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Defending PASS South Super Late Model champion, Matt Craig captured the lead from Spencer Davis on lap 16 and never looked back en route to his second career series win in the Dogwood 150 Saturday afternoon at Southern National Motorsports Park.  Following his win, Craig laid down a challenge amidst a furious chassis builder battle going on in the South’s oldest Super Late Model tour.

“This was just an awesome car and I can’t thank my crew enough for all the hard work they put in to it,” said Craig, driver of the C&C Boilers Sales & Service Chevrolet.  “Everybody thinks the Furys are the best, but they just got waxed by a brand new Hamke.  We struggled a bit at Dillon, but we’ve got it figured out.  He [Noles] got us on a restart, but I laid the hammer down off two and cruised from there.”

In qualifying, Craig just missed out on the track record to claim his first career PASS quick qualifying time with a speed of 97.853 miles per hour.  Following the top 10 qualifiers redraw, Craig would start third, while Davis and Tanner Thorson moved to the front row.

At the drop of the green flag, Davis jumped to the lead over Craig, while Thorson and Noles struggled in the outside groove.  The car on the move in the early going was PASS South points leader, Bradley McCaskill.  After starting 10th, McCaskill moved by Jeff Batten for fifth just five laps into the race.  On lap 16, Craig was able to make the move on a faltering Davis for the lead.  By lap 34, Davis would pull into the pits with distributor problems, losing many laps in the process.

The first caution of the race would not wave until lap 97 when Dave Farrington, Jr. appeared to drop fluid on the track causing Batten and Preston Peltier to spin in turn one.  Just five laps later, Batten’s day would come to an end after serious contact with JP Josiasse sent both cars hard into the outside wall in turn one.

On the restart, Noles would take the lead from Craig entering turn one, but before the lap was complete, Craig had retaken the lead down the back straightaway.  At this time a furious battle was taking place between McCaskill, Thorson, and Sarah Cornett-Ching for fifth.  Cornett-Ching made an aggressive move around both drivers with 17 laps to go to take fifth, before McCaskill would spin from contention seven laps later.

Craig led the rest of the way to take the win over Peltier, Noles, Tate Fogleman, and Thorson.  Rounding out the top ten were Cornett-Ching, Kodie Conner, Tyler Church, Eddie Fatscher, and McCaskill.  With her sixth place finish, Cornett-Ching equals Tayla Orleans and Kenzie Ruston as the highest finishing female driver in PASS history.

  1. Matt Crag
  2. Preston Peltier
  3. Trevor Noles
  4. Tate Fogleman
  5. Tanner Thorson
  6. Sarah Cornett-Ching
  7. Kodie Conner
  8. Tyler Church
  9. Eddie Fatscher
  10. Bradley McCaskill
  11. Roy Hayes, Jr.
  12. John Batten
  13. Dave Farrington, Jr.
  14. JP Josiasse
  15. Spencer Davis
  16. Jeff Batten
  17. Kyle Desouza

Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.

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