him for tenth place on the all-time winner’s list.
Behind Jason’s potent Ford was Burt Myers. Tim Brown was third, Brandon Ward fourth and quickest qualifier of the day Johnathan Holleman IV was fifth.
Myers dedicated this win to his daughter.
Myers said” Tonight I had a heck of a race car, I felt like I had the fastest car out there tonight. Sometimes when you win you don’t have the fastest car, sometimes you do have the fastest car and you don’t win.” Myers added “I got a good draw tonight and it put me up front and I showed everybody I had the fastest car. The car has been super good the last couple of weeks.” he said. “When they implemented the cone restarts it made Bowman Gray racing 100% better. It sucks for the leader but it gives everybody else a chance to race to the front. You have to base your whole strategy on restarts.” he said.
Tiger Tommy Neal led the first sportsman feature green to checkered for his fifty-first victory at Bowman Gray. The win also added to his points lead.
Amber Lynn scored her second win of the year, but she had to do it by coming from deep in the pack. Taking over the number one spot on lap 9 she was never headed, The win was a very popular one with the Bowman Gray fans.
by Jim Snape
Photos by Crystal Snape