After dominating the opening part of the Super Late Model portion of the US Short Track Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway, Stephen Nasse was forced to deal with adversity.
He responded by winning the race anyway, competing a late pass on Casey Roderick to earn the biggest win of his career.
The veteran short track racer started the race from the pole after setting a new track record. When the green flag unfurled, Nasse lost the lead momentarily to Scotty Tomasik as he took the outside lane coming off Turn 2; however, Nasse was quickly able to regain that lead for the next 30 laps until the caution flag flew.
Under the Lap 30 caution, Nasse pitted from the race lead due to a loose wheel in the rear of the car.
“I started feeling some sway in the rear of the car,” Nasse said. “Knowing me, I had that problem at the Snowball Derby earlier this year. Actually, Steven Wallace gave me some help there. It’s so tough when you are leading a race like that to make the call to come down pit road and lose all that track position. My spotter asked Steve-O’s spotter to see what it looked like. He pulled up to me and told me it was shaking. If it wasn’t for him, I probably would have ended up with a wrecked race car.”
With Nasse hitting the pit lane, Wallace garnered the race lead. As the green flag unfurled after multiple cautions, Wallace was able to pull away from second place driver Casey Roderick.
As Wallace and Roderick battled, Nasse was on his quest toward the front of the field. By Lap 46, Nasse re-entered the top-10 of the race.
By Lap 56, Roderick was able to catch Wallace and make the pass for the race lead using the inside lane going down the backstretch at Bristol. By Lap 73, Nasse worked his way up to the second position.
After slipping back during the final caution on Lap 75, Nasse was able to regain the second position from Wallace with his eyes set on Roderick. By Lap 95, Nasse caught Roderick and passed him for ultimately the race win.
“It was tough,” Nasse said. “I caught him (Roderick) with about six to go, and I got within a car length. I had my hopes up and thought I was going to be able to make the move quick. I slipped up. I got a little high getting into 3. I couldn’t get back down to the bottom. Once I regrouped from that, I was able to gain back the car lengths that I lost. It was kind of smooth sailing. He was a little bit free center off, and I had tons of drive. When I saw he slipped up, it was pretty easy to make my move.”
For Nasse, the difference between the race win and finishing second was having the right balance and forward drive.
Roderick, Wallace, Josh Brock and Anthony Sergi rounded out the top-five. The race was co-sanctioned by the Southern Super Series, CARS Tour and CRA Super Series. As a result, it paid points to drivers across all three touring divisions.
The complete results can be found below.
- Stephen Nasse
- Casey Roderick
- Steve Wallace
- Josh Brock
- Anthony Sergi
- Matt Craig
- Corey Heim
- Nolan Pope
- Trevor Noles
- Jeremy Pate
- Austin Reed
- Brandon Watson
- Jared Fryar
- Matt Wallace
- Augie Grill
- Jack Dossey III
- Logan Runyon
- Giovanni Bromante
- Austin Kunert
- Jake Crum
- Jett Noland
- Scotty Tomasik
- Hunter Jack
- Alexa Anderson
- Jeff Gordon
- Brandon Herbert
- John Coffman
- Tate Fogelman
- Mark Wilkins
- Connor Okrzesik
- Greg Van Alst
- Trey Bayne
- Justin Crider
Todd Behling
June 2, 2019 at 9:35 am
What did it pay to win?
Bruce Boyd
June 11, 2019 at 12:22 pm
Could you please check about my subscription application- I have not received any thing yet. I was at Berlin yesterday and had hoped to see some one about your publication but could not find you there.