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WILD AND CONTROVERSIAL FINAL LAPS NET J. R. GARCIA VETERANS 50 PRO TRUCK WIN AT AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY
It was yet another cool but comfortable night for racing as Auburndale Speedway saluted the nation's veterans and the fans were treated to one of the best Pro Truck races in recent memory here. The big evening of action was presented by J. C. Penny Realty with assistance from Butler Mortgage, Macaw Signs, The Trophy Shop of Winter Haven and Frazier Lawn Care. A beautiful custom-made fleece blanket was presented to the Pro Truck winner by Geiswite Creations. The honor guard was provided by AMVets post 32.
The Veteran's Memorial Pro Truck 50 was the big race of the night and 24 teams squeezed into the pits to do battle. Time trials were very close but once again, for the fifth time this year, West Palm Beach driver Derek Pugh was the fastest. Pugh tripped the clocks at 14.579 seconds to edge Jason Lester who turned a lap at 14.655. J. R. Garcia was third quick at 14.679 followed by point leader Cody McDuffie and rookie Pro Truck driver Colt Hensley who had the best qualifying effort of his young career.
Pugh has not been very lucky this year with the pill draw for the inversion so he decided to have his girlfriend draw the pill this time and she pulled a six, much better than the 10's and 12's Pugh had been pulling recently. That placed sixth-fastest Jessica Murphy on the pole with Hensley to her outside. Murphy was making her first start here since last year's charity race but she quickly showed she was ready for business as she blasted out to an early lead while Hensley settled into second.
McDuffie was making his patented charge to the front and he sped by Hensley for second on lap nine as Hensley got stuck in the high groove and slipped back several spots. Lap 11 saw a big tangle going into turn one involving Hensley and Leroy Moore. Danny Anderson had to take evasive action and ended up on the dirt bank surrounding the turn one light pole. Anderson continued none the worse for wear but Hensley and Moore were done for the night. Bret Holmes' bad luck streak continued as he had already dropped from competition.
Following the restart, Murphy and McDuffie began to put on a show, swapping the lead back and forth lap after lap as the fans were enjoying every minute of it. That all came to a stop on lap 18 as Carter Brown spun in turn two to bring out the yellow flag. For the second week in a row, Jamie Sullivan's night ended early as she took her machine pit side.
On the restart McDuffie got the measure of Murphy and took over the point while Jason Lester also got by for second. Lap 23 saw another caution, this time for Colt Cecil who was into the wall in turn three. Cecil's truck needed a tow to the pits while Kristen Clements took her truck in for service but returned.
Both Lester and Murphy did not want to restart on the outside lane so that allowed fourth place Pugh the opportunity to restart the race from outside of McDuffie. Now it was another side-by-side battle from the front spot and Pugh actually led lap 30 before slipping back as Lester and Murphy re-claimed second and third. William Kerns spun in turn two to bring out the fourth caution of the race on lap 36.
Again, second-runner Lester decided to stay in behind McDuffie while Murphy opted to give the outside lane a try for the restart. Murphy was driving a fantastic race and inched ahead to lead lap 37 before McDuffie got a bumper in front just before Bryton Horner brought out the yellow for a spin in turn four.
McDuffie and Murphy continued their door-to-door battle for the lead on the restart while Garcia now made his presence felt by sliding into third spot. Action was slowed again on lap 45 as Rich Clouser got into Adam Briggs going into turn three with both spinning out. This while they battled for the eighth spot. Clouser, who had a mechanical issue during hot laps and missed qualifying, started 24th and had worked his way to ninth before the incident.
This time it was Lester who decided to restart from outside of McDuffie while Murphy and Garcia lined up on the inside behind the leader. Then the controversy began. Going through turns three and four following the restart, the top three trucks all made contact with Lester spinning around. Opinions then became mixed as to what happened. Some said Murphy hit McDuffie from behind sending him into Lester. Others say Lester came down on McDuffie causing him to check up while some other opinions said McDuffie just got out of shape causing Murphy to hit him. Several caution laps were run before an official ruling was made with all three - McDuffie, Lester and Murphy - being penalized to the back of the field for the restart. An upset Murphy drove her truck to the pits while McDuffie and Lester stayed out.
All of a sudden, J. R. Garcia found himself in the lead and he made the most of it leading the last five circuits in his Ambassador Racing School special to claim the win. For Garcia, who has raced his truck sparingly during recent seasons, it was his first trip to victory lane "in recent memory," according to him. Pugh grabbed the second spot and gained ground on point leader McDuffie who managed to work his way back up to a seventh place finish. Going into the season finale for the class on November 15, McDuffie is just ten points up on Pugh. Danny Anderson came back from his near miss with a light pole to nab third place and sits third in points, 18 back of McDuffie. Adam Briggs had his best career Pro Truck finish in fourth while Billy Carlbert, Jr., driving a freshly refurbished truck that was absolutely beautiful, struggled early with his set up but drove steady to net fifth place. Rounding out the top ten were Jimmy Frazier III, McDuffie, Brandon Martin, Carter Brown and Lester.
