It’s a rare sight to see Bubba Pollard in a Pro Late Model these days, but the track record remains high when he does.
The 32-year-old delivered a clinic against a stout field of 37 in winning the 100-lap Pro Late Model feature prior to the All-American 400 on Sunday afternoon at Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.
He collected $6,500 for his efforts — in a race that didn’t come to him as quickly as he thought it might.
“That was a fun race,” said Pollard in victory lane. “I didn’t really know how the cautions were going to play out. We were riding there at the beginning, letting the tires come up. I haven’t raced against a lot of these guys in the Pro division, see how they restart and things like that.
“When we got going, I didn’t feel like I was in the position I needed to be in. I felt like I needed to get to the front a little quicker, so that’s what I did.”
It wasn’t until lap 62 when Pollard clawed his way past defending Pro Late Model track champion Michael House for the lead, but the climb there made for a much more interesting sight than afterwards when Pollard checked out on the field in his typical dominating fashion.
It was after the lap 52 restart that Pollard really started to take hold on the competition. He restarted 4th. It only took him a lap around of green flag racing to sweep around the 55N of Stephen Nasse on the outside.
Just a couple laps later, he finds a way around the No. 7 of Jackson Boone, the 19-year old Nashville native who called himself ‘Mr.Close’ at the beginning of the season.
Right after Pollard made his way into P1, the caution flag flew for the fifth time out of the sixth total for the PLM afternoon.
House held on to finish second and closed out on the Pro Late Model championship at Fairgrounds Speedway. Even though he didn’t win the race, he saw it as an accomplish to battle toe-to-toe with the discipline’s most successful figure.
“I just hung on there,” House said. “To be able to run with Bubba at the end like that, he’s about the best there is right now in Late Model racing.”
Stephen Nasse was another one of the SLM drivers playing double-duty on the day. Nasse made an impressive run to finish in the third spot after a tame 11th place qualifying run.
“It was a long day out there, a lot of caution laps,” said Nasse. “To come home third is pretty good. I thought we had a really fast car. I just didn’t have the right gear in it, I was hitting the chip down the backstraightaway about halfway. I really felt like we had something for Bubba, we just didn’t have a chance to show it.”
Boone finished fourth and claimed the 2019 track championship.
“I lacked a little bit in the center. I needed a little bit more drive on exit, but we’re going to find that. We’re going to go to the Snowflake, and we’re going to the Snowflake to win. We’re taking this race as a learning curve, and we’ll regroup and get them. I know we can get these people. I’m driving for one of the best teams in the country. These guys are smart enough, so we’ll get there, I’m not worried.”
The complete results can be found below.
- Bubba Pollard
- Michael House
- Stephen Nasse
- Jackson Boone
- Jake Garcia
- Davey Coble
- Dylan Fetcho
- William Hale
- Cole Williams
- Mason Diaz
- Michael Bolden
- Jake Sheridan
- Kyle Fletcher
- Sammy Smith
- Austin Brawley
- Cayden Lapcevich
- Chris Hacker
- Chaz Chaffin
- Mike Pruitt
- Hal Musler
- Joe Ross
- Bryce Carver
- Sterling Marlin
- Mason Keller
- Kyle Ivey
- Christopher Tullis
- Taylor Holdaway
- Daniel Bolden
- Sterlin Marlin
- Stacey Crain
- Hunter Wright
- Greg Fore
- Zack Johnson
- Clay Greenfield
- Chuck Tuck
- Bennie Hamlett
- Austin Wilson
Read more Short Track Scene:
