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Street Stock Ace Jeff Melton Scores Dillon Podium

Jeff Melton is known in the Mid-Atlantic region as one of the best drivers in Street Stock racing. On Saturday night at Dillon Motor Speedway, Melton proved he can compete at a high level in a Late Model Stock car, too.

Against a field of 19 cars for the Late Model Stock feature of the South Carolina Clash, in conjunction with the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) South Super Late Model Tour, Melton finished third after running in the top two for the majority of the 60-lap race.

Melton said the Late Model is a car he has driven for a while, but brings out only sparingly while focusing on his Street Stock racing.

“We had a really good time,” Melton said after the podium finish. “We don’t run the car that much. We get it out once or twice a year and play with it. We run the MASS [Mid Atlantic Street Stock] series with the Street Stock, so we don’t get to run it much. Plus, it’s expensive to run the Late Model.”

Melton finished third in the final points standings for the MASS Championship in 2015, behind champion Sonny Schoffen and runner-up Greg Barnette. Melton collected three victories in the eight-race MASS tour in 2015. Melton finished third in MASS’ season-opening event for 2016, the New Years BASH held January 9th.

Melton was in the thick of the battle up front throughout the race, battling with eventual winner Chad McCumbee for most of the event. Melton’s machine performed better on long runs, so a string of cautions beginning with 13 laps remaining put him on the defensive. Ultimately, Melton finished third after Bobby Gower passed for second on lap 54.

“The longer we ran, I could get a little distance on the guys behind me,” Melton said. “I didn’t like the restarts. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to beat Chad, but I wanted to try to finish second.”

“The restarts gave everyone a chance to get me,” Melton continued. “I finally got passed there at the end. We had a good time. It was a blast.”

Saturday’s strong run was proof to Melton that they are making progress on the machine, which could encourage him to run it in more events moving forward.

“It really did good,” Melton said of his car. “The motor needs to be freshened up. We’ve got some work to do. Now that we’ve got it running better, we can put a little more money in it and try to get it running quicker.”

“We dial it in a little bit more each time we run it,” added Melton. “It gets better and better. We have a good time with it.”

 

Zach Evans is in his second season covering short track racing, A 2012 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Evans is a proud alumnus of The Daily Tar Heel, the school's award-winning independent student newspaper.

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