John Bolen used experience and a strong car to win the Fall Brawl at Montgomery Motor Speedway on Saturday night, round six of the 2026 Show Me the Money Series. Garrett Gumm overcame a botched restart by using the high lane to work his way from deep in the pack back up to second, and Presley Johnson led early and looked dominant until a mid-race incident forced him to come from the back to finish third.
For Bolen, the race served as a bit of redemption after having the dominant car in the Alabama 200, only to lose his chance at victory to missing his chance to pit. On this night, everything fell into place for the Alabama native as he cruised to the win, almost a full straightaway ahead of second.
“Well, you know, it was such a good car at the (Alabama) 200, then we didn’t get to pit,” recalled Bolen. “We had to run the whole race basically on the same four tires. We took the door off the car, covered it up and it’s been sitting ever since. It felt good to literally dust it off Wednesday and decide to come race.”
Bolen started fourth, and quickly settled into third then played the tire saving game in the first half of the race, even letting the faster car of Jake Finch by so he could maintain his tire saving pace. He was gifted the lead after leaders Johnson and Weston Marthaler made contact coming of turn four with 40 laps to go. From there, Bolen set sail and never relinquished the top spot.
“It kind of kind of changed my plan, he said”. “I mean, I was letting them two get out there, and I felt like Jake was trying to ride like we were, and I was kind of just letting them lead us… we kind of set our pace, and we were both kind of happy with what it looked like and letting them run that extra tenth, two-tenths that didn’t need to be ran at the time. And then the plan was to get to them at Lap 70 or 80, but when the time came, it just went different. It worked out for us, but I I felt like, the way the car ran all the way through the whole 100 laps on pace, I feel like we could have worked our way to where we were shooting for.”
While Bolen led in that final stretch, Gumm was overcoming a mistake he made on the final restart. Gumm took advantage of the high lane to work around traffic and found himself in second place at the end of the race.
“It just works for me,” he said of the high line. “Just rolling that momentum up top. This track’s so long for these Pros, so momentum really helps, and just rolling that top, especially when tires get bad and people start slowing down on the bottom, you just roll right by them.
“We always run good on the top here,” he continued. “So it’s always in my strategy play. Whether that is lap 40 or lap 80, I don’t know, just how the race plays out and how the tires wear, but definitely came at the right time, and we thought we would have something for the 2 (Bolen) there, but just tires kept wearing down.”
Johnson started the race on the outside pole thanks to the post qualifying redraw. Steven Chunn was the pole sitter, but quickly fell back at the start. This allowed Johnson to not only take the led early, but build his lead to over a straightaway by the halfway mark at Lap 50.
At the beginning of the second half of the race, Johnson found himself in a battle with Marthaler for the lead. With roughly 40 Laps to go, the two made contact off of turn four. Marthaler’s night was done, but Johnson spun around and kept going. He wasn’t very pleased with the way the youngster drove around him on this particular night.
“I think Weston’s still learning,” said Johnson. “I think he might have been a touch faster, or maybe he was just pushing a little bit harder, but I was a little bit free, so when he got to me, it didn’t take much to jack the car sideways, but I don’t appreciate him not even giving me a chance of gathering it up. You know, he just—I think he just stood on the loud pedal and turned me around. But, you know, karma’s karma, so his daddy’s going to have to buy Jamie Yelton a new race car. I finished third and he’s got to write a check, so be it.”
Per rule, since Johnson was a part of the caution he had to restart from the back. His team tried to argue their case that he was “wrecked by the 100 car”, but those protests were of no avail. Johnson pitted, made an adjustment and restarted at the tail of the field with under 40 laps to go. From there, he methodically worked his way back through the field, finishing third.
“They sent us to the rear, and that’s okay,” he said. “They got to do their job. So, we made the choice because we were already going to the rear, we’d come down and make an adjustment, and it helped the car. But, I mean… You know, it’s one of them… All you can say is shoulda, woulda, coulda.”
Additionally, this race served as the Championship finale of the Roger Dabbs Southern Pro Series for 2026, with Grant Thompson picking up the honors as this year’s Champion.
Fall Brawl 100 Results
1. 2 – John Bolen
2. 5 – Garrett Gumm
3. 82j – Presley Johnson
4. 18 – Jake Finch
5. 22 – Ryan Herbert
6. 11w – John Boy Wilkinson
7. 82t – Grant Thompson
8. 91 – Jim Wall
9. 07 – Keeton Harris
10. 11p – James Patrick
11. 10 – Connor Shelton
12. 100 – Weston Marthaler
13. 84 – Steven Chunn
14. 43 – Augie Grill
