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Entering the Super Late Model portion of the CARS Tour event at Orange County Speedway, Cole Rouse had just wrapped up his fifth top-10 in five races but hadn’t closed out a win.

The Kyle Busch Motorsports driver outdueled Matt Craig to win his first Super Late Model race and into the championship lead thanks to the misfortune suffered by Brandon Setzer earlier in the night.

Rouse took the lead from Craig on Lap 119 and kept the No. 51 JBL Toyota out front for the final 31 laps. It was the third straight season that the KBM Super Late Model team collected a CARS Super Late Model victory at Orange County, with Christopher Bell finding victory lane in 2015 and 2016.

Now Roush has added his name to that distinct list.

Craig had actually cleared Rouse on a pivotal restart with 32 laps to go, but the 20-year-old stayed with the reigning PASS South champion and completed the pass. With just nine cars remaining on the track, the field spread out, allowing Rouse to stay on cruise control for the remainder of the race.

The entire course of the season may have changed on Lap 46 when Brandon Setzer and Tate Fogleman tangled in Turn 1. Both ended up in the outside retaining wall and it ended their nights. The crash, coupled with a Rouse victory, cost Setzer his championship lead.

Jason Stanley, Dan Speeney, and Jeff Baten also received damage in the incident.

This turn of events set up the final dash to the checkers with Craig and Rouse set to do battle on the front row on the restart. They set sail to nearly a three second lead over Trevor Noles and Casey Roderick in their rear-view.

It was Craig hitting lap traffic that allowed Rouse to close the gap and first pressure for the lead. Spencer Wauters spun with 50 laps to go to set up the final battle.

It was one that Rouse would eventually win.

  1. Cole Rouse
  2. Casey Roderick
  3. Matt Craig
  4. Tate Fogleman
  5. Jason Stanley
  6. Spencer Wauters
  7. Nolan Pope
  8. Gracie Trotter
  9. Dab Speeney
  10. Bradley McCaskill
  11. Trevor Noles
  12. David Calabrese
  13. Jody Measmer
  14. Jeff Batten
  15. Brandon Setzer
  16. Lucas Jones

Seth Eggert contributed to this report.

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.

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