Throughout the past week, Brent Crews said he prioritized winning a World Series of Asphalt race over the championship, believing one would directly correlate to the other.
That proved to be quite fortuitous on Thursday night.
In winning the rain preempted Orange Blossom 100, Crews won for the first time in a Super Late Model and overcame the tiniest of championship margins to Donnie Wilson Motorsports teammate Gio Ruggiero.
Ruggiero finished third, one spot short of a tiebreaking championship triumph of his own, after winning twice over the past week.
It wasn’t just that Crews won but how he won that made the victory and the championship all the sweeter in that he posted the fastest time in qualifying but drew an ‘8’ on the invert leaving him a lot of work to do over 100 laps.
He got to the front by Lap 52, taking the lead from Conner Jones, and ultimately won by three seconds.
“First of all, I want to give all thanks to the Lord above,” said Crews in victory lane. “Second of all, I have a bad fast Toyota Camry. Everybody at Donnie Wilson Motorsports worked their butt off. Bond Suss made some adjustments today and that thing was a rocket ship.
“The second I was able to drive this Super, I knew it was a good fit for us. I think it showed here.”
Crews is a significant prospect within the Toyota family with a TransAm TA2 championship and wins in both ARCA and in the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series but the Super Late Model has challenged him. The repeated reps in the World Series saw him score top-5s in all five races.
“I feel like I haven’t had the most success in a Late Model,” Crews said. “I feel like jumping into the Super gave me some confidence with a great race team and a lot of great people behind me to spot my way through it and give me advice the whole way.”
Orange Blossom 100
New Smyrna Speedway
February 15 2024
- Brent Crews
- Conner Jones
- Gio Ruggiero
- Ty Fredrickson
- Gabe Sommers
- Dawson Sutton
- Derek Kraus
- Billy VanMeter
- Mitch Haver
- Daniel Webster
- Hunter Wright
- Tyler Catalano
- Ryan Walters
- Trevor Catlaano
- Danny Knoll, Jr.
- Nicholas Naugle
- David Weaver
- Brad May
- Steve Weaver
