Casey Roderick Returns to Victory Lane with Ronnie Sanders, Presley Johnson Claims Series Title

Late-race chaos allowed Casey Roderick to return to victory lane with a team he knows quite well.

Roderick joined forces with Ronnie Sanders Racing for the Alabama State Asphalt Championship, piloting the no. 18 Pro Late Model for the first time in eight years. The reunion came about as a result of Jake Finch participating in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event at Phoenix Raceway. Finch had piloted the machine all year long at Montgomery to much success, including a victory in the Alabama 200.

Roderick ran in the top five all night long, finding himself in third position with two laps remaining. Leaders John Bolen and Presley Johnson made contact on the exit of Turn 4, leading to a spin for Bolen and a green-white-checkered restart. Roderick held off a hard-charging Jim Wall to secure the victory.

“I appreciate everyone coming and watching us. I’ve always loved coming here to Montgomery. I want to thank Ronnie for giving me the call Wednesday. It was a last-minute deal, but man, it felt like home,” said Roderick in victory lane. “I had a lot of good races with Ronnie back in 2016, ’17 and ’18, some of ’19. I really enjoyed that time of my life. I don’t think I’d be who I am today without those years driving the number 18 with Ronnie. A lot of good memories, man. It’s kind of surreal that we pulled it off tonight.”

Despite being involved in the late-race incident with John Bolen, Presley Johnson secured a fifth-place result, enough to secure his first ever championship in the Show Me The Money Pro Late Model Series.

“First thing, getting into John, I feel horrible about that,” said Johnson post-race. “Hard racing deal. Hats off to those guys. If it weren’t for them, GMS Race Cars, Tony [Eury] Jr., Pops, Spencer Davis.

“It’s kind of surreal. It hasn’t set in yet. We started out last year in this deal and struggled a lot, wrecked a lot of stuff. We started off really good at the 200, ran fourth, and kind of just built more momentum. This was one of them that got away, but we’ll be back next year, for sure.”

Behind Roderick, Jim Wall originally crossed the line second, but was disqualified in post-race technical inspection over left-side weight. As a result, Gage Rodgers officially finished second with 13-year-old Keeton Harris rounding out the podium in third.

Sally Mott finished fourth, with Presley Johnson rebounding to a fifth-place finish.

Alabama State Asphalt Championship 100 Results

1. #18 Casey Roderick
2. #1 Gage Rodgers
3. #07 Keeton Harris
4. #08 Sally Mott
5. #82 Presley Johnson
6. #11 John Wilkinson
7. #12 Christopher Tullis
8. #2 John Bolen
9. #22 Ryan Herbert -20 laps
10. #5 Garrett Gumm -37 laps
11. #6 Chris Whorton -38 laps
12. #91 Jim Wall – DQ

Story: Reid Scott/Montgomery Motor Speedway

Photos: Montgomery Motor Speedway