Derek Griffith wins the 2020 Easter Bunny 150 in 2021

Derek Griffith took the lead from Carson Hocevar on Lap 28 and never looked back emerge victorious in the 15th Easter Bunny 150 on Friday night at Hickory Motor Speedway.

The race was the make-up event for the 2020 Easter Bunny that was delayed a year due to the COVID-19 shutdown with the 2021 race scheduled for Saturday night.

The victory continued a successful campaign for the Hudson, New Hampshire native who claimed his second consecutive World Series of Asphalt championship in February at New Smyrna Speedway during Florida Speedweeks.

“I can’t thank my guys enough, this thing was a rocket ship from the start,” said Griffith in Victory Lane.  “I’m just so happy, we’ve started the season off strong.  DJ [Shaw] made me work for it. He did a better job of saving his stuff and made it hard on me at the end.”

Griffith claimed fast time in qualifications but started from fifth due to a positional redraw. Hocevar took the lead from Shaw as Griffith began picking cars off behind then. Griffith took second from Shaw on Lap 26 and made the race winning move shortly thereafter.

A series of restarts gave Shaw a chance, but Griffith couldn’t be denied.

“I knew he had a little more speed than he did earlier in the race, or I had less speed, one or the other,” Griffith said.

It took until Lap 63 for the first caution to wave for a Jeremy Sorel spin in Turn 4. The next caution came on Lap 105 for a Joey Doiron spin. Nick Loden spun in 4 on Lap 111. Griffith could not be unseated through it all.

Shaw was able to remain side-by-side with Griffith on the final restart, but couldn’t complete the pass.

Griffith won ahead of Shaw, Mike Hopkins, Travis Stearns, and Joey Pole with DeSouza, Ryan Kuhn, Gabe Brown, Ben Rowe and Derek Kneeland behind that group.

The complete running order can be found below.

1. Derek Griffith
2. DJ Shaw
3. Mike Hopkins
4. Travis Stearns
5. Joey Polewarczyk, Jr.
6. Kyle DeSouza
7. Ryan Kuhn
8. Gabe Brown
9. Ben Rowe
10. Derek Kneeland
11. Evan Hallstrom
12. Carson Hocevar
13. Travis Benjamin
14. Devin O’Connell
15. Trevor Sanborn
16. Trevor Bleau
17. Jake Matheson
18. Cory Casagrande
19. Kate Re
20. Craig Weinstein
21. Charlie Sanborn
22. Tyler Church
23. Ben Ashline
24. Nick Loden
25. Joey Doyon
26. Jordan Miller
27. Dennis Spencer
28. Joey Doiron
29. Jerry Artuso
30. Jeremy Sorel
31. Jason Corliss
32. Anthony Constantino
33. Annabeth Crum

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