The Summer of McCarty can’t be denied.
Bobby McCarty won for the third time in six starts in CARS Tour competition this season on Saturday night, capturing The Race at Ace 150 at Ace Speedway in Elon, North Carolina. But not only did he win, he dominated, leading every lap from the pole to extend his championship lead at the season’s halfway point.
The closest McCarty came to losing his lead was when Layne Riggs challenged him on near-halfway restarts, but no one had anything for the Nelson Motorsports No. 22.
“It took a couple of laps to get going, but once it came in, it came in strong,” McCarty said.
McCarty dedicated the win to best friend Jeff Cessna who celebrated a birthday earlier in the week. But really, everyone is celebrating at Nelson Motorsports right now.
“We were having a bit of a carburetor issue on the restarts and I don’t know what that was about,” McCarty said. “I couldn’t get out of the box like I wanted to. They raced me hard, used their nose, but I expected them to.”
Riggs was one of the first to shake McCarty’s hand and the winner thanked the second-generation youngster for racing him clean. The 25-year-old said a mechanical issue kept him from rolling early in a run.
“We were having a bit of a carburetor issue on the restarts and I don’t know what that was about,” McCarty said. “I couldn’t get out of the box like I wanted to. They raced me hard, used their nose, but I expected them to.”
The final green flag run was contested over the final 55 laps. Cody Haskins could only get to within 2.3 seconds and watched McCarty take the checkered flag.
Lee Pulliam made a spirited charge from the 22nd starting position to finish fourth, even more impressive considering that he had battled flu symptoms all week before getting doctors approval to race on Friday.
The result will keep Pulliam second in the standings and 16 points behind McCarty the June 23rd race at Carteret County Speedway in Swansboro, North Carolina.
The complete results from the Race at Ace can be found below.
- Bobby McCarty
- Cody Haskins
- Layne Riggs
- Lee Pulliam
- Trevor Ward
- Blake Stallings
- Ty Gibbs
- Ryan Millington
- Ronald Hill
- Bradley McCaskill
- Charlie Watson
- Chris Denny
- Tommy Lemons, Jr.
- Josh Berry
- Jeb Burton
- RD Smith
- Deac McCaskill
- Brandon Pierce
- Craig Moore
- Sam Mayer
- Grayson Cullather
- Justin Crider
- Ryan Repko
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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.