Super Late Model racing on the old and worn track surface at Mobile International Speedway causes teams to race to the back of the field early in a race to save tires before charging late towards the front. On Saturday, Bubba Pollard played this tire game just right to put himself into position to win the CraneWorks Battle at the Bayou 100 with the Southern Super Series.
The victory was Pollard’s 29th career win at Mobile, and second Southern Super Series win a row. While Pollard is too humble to think he and his team are catching fire, the recent performance shows they are quickly heating up during this late-summer stretch.
“Well, I don’t know about that, but we’re better,” he said. “We’ve got speed and we’re doing the things we need to do. The last couple months has been tough, so, it feels good to have some speed and run up front again. We just need to clean up some things and get some get some details worked out. I need to be just more confident in the changes during practice, where I used to be back a couple of years ago.”
This win proved to be a major confidence booster for Pollard, who hopes to carry this momentum into the next race at Pensacola at the end of the month.
“Just getting that confidence back of knowing what to do to the race car during practice and knowing if it’s going to stay there or if it’s going to give up,” he said. “That’s just the biggest thing. The things we got to clean up and work on, and we’re getting there. So, all of it’s a positive, all of it is good. We just got to keep the momentum going. We got a new car that we’re going to break out at the at the next Blizzard race. I’m excited about that, hopefully it’s good. I feel like we have a good piece here, kind of kind of our own deal, and we’ll see how it goes.”
In the race, Pollard, along with just about everyone else, purposely ran lap times as slow as they could in an effort to save their tires for a hard charging final 50 laps. This scenario occurs in Southern Super Series races at Mobile because of the series rule of throwing a caution flag after 50 consecutive green flag laps. It’s a quirky element unique to Mobile because of extremely abrasive racing surface there.
“This type of racing here is a lot different than what we normally race at a lot of places,” explained Pollard. “A lot of places you don’t have the tire wear that we have here. It just gets hot, slick, and on top of the race track, so, it’s a different type of racing. It’s tough, because you got to save, you got to be smart, and then you got to put yourself in position.”
From that Lap 50 competition caution, the race became a battle of track position, with every driver driving as hard as they could to race towards the front.
“I knew I had to be out front in some clean air there in front of the 51 (Stephen Nasse), because the 96 (Spencer Davis), and Jake Garcia were all going to be good. It’s who could save the most there at the end, and get clean air. These bodies are really really sensitive to clean air. So being out front was important, and I knew we had to stay there. Just a good run, and hopefully we can keep it going.”
Pollard won the race, but Stephen Nasse was nipping at Pollard’s heels, coming up just shy of the win, taking home a second place finish in a race where the first half was a race to be the slowest car on track.
“I mean it’s definitely not the most fun at the beginning,” he said. “You’re just riding back there like that and kind of fighting to be in the back. Then, trying to decide what you should take and where you should be on the track. I felt like we did a really good job in the first 50 laps and kind of deciding where we wanted to restart there, then got a huge break on the restart there after Lap 50.”
From there, the race was about the charge to the front and ensuing battle for the lead, but Nasse faced the same challenges with aerodynamics as Pollard.
“After the restart, we found ourselves in third, and was kind of trying to ride,” said Nasse. Matt (Craig) was pushing me a little bit harder than I wanted to at the start of those second 50 laps, and then once I got kind of away from him a little bit, I felt good and was kind of just trying to keep pace and, you know, keep a steady gap with them other guys. I might have been able to go a little bit earlier, but just dirty air really hurt me when I got close there to the 26.”
Matt Craig enjoyed the challenges this race brought, and used his third place performance to help add to towards his goal of getting his team pointed in the right direction… towards his next victory.
“It’s a really fun stop on the schedule,” said Craig. “I wish more people would come and race this race with us. It’s a lot of fun, you know? It’s a really fun track, it’s fast, it’s very tricky. But we know you got to save the tires. You know, we rode around last couple years… I went all the way to the back and saved a lot of tire and then drove to the front and just didn’t have enough. This year I changed my strategy a little bit, tried to keep track position and not burn the tires up, but, it’s a hard thing to do. We had a good car. I think we’re going in the right direction with our program… we’ll just keep working on it.”
Dustin Smith set the fast time on the night, then started third after a re-draw. This placed Nasse on the pole to begin the race, but he quickly dropped back in tire conservation mode. Jake Garcia led much of the early portion of the race before another local driver, James Patrick, stormed to the lead in his Jett Motorsports Pro Late Model. Patrick led through to the competition caution on Lap 50. On the restart, Patrick’s Pro Late Model, and worn tires, were no match for Garcia, who easily retook the lead. Pollard assumed the top spot with just over 30 laps to go, and never looked back.
Results from the CraneWorks Battle at the Bayou 100 at Mobile Speedway, September 5, 2026:
1. 26 Bubba Pollard
2. 51 Stephen Nasse
3. 54 Matt Craig
4. 35 Jake Garcia
5. 96 Spencer Davis
6. 3 Kasey Kleyn
7. 20 Jett Noland
8. 22p George Phillips
9. 11 James Patrick
10. 22h Ryan Herbert
11. 33 Dustin Smith
12. 32 Malcolm Spears
