The Bubba Pollard redemption tour continued into the ASA STARS National Tour opener on Tuesday night at New Smyrna Speedway.
Redemption from how his inaugural championship chase fell apart and what happened in the Snowball Derby. He has now won Speedfest in January and the Clyde Hart Memorial in February to also go two-for-two in Southern Super Series competition.
He put the competition on notice after the Derby and kind of maintained the theme on Tuesday.
“Nobody likes me anyway, and I don’t give a shit but, when you start winning, it’s worse,” Pollard said. “It’s either he’s crying or they’re cheating or something or something and that’s just part of the game. We have to keep working hard, can’t let up.”
And that’s what happened this past week.
Pollard was not satisfied with his car all week and was still struggling to adapt to the new ST1 and ST2 tires in his appearances this week, and threw some radical changes at it.
“I had to step outside of my comfort zone yesterday,” Pollard said. “Second practice, changed a lot on the race car and I don’t know if it had a lot to do with the package we had here last year, and this is the same car, and it was the tire more than anything.
“Getting me used to what this tire likes. We stepped out of the comfort zone and it worked. I thought it was a hell of a race.”
Pollard passed a dominant Ty Majeski with 18 laps to go but it came on a long green flag run of about 50 laps. Pollard passed Casey Roderick and Jett Noland to get there.
Majeski led the most laps but faded at the end and then broke on the final lap.
“I could maintain in 3 and 4 but I have never seen a car wrap around the bottom, almost like Pensacola, where he could paint the yellow line all the way around 1 and 2.
“Usually we’re up a groove or a groove and a half and diamond to make a straight exit. He was able to take that kind of Pensacola line and wrap it.”
Pollard said he’s dabbled in that before and could occasionally gain a tenth or two that way but not as consistently as he did tonight.
“It’s still hard to not overdrive the corner and get where I needed to be and the car had to be good,” Pollard said. “I felt like Ty, when we caught him, he pulled down to block me and felt like he couldn’t go nowhere.
“The closing rate down there was so great, it was almost like he stopped, and I hated to get into him like that because he is one of the best so to run him down like that, was the kind of statement we want to make right now.”
Noland ultimately finished second.
“The race car was just really tight,” said Noland. “We’ve been trying to work it out since we got here, but we’ve been getting a little bit better at it. We’re chipping away at that first-place position. I think this year’s going to be a great year with the team that we’re slowly developing.”
Roderick completed the podium.
Brent Crews and Gio Ruggiero completed the top-five to continue matching each other in the World Series of Asphalt standings — which this race counted towards in addition to ASA STARS and Southern Super Series points.
- Bubba Pollard
- Jett Noland
- Casey Roderick
- Brent Crews
- Gio Ruggiero
- Chase Elliott
- Austin Nason
- Kyle Steckly
- Cole Butcher
- Jake Finch
- William Sawalich
- Derek Kraus
- Conner Jones
- Matt Craig
- Timothy Watson
- Ty Majeski
- Albert Francis
- Jonathan Knee
- Nicholas Naugle
- Treyten Lapcevich
- Ty Fredrickson
- Stephen Nasse
- Jeff Choquette
- Dawson Sutton
- Brad May
- Anthony Sergi
- Billy VanMeter
- Derek Griffith
- Michael Hinde
- Michael Goddard
- Hunter Wright
- Kris Wright
Greg Golden
February 15, 2024 at 8:13 am
What happened with Jeff Choquette? Normally Jeff runs up front. Was surprised to see him struggle this week.