‘Air Doug’ takes Speed Week championship in Southern National showdown

LUCAMA, NC – While Doug Barnes, Jr. once again dominated at Southern National Motorsports Park on Saturday, his victory in the 100-lap race once again came down to a late race pass.

A caution with 16 laps remaining when Casey Kelley and Cassidy Keitt tangled erased Barnes’ lead over Fryar and bunched the field back up.  Fryar got by Barnes on the ensuing restart and started to inch away until Barnes was able to close back in on Fryar and retake the lead with eight laps remaining to score his third consecutive win at the 4/10-mile track in Wilson County.

The victory also clinched the Speed Week championship for the driver who goes by ‘Air Doug’ on his viral YouTube channel.

“I just want to give a big shout out to Jared,” Barnes said.  “He ran me really hard, exactly the way I expected him to, but neither one of us are going home with a torn up racecar.  That’s what this is all about.  He’s a heck of a driver.  I’ve got a ton of respect for him and he gave me a lot of respect this week.  It was fun. 

“We both knew we were probably the class of the field when it came down to it so starting first and second was going to be exciting,” Barnes continued.  “I think that buffer I got in the beginning lasted longer than he anticipated so he had to use it up to get to me, and then the caution came out, reracked them, and we went at it.”

Fryar was once again forced to settle for a runner-up finish for the third consecutive day after winning on Wednesday night.

“I got in front of him and stayed in front of him for a couple laps and I felt like I could hold him off,” Fryar said.  “My car was really good at the time.  He just got by me and he was obviously better than me.  It was a great race.  I enjoyed racing with Doug.  We raced each other clean.  We pushed each other around but didn’t wreck each other and we could get out, shake hands and laugh about it.  It was a fun week.”

Michael Fose finished in the third position while Cody Kelley and defending track champion Ryan Joyner rounded out the top-five.

Unofficial Results

1. #88 – Doug Barnes JR
2. #14 – Jared Fryar
3. #54 – Michael Fose
4. #98 – Cody Kelley
5. #15 – Ryan Joyner
6. #63 – Tyler Matthews
7. #16C – Casey Kelley
8. #4F – Jonathan Findley
9. #6 – Nathan Lyons
10. #1 – Andrew Grady
11. #8 – Cassidy Kiett
12. #51C – Matt Cox
13. #2 – Ryan Wilson
14. #7 – Bradley McCaskill