‘Air Doug’ takes second round in Southern National Speedweek

LUCAMA, NC – Doug Barnes, Jr, who goes by Air Doug on YouTube, picked up the victory in the second night of Late Model action at Southern National Motorsports Park’s SpeedWeek on Thursday.

Barnes qualified in the second position but wasted no time getting to the lead, passing pole-sitter Dylan Newsome on the opening lap of the 50 lap sprint.  From there, Barnes was able to put enough gap to hold off a late charge from Jared Fryar, who won on Wednesday night.

“I really wanted to win for these guys,” Barnes said in victory lane.  “Last night, we finished second, and a lot of people and teams would be happy with that.  I didn’t hang my head, I was proud of iour efforts, but I knew we could be better and I knew where we could be better.  The second we got back to the pits last night, I said we had to be back here as soon as possible, so 9am, we were here working on it and I think we knew we had a car in contention of winning it at 11am.  I’m just super proud of the guys.”

Fryar, who was frustrated with the set of Hoosier F-45* tires he ran on, went on to finish in the runner-up spot.

“I just needed a different set of tires,” Fryar said.  “These tires didn’t work to our liking for the setup I had under it.  Same setup I had last night.  We were two-tenths off in qualifying and it drove like crap.  It’s frustrating but, unfortunately, nowadays in Late Model Stock racing, this is what we’re dealt so it’s bound to happen sooner than later.  Just sucks.”

Fryar said he moved some tires around before the race and was able to gain time, but not enough to overcome the deficit to Barnes. Cody Kelley finished in third while former track champions Tyler Matthews and Dylan Newsome rounded out the top-five.

Speedweek continues on Friday night and concludes on Saturday. The races are available on Ultra Broadcasting.

Unofficial Results

1. #88 – Doug Barnes JR
2. #14 – Jared Fryar
3. #98 – Cody Kelley
4. #63 – Tyler Matthews
5. #44 – Dylan Newsome
6. #2 – Ryan Wilson
7. #54 – Michael Fose
8. #15 – Ryan Joyner
9. #51B – Anthony Bello
10. #1 – Andrew Grady
11. #9 – John Goin
12. #16 – Rusty Daniels
13. #05 – Mason Bailey
14. #8 – Cassidy Kiett
15. #2B – Lanie Buice
16. #6 – Nathan Lyons
17. #16C – Casey Kelley
18. #50 – Ross Dalton
19. #51C – Matt Cox