Finch continues to be the Man in Montgomery; wins Disturbing the Peace 100

Jake Finch continued his march on the Deep South pro late model racing scene with a dominating win on Saturday at Montgomery Motor Speedway in the Disturbing the Peace 100, round three of the 2026 Show Me the Money Series.

Finch started from third and by lap six was challenging poll-sitter Nicholas Naugle for the lead. That’s when the rain began to fall, causing a roughly 90-minute delay. Once the track was dried, the race resumed under a green/yellow condition to finish off the drying and allow teams to evaluate if the track was ready to return to full speed action.

On lap 17, the race went back to full green flag racing, and from that point onward, Finch was unmatched and unchallenged, leading the remaining 83 laps en route to his third win at Montgomery this year and sixth overall in the Ronnie Sanders Racing pro late model.

“Obviously we were pretty good,” Finch said after the race. “But I think, to be honest, we struggled a little bit. I wasn’t happy with the handling of the car and did a lot of in-car adjustments to try to try to make it a little bit better and obviously it helped a little bit. But I still think coming back next time we have a little bit of work to do.”

The dominance of Finch in this pro late model at Montgomery is being used to set the Floridian up for success at races further down the road.

“I’m obviously grateful for how good of a race car we have and that we have been able to win this many races this year, especially early on,” he said. “But we still got a long season ahead and really the ones that I really wanna win are towards the end of the season with the Snowflake for example… and that’s been a frustrating race for me lately. So hopefully we can just continue this momentum throughout the year and keep it going.”

Brandon Lopez started from sixth and methodically worked his way past the competition, spending much of the race in battles with Weston Marthaler and Nicholas Naugle. The runner-up finish was a shot in the arm for the entire Bryson-Lopez Racing team after having had struggles throughout the spring in other series. 

 “It was great to finish P2 tonight,” said Lopez. “I wish we had one more spot to show for it, and we busted our tails in the shop this week going back through this thing after a not so good run at Nashville. We found a couple things wrong with it that weren’t really up to our standards, so we went back through the whole thing and just did a front to back check on it and obviously it paid off.”

In Lopez’s first trip to Montgomery, he and the BLR team had to overcome a lack of experience on this speedway and a loss of power steering during the race.

“I’ve never been here, so we just took our time, learned the track Thursday, then we’re hoping to see what we had Friday,” he said. “We knew we were pretty good and qualified fourth, but I think we probably should have been a little bit better there (then drew a six on the redraw to start sixth). Unfortunately, after the rain delay we started warming up tires and I didn’t have power steering, so we had to work for that one pretty good. I stayed patient, saved the right front and the right rear, and listened to what all the people who race here often told me. I let the guys who wanted to pass me go and was able to catch back up to them and get back by and there towards the end.” 

Nicholas Naugle proved to be the closest threat to Finch’s dominance after claiming the fastest time in qualifying and pulling the number one in the redraw to retain his pole starting position.

In the race, Naugle was a top three contender all night, but had to overcome a broken part on his car, and a charging Lopez to hold on to the third finishing position.

“I can’t complain at all,” said Naugle. “By being able to qualify on the pole here against the class field, I mean, that’s what we’ve been working at for so long. That was really the highlight of our day. We had a good race. When we went back out (after the rain delay), we had a parts failure and managed to ride it out until the end of the night and it played out in our favor. I’m glad we’re still able to bring home a trophy. These guys really deserve it. I mean, everyone’s working hard here and I can’t thank them enough for it.”

Finishing Results: Disturbing the Peace 100:

1. Jake Finch
2. Brandon Lopez
3. Nicholas Naugle
4. Weston Marthaler
5. Presley Johnson
6. John Wilkinson
7. Cody Martell
8. Bowen Mayhue
9. Tim Sozio
10. Connor Shelton
11. Garrett Gumm
12. Malcolm Spears -1 lap
13. Dylan Fetcho -11 laps
14. Steven Chunn -19 laps
15. Jim Wall -31 laps
16. Dylan Williams -67 laps
17. Hunter Wright -92 laps

The next round of the Show Me the Money Series is set for August 15, 2026 and the “Saturday of Speed” featuring twin 73 lap races.