Jonathan Brown kicked off Bowman Gray’s return to action in 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic with a win in the season-opener back on June 5.
He ended an eventful season back in victory lane on Saturday.
Of all his victories at Bowman Gray to date, Brown admitted that winning the 2021 finale felt more special knowing that he checked off a personal career milestone by being a polesitter.
“I’ve now won 20 races here in a Modified but [Saturday] was my first career pole,” Brown said. “It was also the fastest lap of the season and we ended up winning the race, so I’d say everything turned out pretty good.”
While Brown was thrilled to add another victory to his growing Bowman Gray resume, he was hoping to be the one celebrating a championship in August after a strong start to the year.
After backing up his season-opening with a fifth, Brown failed to record another Top 5 over the next several weeks. Three poor showings in July effectively eliminated any chance he had of challenging Tim Brown and Burt Myers for the title.
With his first Bowman Gray title no longer feasible, Brown centered his attention towards rediscovering what made his car so efficient in the first week of the season so he could finish 2021 on a high note.
A couple weeks of hard work for Brown’s team were on full display Saturday as maintained control of the race from the pole while simultaneously trying to hold off John Holleman IV in second.
Holleman, who was going for his fourth Bowman Gray victory in his debut Modified season, fought hard with Brown for the lead over several restarts. Brown was even forced to save his car in front of the field after he and Holleman made contact heading into Turn 1.
Brown ended up briefly losing the lead to Holleman but knew that a victory would be assured as long as he kept his car clean and properly conserved his equipment.
“I wanted to try and save all of the tire I could because [Holleman] was running his stuff pretty hard while we were still riding,” Brown said. “Keeping the rear tires on the car was important because that’s what it was going to come down to at the end of the race.”
While inconsistencies derailed a potential championship run, Brown considered the year a success and was happy to celebrate two victories with a vibrant crowd after the track had been quiet for over a year.
With a full year expected to return to Bowman Gray in 2022 barring any changes with the pandemic, Brown hopes to cross off a few more career milestones at the facility.
“We come to Bowman Gray every year with the goal of winning the 200-lapper, a pole and the championship,” Brown said. “Just a few races back, we were 12 points back of the lead but in two weeks we lost 70 points. We were too far back in the points but we came out and won a race [on Saturday].”
An eight-month offseason from Bowman Gray is ahead of Brown but he plans to keep working hard on his car so he can one day join many other legends as a track champion.
1. Jonathan Brown
2. Danny Bohn
3. James Civali
4. Chris Fleming
5. Tim Brown
6. Burt Myers
7. Jason Myers
8. Bobby Labonte
9. Randy Butner
10. Dylan Ward
11. Lee Jeffreys
12. Jeremy Gerstner
13. John Holleman IV
14. Chris Williams
15. Kevin Powell
16. Daniel Beeson
17. Susan Harwell
18. Brian Loftin
19. Clint King
20. Joseph Brown
21. Brandon Ward
22. William Smith
23. Andrew Harrah
24. Dave Sapienza
25. Danny Propst
26. Junior Miller
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