The middle stages of the 75 lap Late Model Stock Car feature on Saturday night at Hickory Motor Speedway was a masterclass of side-by-side race craft between Michael Bumgarner and Thomas Beane until it increasingly got messy.
The pair raced side-by-side for nearly 20 laps until this happened
From there, it was pretty smooth sailing for Bumgarner, with Helio Meza just matching lap times with the 97.
“I ran Thomas pretty hard,” Bumgarner said. “I feel like I needed to get by him. I ran him up the track a little bit and he turned around and moved me up the track. which is fine, and I expected that. We were racing hard. We laid down a couple of donuts and you can’t be mad at that. I don’t know what happened in Turn 4; if we got together or what happened.”
For his part, Beane was very frustrated after the race, and said he is going to race the No. 97 different from here on out.
“Be got inside of me for 10-to-15 laps; I gave him three grooves,” Beane told Short Track Scene after the race. “And he still ran me up the race track, ran me up towards the trash, and then got by me.
“Then I got inside him and he ran me down the apron in 3 and 4; we were still side-by-side and came across my nose. It knocked the wheel out of my hand and spun me out. That’s just what he is, a piece of junk, who destroyed my race car before and I still race him clean. I guess I need to change the way I race him.”
Hickory’s Late Model Stock season continues with its third race on April 18 with another 75 lapper.
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.
