Michael Bumgarner led all 75 laps of the Hickory Motor Speedway Late Model Stock season opening event on Saturday night.
“I really couldn’t find anything we needed to work on (in the offseason).” Bumgarner said. “I know, we’ll keep trying to get better but this thing is bad to the bone. I’m out of breath and we got it.”
Bumgarner won pole position earlier in the day and led the field to the green flag. He and Thomas Beane raced side-by-side in the opening laps before the defending track champion cleared Beane, giving Landon Huffman the chance to slide by for second position.
The race slowed only once for caution when on Lap 27 when Alex Meggs and Landon Rapp made contact, both spinning off Turn 4.
As the race resumed Beane passed the 2022 Late Model Stock track champion for second place, as he tried to once again hunt down Bumgarner.
On Lap 43 Charlie Watson raced his way to the back bumper of Huffman, the pair raced side by side for multiple laps for third position, with Watson eventually moving onto the final step of the podium.
Beane finished in second place, feeling not as prepared against Bumgarner and settling for a runner-up finish.
“We didn’t prepare as good as we needed to, and it just kind of caught us there.” Beane said. “It was long run, so we’ll get it. We know what we did and we need to figure it out. That’s pretty hard to beat but I think we got a little something for him.”
Watson, Huffman and Anthony Bello completed the rest of the Top 5.
Results following 75 Lap feature Late Model race at Hickory Motor Speedway:
- Michael Bumgarner
- Thomas Beane
- Charlie Watson
- Landon Huffman
- Anthony Bello
- Billy Snodgrass
- Skyler Chaney
- Alex Meggs
- Nick Tucker
- Kaeden Ballos
- Christopher Martin Jr.
- Lucas Ransone
- Brandon Dean
- Jacob Kolber
- Landon Rapp
