Casey Roderick claims third Alabama 200 win

Casey Roderick drove away on a restart with 83 laps to go and closed out on his third victory in the Alabama 200 at Montgomery Motor Speedway by defeating the Ronnie Sanders Racing No. 18 team that took him to his first two.

This time, Roderick was driving for Anthony Campi Racing and merely needed to manage the gap to Jake Finch in the Sanders car to once again emerge victorious in the Hunt for the Bear.

It wasn’t such a straightforward victory as Roderick was leading by the first restart and got knocked outside of the top-10 when Dylan Fetcho lost the nose under him and cost them both the front row. Roderick had to methodically work his way back towards the front and took the lead for good on Lap 90.

“The 89 and me got together into the entry of 1 on the restart,” Roderick said. “When we got behind all those cars in traffic, the car just didn’t handle good, lost the nose behind people and washed up the corner.

“I just had to bide my time after that and be patient and slowly work our way up.”

Roderick also wonders if he got toe damage from the contact because the car never drove entirely the same from the first restart but he made it work.

“It was a good race. I love the Alabama 200, with the strategy. I didn’t want to see the caution on Lap 119. I wanted it to go further. I didn’t know if everyone would follow me in or not but it worked out.”

This was Finch’s debut in the Sanders No. 18, a part-time role he will take on this year alongside his Super Late Model and ARCA races. His car had great pace but just not enough to chase down Roderick and the Campi machine.

“I haven’t run a Pro Late in like four years, so I think a lot of it was just me trying to figure out how hard to push it,” Finch said. “Ronnie and this whole group got me dialed in at the end. I thought we’d get one more caution at the end to have a shot but there’s nothing wrong with running behind Casey here in the Alabama 200.

“I’m super excited. It’s funny, growing up and going to the race track, I was always watching Casey and Ronnie in this car. I get to drive this race car, same paint job and everything, and I’ve enjoyed it so far. I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”

With his third win in the race, Roderick moves into a tie for second most Alabama 200 wins alongside Red Farmer, and two behind five-time winner Augie Grill.

Speaking of Grill, he was leading in the early stages from the fastest time in qualifying but was black flag when his window net came unbuckled. He finished 15th and three laps down.

“An employee of mine had drilled a couple of holes in the window net bar,” Grill told Racing America. “I guess that made it too flimsy and it got to moving around and it popped them back out and unlatched itself. I’m shocked it took them as long to black flag me as it did.

“Today was really good, just riding back there two laps down, not racing anybody almost made me wanted to park it. I was thinking maybe we’d get a lucky dog or something, and then it went green the rest of the way. Just bad circumstances.”

Defending winner Seth Christensen finished third after completing a podium pass on Gavin Graham on the final lap.

“I’m really proud of the effort of these guys had,” Christensen said. “Ricky [Turner] had a really good car for me. I got in a couple of scuffles during the race, but it paid off coming through the field there. I’m just glad to be on the podium for the second year in a row. Hopefully, many more to come.”

One of those scuffles involved Carson Brown on Lap 84, an incident that led to Turner and the TurnCo team working on the car under caution and eliminating Brown.

“Went off into 3 and 4 and I think I just got ran over,” Brown said. “After I drove from 13th to 4th.”

There were also incidents involving Steven Chunn and Luke Yarborough on Lap 33 and a Lap 80 twin spin involving Christopher Tullis and Jonathan Knee.

For Roderick, it continues a really successful on-again, off-again stint with Campi and Team Platinum. Roderick is also once again the ASA national Super Late Model points leader after the season opening race. He was once again vocal about needing support to keep his season going headed into the summer months.

The Alabama 200 is the season opening race for the Montgomery Pro Late Model ‘Show Me the Money Series.’

1. Casey Roderick
2. Jake Finch
3. Seth Christensen
4. Gavin Graham
5. Dylan Fetcho
6. Christopher Tullis
7. George Phillips
8. Dawson Sutton
9. Chase Spradlin
10. Harrison Halder
11. Hunter Wright
12. Clint King
13. Jim Wall
14. Gage Rodgers
15. Augie Grill
16. Chase Johnson
17. James Cleckler
18. Jeremy Williams
19. Trey Grimes
20. Jonathan Knee
21. Carson Brown
22. Steven Chunn
23. Luke Yarbrough
24. Bryce Carver
25. Holt Halder
26. Wayne Williard