Garcia was quick to thank his race team in victory lane. "I was in North Carolina working all week and these guys took a truck that was bent up front to back from last week and made it run like a top. These guys are the reason we're here tonight," said Garcia. "We really should have won," said Pugh after his second place effort. "We had the truck to get the job done, just could not get into position and those guys out front were really going at it. We gained some points so we'll head to the last race of the season in three weeks and try and close things out on top," he said. Anderson was pleaded with his third place finish after a wild beginning. "Can't complain... I just need to figure out how to qualify better and get a chance to run up front the whole race, he said.
The Sportsman class were set to end their 2018 point season with a 50-lap contest. However, just seven cars showed as many teams are preparing for big season-ending big-money events at 417 Speedway and New Smyrna Speedway next weekend. The race was trimmed to 30 laps and it began with Brooke Storer on the pole. Despite a torn ligament in her ankle that had her on crutches all day, Storer managed to lead the first six laps before Brandon Morris stormed by.
From that point Morris was in a class of his own as the full 30 circuits went green to checker. Morris was well in front of a great battle for second that saw George Gorham, Jr. just edge L. J. Grimm at the line. Storer persevered to claim fourth earning enough points to the secure the 2018 Auburndale Speedway Sportsman championship. Bobby Mills took fifth trailed by Rick Reed and Charlie Brown.
After winning the heat, Chris Narramore, Sr. grabbed the lead from David McCaig on lap three and drove to victory in the Q Mini Stock feature race that went from green to checker with no yellow flags. The win was Narramore' Sr.'s ninth of the year, tying him with his son Chris Narramore, Jr. for the most wins in the class this year while Narramore, Sr. also earned yet another track championship. Narramore, Jr. came home second on this night ahead of Bruce Cozad, Reggie Ware II and McCaig. Fred Martin did not start after a heat race bout with the wall.
In victory lane Narramore, Sr. indicated this would be his final race as a driver saying he will try and re-start the "Kid's Club" class next year for young drivers aged 9-16 with no racing experience. His son in victory lane said "We've heard this retirement stuff before... I'll believe it when I see it," he joked.
Kenny Uhl, Jr. led the opening six laps of the Modified Mini Stock nightcap but no one was going to stop Chris Spring on this night. After wining the heat, Spring blasted by Uhl and drove to an easy win as this race also went green to checker. Spring was in a different zip code at the end as he took his third win of the season and claimed yet another track point title for himself. Levi Parsons came home second ahead of Uhl, Tim Scalise and Richard Brown. Johnathan Case, Jeff Firestine and Mike Prevatt rounded out the finishers.
It's yet another track championship for James Wright III as he dominated the action in the V-8 Bomber class. After picking up the heat win, Wright wrested the feature lead from Danny Burchfield on the second lap and sped away to his ninth win of the year. George Gorham, Jr. picked up the Bubba Healey ride for the night and was all over Wright but could never make the pass settling for his second second-place effort of the night. Burchfield held on for third followed by Jeff McCaw, Jody Gill, Travis Todd and Jimmy McCleod. Ronnie Abney broke a rear end during hot laps and was unable to start.
Just three Scramblers were in action and Fred Wilson won the heat race by default after the cars of Danny Burchfield Sr. and Danny Burchfield, Jr. both broke during the race. Neither Burchfield car could be repaired so no feature race was run.
Next week it's the "Night of destruction" at Auburndale Speedway featuring the School Bus Figure-8 race and for the first time, an RV Demolition Derby plus lots more craziness. The track will be dark for a week to clean up the mess before the season-ending points race finale November 14-16 that will feature the "Gobbler 150" for the Super Late Models.
OFFICIAL FINISH - PRO TRUCKS - AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY - 11/3/18 (50 Laps):
1) J. R. Garcia #13
2) Derek Pugh #3
3) Danny Anderson #50
4) Adam Briggs #14
5) Billy Carlbert, Jr. #11
6) Jimmy Frazier III #74
7) Cody McDuffie #25
8) Brandon Martin #53
9) Carter Brown #11jr
10) Jason Lester #7
11) Jeff White #41
12) Bryton Horner #21H
13) William Kerns #69
14) Johnny Marra #99
15) Brennon Pletcher #92 (DNF)
16) Todd Haag #54 (DNF)
17) Rich Clouser #15 (DNF)
18) Jessica Murphy #26 (DNF)
19) Colt Cecil #19 (DNF)
20) Kristen Clements #5K (DNF)
21) Jamie Sullivan #05 (DNF)
22) Leroy Moore #21M (DNF)
23) Colt Hensley #77 (DNF)
24) Brey Holmes #57 (DNF)
It was yet another cool but comfortable night for racing as Auburndale Speedway saluted the nation's veterans and the fans were treated to one of the best Pro Truck races in recent memory here. The big evening of action was presented by J. C. Penny Realty with assistance from Butler Mortgage, Macaw Signs, The Trophy Shop of Winter Haven and Frazier Lawn Care. A beautiful custom-made fleece blanket was presented to the Pro Truck winner by Geiswite Creations. The honor guard was provided by AMVets post 32.
