The ‘Blue Crew’ swept another night at Hickory Motor Speedway, their second in a row, but Connor Hall really had to work for it on Week Three at the Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars.
After winning the opener, Hall drew a nine on the invert, but really had to work way harder than he intended to on working his way back up to the front. He had to pass for second twice, for example, with a caution denying him the pass he had just completed on Michael Bumgarner with 10 to go.
And really, that was the story of the night, Hall versus Bumgarner.
Bumgarner raced Hall really clean for the win in the first race, driving under the reigning NASCAR Weekly Series National Champion, but never laying a door on him. In the second race, Hall drove really deep under Bumgarner and washed up the track.
Hall won and immediately apologized to Bumgarner in Victory Lane.
“I burned my stuff up so much getting to the front that by time I got there, I was so loose,” Hall said. “He ran me so good the first race that I felt terrible. I tried to stay off him. I had to enter so hard to keep up with him that I kept washing up into him.
“I told him, if he does it to me soon, I understand. As clean as he ran me, I understand if he needs to do it to me. I do appreciate Michael. I really like racing him. It was good racing. I was probably too patient. If you don’t make ground the first 10-15 laps, you’re in trouble.”
Bumgarner shook his hand and told the fans that was a good race.
“If you don’t like that racing, don’t even watch,” he said. “I try not to hold my head low. Connor is on a roll and we’re getting there too. My dad is the hardest working guy I know and he doesn’t get enough praise. It sucks. I hate to put it that way but congrats to Connor.”
Annabeth Barnes inherited the pole through the invert and led most of the race until Akinori Ogata spun into the wall in Turn 2. Bumgarner took the lead from her and Hall needed two laps to complete the pass for second.
That’s when Hall started to work towards the winning pass.
All told, that’s five wins in six races for Hall, and that doesn’t even include a win at Florence earlier in the month. Hall is actually full-time in the CARS Tour this season for Nelson Motorsports but is again the early NASCAR national points leader based on running Hickory and Florence during his CARS Tour off-weekends.
RACE ONE
Hall enjoyed a slightly more straightforward win in the opening race at Hickory.
He led every lap, but like he mentioned after the second win, Bumgarner had a chance to rough him up and didn’t.
It came after Clark Houston spun into the wall after contact with Skyler Chaney.
Bumgarner crossed over under Hall for the lead but never initiated contact and Hall drove away.
The race was actually for second in the final laps as Bumgarner faded for fourth and door slammed with Landon Shane Huffman for the final spot on the podium.
“I guess he wanted to be run into the way he turned down,” Huffman said. “I don’t know. We were pretty good. Just too tight in the center.”
Hall credited Bumgarner after that first race the way he did the second.
“Yeah, I thought we had a pretty good car but on that restart, I fired off tight and started to bottom out,” he said. “We’re going through the same thing I did the first seven laps.
“Bumgarner pulled a fast one on me. I thought we were going to hold him on the outside but he tucked right under me. It’s pretty cool because he could have run me up the hill but he just ran me hard. I love racing here. I say all the time we don’t need to repave this place. It produces some of the best racing on the east coast. Hat’s off to all my guys on the blue crew.”
Veteran racer Charlie Watson finished second.
“Got to qualify better,” he said. “We had to burn it up to get up there. We got to work on our car and make qualifying better. We’ll work on it. These guys do it every week, and I ain’t making excuses, but we got to make it better. Our race run is good but we have to qualify better.”
Hickory Saturday Three
March 30 2024
Race No. 1
- Connor Hall
- Charlie Watson
- Landon Shane Huffman
- Michael Bumgarner
- Brody Monahan
- Skyler Chaney
- Matthew Gould
- Austin Green
- Annabeth Barnes Crum
- Akinori Ogata
- Sam Butler
- Blayne Harrison
- Toni Breidinger
- Mark Johnson
- Dexter Canipe Jr
- Clark Houston
Race No. 2
- Connor Hall
- Michael Bumgarner
- Landon Shane Huffman
- Charlie Watson
- Annabeth Crum
- Skyler Chaney
- Austin Green
- Brody Monahan
- Matthew Gould
- Sam Butler
- Toni Breidinger
- Blayne Harrison
- Akinori Ogata
- Mark Johnson
- Dexter Canipe Jr
