It has been almost a decade since Derek Kraus won his last touring Super Late Model race but the drought ended on Saturday night in ASA STARS competition at Newport, Speedway in Tennessee.
Of equal noteworthiness, the Food Country USA 300 also featured a post-race fracas featuring both top-contending Wilson Motorsports drivers, who also happen to be the championship leaders, in Cole Butcher and Gavan Boschele.
First, Kraus won this race due in part to a mistake he made during a caution involving Butcher and Boschele, missing the call from his dad and crew chief Mark to pit. Instead, Kraus took those tires at the second stage break and drove through the dozen or so lead lap cars to win for the first time in this platform since a 2016 Midwest Tour race at Wisconsin Dells.
“I just knew I had some tires left and everyone else had 20-30 laps on theirs,” Kraus said. “This is awesome. We’re a little team. We’re not supposed to do this. We beat some of the best teams and drivers in the country. I can’t thank these guys, my dad, everyone who works on this car. This means a lot.
“I mean, we’re racing against Wilson Motorsports and Anthony Campi Racing and they have the best teams and some of the best drivers in the country. This is badass. What an awesome night.”
Meanwhile, as that celebration began on the frontstretch, that’s when the tensions boiled over between the two Wilson Motorsports championship leaders. There was contact of some kind heading to pit road and then team general manager Bond Suss had to work to keep his drivers apart.
The broadcast (below, courtesy of ASA streamer TrackTV) caught Suss leaning into the Boschele car. Kris Boschele then confronted Butcher, the two exchanging chest bumps before they were split apart. Even the two Wilson teams were getting a little snippy with each other over their respective drivers.
The tension stemmed from this incident with 125 to go where there was contact between the two contenders.
“Yeah, I just seen (Boschele) racing with (Kraus) really hard and couldn’t get by him so I made a really good run on the top,” Butcher said. “I got into 3 really good and took his lane away from him. I just squeezed him and he must have got on the curb and spun out. It’s not like I tried to wreck him or shipped him or anything like that.
“Yeah, and then we went on to lead a good number of laps until we broke another axle that took us out of contention to win the race.”
It’s the second race in row, in three days that Butcher broke an axle from the lead, having the same thing happen to him on Thursday at Hickory. He’s given up points to Boschele and Stephen Nasse as a result.
There was a big group outside of the Wilson haulers even after the post-race formalities had concluded with security present.
“There are some things that happened after the race that should have never happened but we’re going to move on and act like adults,” Butcher said.
Boschele declined to comment.
Suss told Short Track Scene that they will review everything that happened on track to reach an agreement and understanding. He conceded that the drivers did not handle the situation correctly after the race.
Suss said he went to Boschele after the race to keep him in the car. He told car chief Gere Kennon to keep Butcher in his No. 20.
“This is an emotional business and both drivers are 1-2 in points and extremely talented and competitive,” Suss said.
Nasse finished second and is back in the championship mix with bad days from the Wilson Motorsports duo.
“Me and my team, we just didn’t give up,” said Nasse. “We didn’t have the best race car all day, but we kept fighting. This was the most fun I’ve had at a racetrack in a little while. I’m definitely looking forward to coming back here. The outside lane was so much fun to run.
“Hats off to the guys on the 9 team. They had a really good car. I appreciate Dawson for running me clean there at the end. We just needed a little bit more, but we’ll keep working at it.”
Dawson Sutton led laps throughout various points of the race.
“It was a really good weekend, overall. My team brought me a really good car and I really couldn’t ask for anything more. We led a lot of laps. That was probably the funnest race I’ve ever ran. I can’t wait to come back here. I’m thankful for all the fans coming out. I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend.”
ASA STARS Food City 300 Newport Speedway May 24 2025
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.
