Matt Cox Dominates at Florence

Matt Cox led from the drop of the green flag all the way to the checkered flag in Saturday’s 75-lap Late Model Stock Car feature at Florence Motor Speedway on Saturday – but the victory was not as easy as the stat line suggests.

Throughout much of the race, Cox was harassed for the lead by Late Model Stock Car newcomer Zack Miracle while Ryan Millington and Janson Marchbanks also emerged as contenders at various points of the race.  Cox was able to hold off multiple challenges from Miracle, who was passed by Millington with 17 laps to go. When Millington took over the runner-up spot, Cox was able to drive away a little bit.

“We had a good racecar,” Cox told Short Track Scene after the race.  “We were off just a little bit.  Got to thank our guys, they work hard every week in the shop.  It’s a good racecar every week.  We had enough to get it done there.  We had to move around a little bit to find grip but we’ll tweak on it a little bit and come back a little bit better.”

The most exciting battle in the closing laps was the one for the second position.  Millington had passed Miracle and looked poised to run down and overtake Cox, but his charge stalled out and he was unable to close the gap.  Miracle was able to run with Millington and, in the closing laps, drew even.  The two raced side-by-side in the final lap with Miracle ultimately prevailing by a margin of .007 seconds.

“The car was very fast,” Miracle said.  “For only my second ever Late Model Stock Car race, I think we’ll take that.  I think we’ll get them sometime this year.  It was a fun race, I definitely enjoyed running up there with very experienced drivers.”

Millington wound up finishing third while Janson Marchbanks and Casey Kelley rounded out the top-five in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series sanctioned feature.

All 75 laps were contested without incident on a track that has proven to be one of the raciest circuits in the Carolinas.

Results:

1. Matt Cox
2. Zack Miracle
3. Ryan Millington
4. Janson Marchbanks
5. Casey Kelley
6. Jeremy McDowell
7. Ryan Glenski
8. Jamie Weatherford
9. Austin Somero
10. Bob Saville
11. Averitt Lucas
12. Chris Throckmorton
13. A. Brown
14. Kevin Parsons
15. Justin Hicks
16. Anthony Adsms
17. Taylor Statterfield
18. Travis Truett

Matt Cox on track at Florence Motor Speedway. (Andy Marquis photo)

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