A dream season of sorts for Kade Brown at Hickory Motor Speedway continued on Saturday with a victory in the Bobby Isaac Memorial 150 but it wasn’t so much winning but how he did it that made the victory special.
The race was run flag-to-flag without any cautions, and despite leading to green from the pole, Brown managed his pace flawlessly. He faded to third for much of the first third and wouldn’t take the lead until Lap 72.
That wouldn’t be the last lead change as Connor Hall and Brown traded the lead a couple of times.
On a night where there were no cautions and it was entirely up to the driver to save tires, Brown and Matt Piercy Racing ran a perfect race.
“I was about to say I didn’t expect that to go green all the way at all,” Brown said. “That wore me out. That was good racing. (Tyler Matthews) and (Hall) were really good. Real fortunate to be back here.
“It means a lot but means even more given that it went 150 laps green. Matt Piercy Racing gave us a good car and we just made it last to the end.”
To his point, NASCAR Weekly Series national championship leader Hall and fellow Hickory regular Matthews both looked like threats. Matthews fell back early in the race too while saving tires but Hall failed to make it to the finish having blown an alternator from the lead with 45 laps to go.
Matthews just didn’t have enough to chase down Brown.
“No, that was it right there,” Brown said. “Rolled off outside pole and other guys wanted to go sooner than we did so we rode with (Hall) for a while and might have rode too long. It was us and the 23 in the last 30 and we were matching lap times and that’s all we had.”
Bobby Isaac Memorial
Hickory Motor Speedway
September 3 2023
- Kade Brown
- Tyler Matthews
- Michael Bumgarner
- Landon Huffman
- Landon S Huffman
- Mark Wertz
- Austin McDaniel
- Dean Thompson
- Connor Zilisch
- Clark Houston
- Toni Breidinger
- Connor Hall
- Matthew Gould
- Casey Pierce
- Chris Phipps
- Charlie Neill
- Zach Bruenger

Read more Short Track Scene: