Carson Brown, Anthony Campi Racing and Preston Peltier’s P1 Chassis remained undefeated in ASA STARS competition this season with a statement victory in the Sunshine State 200 at Five Flags Speedway.
It was a statement for two reasons — 1) that the No. 81 car was simply the class of the field but also 2) that Brown was still made to work for it over the final four restarts over the final 10 laps.
During these final four restarts, the gamesmanship increased considerably, and it contributed to several messy crashes on the way to the checkered flag. At one point, Cole Butcher and Jade Avedisian took the bottom at the choose alongside Brown allowing Kyle Steckly to take the front row.
Steckly did what Avedisian and Butcher couldn’t on two previous restarts and take the lead from the outside. However, repeated cautions meant the field was restacked, and Brown would drive away once he got clean air.
Brown, a Richard Childress Racing development driver, has now opened 2026 with two straight ASA STARS wins with Campi and in ARCA at Phoenix Raceway with Pinnacle Racing Group.
“No, this never gets old,” Brown told Short Track Scene. “I love this stuff and oh man, this was a tough one, because we struggled with this car, honestly, all throughout practice. Like, I feel like we had decent speed but just struggled with being free and missing the bottom and rolling over but we got this thing dialed in.
“Anthony, Preston and this whole crew, everyone on this No. 81, they made it go fast. It got a little hairy at the end with (Cole Butcher) which I expected given some things that’s happened in the past, but we muscled our way through, and really proud of this one.”
With that said, Brown was not fond of the restart gamesmanship.
“Well, I mean, first of all, everyone’s really good at starting and restarting at the beginning of the race and as the race goes on, everyone forgets how to do it,” Brown said. “It’s always a learning process but man, it was just tough.
“Once we got clear, we were good, but you don’t want to be on the top here, but if you on, it’s easy to pinch the leader down and jump the restart. You feel like you have to so you can get track position.
“The restart rule they changed for 2026 is helping but there’s still a little bit of a flaw in it and it’s always going to be hard to control guys lagging back. There’s no way for them to truly get it right. That’s the reality of it.”
For 2026, the field must now maintain pace car speed to the restart zone. No more steady increase of speed.
Anyway, the gamesmanship is how Steckly briefly got the lead in the first place, getting the jump on Brown, before another immediate caution and restart took it right back away. But still, at the time they gave him the front row, he was fifth and went straight to the lead.
It still resulted in a net positive second-place result.
“The car was definitely a top-three car all day,” said the Canadian driver for Wilson Motorsports. “I feel like we were coming back to them before all those cautions but then they gave us the front row, which was really nice.
“Then trying to keep it up there ahead of (Butcher) is tough and he’s good, especially here so I was glad I could keep it ahead of it. Those last 10 laps and those restarts were kind of crazy but everyone did a good job up front and that was just good hard racing.”
The most notable restart-aided crash involved Derek Thorn and Derek Kraus. When the leaders did their thing, the stack-up resulted in Bubba Pollard turning Thorn in front of Tristan McKee and Kraus, the latter getting the worst of it. Thorn was destroyed in the ordeal.
“We were third row, fourth row outside,” Thorn said. “Looked like Butcher was trying to time the restart with Brown and Butcher had to check up ’cause he didn’t time it right,” Thorn said. “That led to an accordion. I got checked up with (Davis) but I don’t think Pollard got checked up quite in time and just got gobbled up and from behind and spun out and put in front of traffic.
“Day over.”
And then there was the incident, several laps into a late run, with five laps to go, where Dustin Smith spun off the nose of Spencer Davis.
Smith performed a 360 spin, and never got hit, with Dylan Fetcho also spinning out behind it. Davis was sent to the rear with them under the contact rule.
“I got a little tight in the center, but I still held my line and I guess he just gassed it up and just keep kept driving,” Smith said. “I mean, you could’ve lifted just a little bit and we both would’ve finished in the top 10 but it’s been the same thing since we were kids racing. It’s alright. I’ll just have to return the favor the time it comes around.”
Smith won the pole and won the first stage even after being passed by Steckly in the middle of that run. It was a top-5 car and that’s what left him so frustrated.
“It was a really good car and all my guys work really hard and we’ve put a lot of time in the off-season to making this car better,” he added. “We’re going to the Rattler next weekend and hopefully we do even better than we did today.”
He also threw a water bottle at Davis as he drove by.
“I had no idea,” Davis said, for his part.
So what happened?
“Man, I’m not sure,” he said. “You know, I will personally admit that I am a hard-nosed racer but I think, legitimately, he spun right in front of us. I don’t know if he broke an axle but they were free. We were coming and it is what it is right?
“The top two played games all race. They wrecked half the field but the guy in fifth gets sent to the back so I don’t know what it is about their rules but it is what it is and we’ll rebound next time. Our GMS Race Team and SURF USA Mobile machine will be back and a little bit better.”
ASA STARS Sunshine State 200 Five Flags Speedway March 14, 2026
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.
