With all due respect to Bubba Pollard and all the wins he has earned at Cordele Motor Speedway, the favorite to win the World Crown 300 might not even arrive until Saturday because he has a Ridgeway Grandfather Clock to win first.
Jake Garcia.
This stance is based on the fact that he won the second half of the Georgia Summer Nationals last month, ‘the one that paid,’ he said proudly and is poised to chase one of the biggest prizes in the history of Stock Car racing within his home state.
While the history of the World Crown is rooted in the track most recently called ‘Gresham’ but is more fondly remembered as Peach State, Garcia knows that history well.
“It’s a super cool race,” Garcia said. “I’ve heard all the stories from Ricky (Turner) about going and running it with Chase (Elliott) and I hear the stories about how big it was at Gresham a lot. So it’s just cool to have another big one in the state of Georgia, and really, Cordele is the only asphalt track we have that’s still going.”
The 20-year-old, who won the 2020 Southern Super Series championship, wants to win and add a $35,000 payout in the process.
“Definitely excited to run this race and add my name to the list of winners,” Garcia said. “That thing would be really awesome. It’s actually remarkable how often Georgia drivers win at Cordele right now between myself, Bubba (Pollard), Casey (Roderick) and Chase.
“That’s a good sign and hopefully we keep our state running up front.”
Garcia feels so good about his setup with Turner that they didn’t even attend the Thursday test day and are missing Friday so he can race at Martinsville.
“We should go in with a pretty similar setup,” Garcia said. “Maybe make a little tweak here or there but we should be close. The biggest thing is the thing everywhere which is just the tires, and making sure we get them sized right. Making sure they don’t grow.
“The races over the summer, it was on the same tire, and it was a night and day difference from one set to the other. They grew differently and that ruined our night when the stagger was off. The second race, it stayed true, and the car was consistent and we were good.”
