Cody Kelley dominates at Carteret to win Christmas Clash

SWANSBORO, NC – Cody Kelley was fastest in practice, qualified on the pole, and scored the victory in the Islander Hotel & Resort Christmas Clash at Carteret County Speedway on Sunday, but the win did not come as easy as it looked.

Dylan Newsome was able to get to the inside of Kelley and get past him to take the lead shortly after a restart on the 62^nd lap of the 110-lap race. Kelley faded as far back as sixth as he got stuck on the outside lane, but was then able to take advantage of a spree of mid-race incidents to work his way back to the front, retaking the lead from Newsome on lap 85.

“On the restarts, I just kind of struggled a little bit on the first couple laps,” Kelley said after the race. “Dylan got by me and I got freight trained back to sixth and I was kind of worried at that point. I really didn’t expect we  were gonna be able to drive back through the field, but after them cautions, we had long cautions, tires cooled back down and it was a rocket ship after that. It was a great race. That’s probably one of the better races I’ve run, coming back through the field to get a win. And 10 grand, you can’t beat that.”

Kelley joins Connor Hall as a two-time winner of the Christmas Clash.

“This is probably the biggest race I’ve won,” Kelley said later in his victory lane interview.

Behind Kelley, South Carolina 250 winner Jacob Derrick was able to get around Newsome in the closing laps to finish in the runner-up position. Derrick felt like he would have had a shot to win had he stayed on track instead of pitting during the chaos that took place in the middle of the race.

“I made a stupid decision and pulled down pit road,” Derrick stated. “I thought my radio was dead but it turns out it wasn’t. My push to plug button just got stuck. I think, if would have had 10 more laps, it would’ve been a hell of a lot more of a race because we were running him down. I think we were two-tenths better than the whole field. We had a really good long run car and it showed.”

Newsome settled for a third place finish.

“I think I just went way too hard early,” Newsome said. “I qualified second, I was scared we were gonna get freight trained all the way to the back. We had to maintain really strong pace so we didn’t get left behind and I think I used it up.”

The first caution of the race flew on lap 55 when Nick Sample spun on the frontstretch.

That incident would set up a spree of incidents which took several contenders out of the race, including Tucker Jones, Ayden Millette, Zach Bruenger, Gage Painter, Michael Fose, Gator Williams, and Toro Rodriguez.

First, Bruenger got loose off the front bumper of Millette, triggering an incident which swept up Fose and sent Jones careening into the turn 1 tire barrier. It was on that caution when Derrick pitted for what he believed was a faulty radio.

On the following restart, Millette’s car came to a rest on turn two. After a short run, Painter and Bruenger would get tangled up in turn four. 10 laps later, Rodriguez spun off the front bumper of Dylan Ward, collecting Williams and Bruenger. Both Bruenger and Williams would be retired from the race in the incident with 34 laps to go.

Williams was transported to a nearby medical center for observation but was okay after the incident.

Unofficial Results

1. Cody Kelley
2. Jacob Derrick
3. Dylan Newsome
4. Rusty Daniels
5. Jason York
6. Tyler Garretson
7. Zach Bruenger
8. Tyler Matthews
9. Dylan Ward
10. Nick Sample
11. Sterling Plemmons
12. Toro Rodriguez
13. Gator Williams (OUT)
14. Gage Painter (OUT)
15. Ayden Millette (OUT)
16. Michael Fose (OUT)
17. Tucker Jones (OUT)
18. Blake Bledsole (OUT)
19. Johnny Kievman (OUT)