The Veteran's Memorial Pro Truck 50 was the big race of the night and 24 teams squeezed into the pits to do battle. Time trials were very close but once again, for the fifth time this year, West Palm Beach driver Derek Pugh was the fastest. Pugh tripped the clocks at 14.579 seconds to edge Jason Lester who turned a lap at 14.655. J. R. Garcia was third quick at 14.679 followed by point leader Cody McDuffie and rookie Pro Truck driver Colt Hensley who had the best qualifying effort of his young career.
Pugh has not been very lucky this year with the pill draw for the inversion so he decided to have his girlfriend draw the pill this time and she pulled a six, much better than the 10's and 12's Pugh had been pulling recently. That placed sixth-fastest Jessica Murphy on the pole with Hensley to her outside. Murphy was making her first start here since last year's charity race but she quickly showed she was ready for business as she blasted out to an early lead while Hensley settled into second.
McDuffie was making his patented charge to the front and he sped by Hensley for second on lap nine as Hensley got stuck in the high groove and slipped back several spots. Lap 11 saw a big tangle going into turn one involving Hensley and Leroy Moore. Danny Anderson had to take evasive action and ended up on the dirt bank surrounding the turn one light pole. Anderson continued none the worse for wear but Hensley and Moore were done for the night. Bret Holmes' bad luck streak continued as he had already dropped from competition.
Following the restart, Murphy and McDuffie began to put on a show, swapping the lead back and forth lap after lap as the fans were enjoying every minute of it. That all came to a stop on lap 18 as Carter Brown spun in turn two to bring out the yellow flag. For the second week in a row, Jamie Sullivan's night ended early as she took her machine pit side.
On the restart McDuffie got the measure of Murphy and took over the point while Jason Lester also got by for second. Lap 23 saw another caution, this time for Colt Cecil who was into the wall in turn three. Cecil's truck needed a tow to the pits while Kristen Clements took her truck in for service but returned.
Both Lester and Murphy did not want to restart on the outside lane so that allowed fourth place Pugh the opportunity to restart the race from outside of McDuffie. Now it was another side-by-side battle from the front spot and Pugh actually led lap 30 before slipping back as Lester and Murphy re-claimed second and third. William Kerns spun in turn two to bring out the fourth caution of the race on lap 36.
Again, second-runner Lester decided to stay in behind McDuffie while Murphy opted to give the outside lane a try for the restart. Murphy was driving a fantastic race and inched ahead to lead lap 37 before McDuffie got a bumper in front just before Bryton Horner brought out the yellow for a spin in turn four.
McDuffie and Murphy continued their door-to-door battle for the lead on the restart while Garcia now made his presence felt by sliding into third spot. Action was slowed again on lap 45 as Rich Clouser got into Adam Briggs going into turn three with both spinning out. This while they battled for the eighth spot. Clouser, who had a mechanical issue during hot laps and missed qualifying, started 24th and had worked his way to ninth before the incident.
This time it was Lester who decided to restart from outside of McDuffie while Murphy and Garcia lined up on the inside behind the leader. Then the controversy began. Going through turns three and four following the restart, the top three trucks all made contact with Lester spinning around. Opinions then became mixed as to what happened. Some said Murphy hit McDuffie from behind sending him into Lester. Others say Lester came down on McDuffie causing him to check up while some other opinions said McDuffie just got out of shape causing Murphy to hit him. Several caution laps were run before an official ruling was made with all three - McDuffie, Lester and Murphy - being penalized to the back of the field for the restart. An upset Murphy drove her truck to the pits while McDuffie and Lester stayed out.
All of a sudden, J. R. Garcia found himself in the lead and he made the most of it leading the last five circuits in his Ambassador Racing School special to claim the win. For Garcia, who has raced his truck sparingly during recent seasons, it was his first trip to victory lane "in recent memory," according to him. Pugh grabbed the second spot and gained ground on point leader McDuffie who managed to work his way back up to a seventh place finish. Going into the season finale for the class on November 15, McDuffie is just ten points up on Pugh. Danny Anderson came back from his near miss with a light pole to nab third place and sits third in points, 18 back of McDuffie. Adam Briggs had his best career Pro Truck finish in fourth while Billy Carlbert, Jr., driving a freshly refurbished truck that was absolutely beautiful, struggled early with his set up but drove steady to net fifth place. Rounding out the top ten were Jimmy Frazier III, McDuffie, Brandon Martin, Carter Brown and Lester.
