More or less, Bubba Pollard opens his 2024 season a perfect three-for-three after winning the Rattler 250 on Saturday night at South Alabama Speedway.
Speedfest
ASA Clyde Hart Memorial 200
Rattler 250
That is to say nothing of being asked to drive the JR Motorsports No. 88 in the Xfinity Series next month at Richmond Raceway and celebrating his 37th birthday in Victory Lane at the prestigious southern classic now promoted by the UARA National Tour.
He hasn’t even been home at all this past week, spending it in Mooresville, North Carolina with the NASCAR team and at the Chevrolet simulator after spending the weeks before that largely on the road too.
“I’ll probably go home, because I haven’t been home in about a month,” Pollard said. “I’m ready to go home and spend some time with the family. I’ve got enough energy tonight to make it on to the house.”
That’s just short of a four-hour drive.
It took less than that to get past Jett Noland on Lap 187 and then drive away from Jake Finch in the closing laps. It’s third win in the race, which ties Ronnie Sanders for second on the all-time list, but short of the five now held by Ty Majeski, who was not entered on Saturday due to NASCAR commitments at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The only real hurdle for Pollard was Noland due to a run-in they had in the closing laps.
“[Finch] had a good race car,” said Pollard. “He stepped it up at the end when he needed to. We got tight. One of those restarts, I don’t know what happened. The 50 [of Jett Noland] went into the corner and hit me in the left-front pretty good.
“Ever since that, we were pretty tight. I feel like the stagger closed up a little bit on us, and we tried to compensate for it because I felt like it was going to happen again. It did, it just wasn’t enough. Jake had a great race car. He was good when it counted there, and it was fun racing him out.”
Noland led from Lap 92 to Lap 186 but faded to seventh over the final stretch.
As for Finch, he had a good car but not as good as Pollard, but was still satisfied with a runner-up after one of his best Super Late performances yet. He also won the Baby Rattler 125 Pro Late Model race earlier in the afternoon.
“Starting outside on those cautions put me back a little bit,” said Finch. “Once I could get single file and get stretched out, it was hard when you’re running the exact same lap times to close that gap. I closed the gap pretty good and was driving as hard as I could to get up there.
“I could have gotten to Bubba, but I didn’t want to hit him and get crucified on Twitter and everything. It would be way too deep for me to drive it in there to get to him. A solid run for our No. 51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet, and I’m excited for what we have to come.”
Justin Mondeik, Michael Hinde and Michael Goddard completed the top-5.
Pollard will celebrate this one with those closest to him before getting ready for the next ASA race at Pensacola and then the NASCAR start the week afterwards.
“We’ve had a good year,” Pollard said. “We’ve won some big races to start the year off, and hopefully we keep it going. We’ve got good race cars. We’re going to these tracks for the second time with this car. Last year, it was all new to us, so we’ve had to learn everything.
“I’ve got a good family that supports me and stands behind me, because I know it’s hard going up and down these roads. I’ve been gone a lot these past couple of months. We’ve got a busy summer. It takes a lot of people to make this happen and win these races. It’s small things, getting the car ready in the shop, making it easy at work. Everybody’s having fun and it goes a long way.”
47th Rattler 250
South Alabama Speedway
March 17 2024
- Bubba Pollard
- Jake Finch
- Justin Mondeik
- Michael Hinde
- Michael Goddard
- Colin Allman
- Jett Noland
- Steve Dorer
- Dawson Sutton
- Jeremy Doss
- Gabe Sommers
- Kasey Kleyn
- Gavan Boschele
- Dave Farrington
- Michael Atwell
- Timothy Watson
- Billy VanMeter
- Augie Grill
- Chase Lovelady
- Austin Nason
- Hudson Halder
- Dylan Bigley
- Tony Elrod
- John Coffman
- Hunter Wright
- Stephen Nasse