Garcia was quick to thank his race team in victory lane. "I was in North Carolina working all week and these guys took a truck that was bent up front to back from last week and made it run like a top. These guys are the reason we're here tonight," said Garcia. "We really should have won," said Pugh after his second place effort. "We had the truck to get the job done, just could not get into position and those guys out front were really going at it. We gained some points so we'll head to the last race of the season in three weeks and try and close things out on top," he said. Anderson was pleaded with his third place finish after a wild beginning. "Can't complain... I just need to figure out how to qualify better and get a chance to run up front the whole race, he said.
The Sportsman class were set to end their 2018 point season with a 50-lap contest. However, just seven cars showed as many teams are preparing for big season-ending big-money events at 417 Speedway and New Smyrna Speedway next weekend. The race was trimmed to 30 laps and it began with Brooke Storer on the pole. Despite a torn ligament in her ankle that had her on crutches all day, Storer managed to lead the first six laps before Brandon Morris stormed by.
From that point Morris was in a class of his own as the full 30 circuits went green to checker. Morris was well in front of a great battle for second that saw George Gorham, Jr. just edge L. J. Grimm at the line. Storer persevered to claim fourth earning enough points to the secure the 2018 Auburndale Speedway Sportsman championship. Bobby Mills took fifth trailed by Rick Reed and Charlie Brown.
After winning the heat, Chris Narramore, Sr. grabbed the lead from David McCaig on lap three and drove to victory in the Q Mini Stock feature race that went from green to checker with no yellow flags. The win was Narramore' Sr.'s ninth of the year, tying him with his son Chris Narramore, Jr. for the most wins in the class this year while Narramore, Sr. also earned yet another track championship. Narramore, Jr. came home second on this night ahead of Bruce Cozad, Reggie Ware II and McCaig. Fred Martin did not start after a heat race bout with the wall.
In victory lane Narramore, Sr. indicated this would be his final race as a driver saying he will try and re-start the "Kid's Club" class next year for young drivers aged 9-16 with no racing experience. His son in victory lane said "We've heard this retirement stuff before... I'll believe it when I see it," he joked.
Kenny Uhl, Jr. led the opening six laps of the Modified Mini Stock nightcap but no one was going to stop Chris Spring on this night. After wining the heat, Spring blasted by Uhl and drove to an easy win as this race also went green to checker. Spring was in a different zip code at the end as he took his third win of the season and claimed yet another track point title for himself. Levi Parsons came home second ahead of Uhl, Tim Scalise and Richard Brown. Johnathan Case, Jeff Firestine and Mike Prevatt rounded out the finishers.
It's yet another track championship for James Wright III as he dominated the action in the V-8 Bomber class. After picking up the heat win, Wright wrested the feature lead from Danny Burchfield on the second lap and sped away to his ninth win of the year. George Gorham, Jr. picked up the Bubba Healey ride for the night and was all over Wright but could never make the pass settling for his second second-place effort of the night. Burchfield held on for third followed by Jeff McCaw, Jody Gill, Travis Todd and Jimmy McCleod. Ronnie Abney broke a rear end during hot laps and was unable to start.
Just three Scramblers were in action and Fred Wilson won the heat race by default after the cars of Danny Burchfield Sr. and Danny Burchfield, Jr. both broke during the race. Neither Burchfield car could be repaired so no feature race was run.
Next week it's the "Night of destruction" at Auburndale Speedway featuring the School Bus Figure-8 race and for the first time, an RV Demolition Derby plus lots more craziness. The track will be dark for a week to clean up the mess before the season-ending points race finale November 14-16 that will feature the "Gobbler 150" for the Super Late Models.
OFFICIAL FINISH - PRO TRUCKS - AUBURNDALE SPEEDWAY - 11/3/18 (50 Laps):
1) J. R. Garcia #13
2) Derek Pugh #3
3) Danny Anderson #50
4) Adam Briggs #14
5) Billy Carlbert, Jr. #11
6) Jimmy Frazier III #74
7) Cody McDuffie #25
8) Brandon Martin #53
9) Carter Brown #11jr
10) Jason Lester #7
11) Jeff White #41
12) Bryton Horner #21H
13) William Kerns #69
14) Johnny Marra #99
15) Brennon Pletcher #92 (DNF)
16) Todd Haag #54 (DNF)
17) Rich Clouser #15 (DNF)
18) Jessica Murphy #26 (DNF)
19) Colt Cecil #19 (DNF)
20) Kristen Clements #5K (DNF)
21) Jamie Sullivan #05 (DNF)
22) Leroy Moore #21M (DNF)
23) Colt Hensley #77 (DNF)
24) Brey Holmes #57 (DNF)