Matt Craig beat Brandon Setzer into Turn 1 at the start of the CARS Tour Super Late Model race at Tri County Motor Speedway and never looked back.
He led all but two laps to score his second CARS Tour victory of the season and third overall in a caution-free event.
Craig’s victory was dominant but featured several mid-race challenges from the remainder of the field. The defending PASS South champion had the fastest car in clean air but lap traffic kept him from building an early gap over Jake Crum and Brandon Setzer.
Crum led Laps 17 and 18 but just couldn’t escape. Craig was better in traffic and eventually established a three-second lead.
He used it to cruise into Victory Lane.
“It was pretty easy,” Craig said. “I had a pretty good car. I have to thank my team for that — my Dad, everyone that works on the car. Everybody does a great job on the car and they show it every weekend. Those guys wanted to race to hard in the beginning. Crum was bumping me so I let him by and then I bumped him out of the way.
“We had a big lead so I just started riding, but I didn’t want to be too cocky.”
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Craig’s toughest challenge came on Lap 30 when Crum caught the No. 54 on the backstretch. The former NASCAR part-timer gave Craig the bumper but it wasn’t enough to retake the top spot. Craig again caught lap traffic and used it to check out for the remainder of the race.
This was Craig’s best overall CARS Tour performance since leading 83 of 100 laps at Greenvile Pickens Speedway in June 2016.
“This means a lot,” Craig said. “I think that was the second time I’ve done that in my career so far. I did it one time last year at Greenville. It just goes to show how good the car is, phenomenal. I know it doesn’t help a lot, not having any cautions, but I think we could have held them off if we had one.
“Three wins in the CARS Tour is pretty good. This is a competitive series. We have five wins on the year, and I think that’s the 10th of my career, so that’s pretty good.”
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Setzer initially fell from second to fourth in the first 20 laps but methodically picked his way back towards the front. He eventually got back to second and was closing in on Craig but ran out of time.
“We were just too tight,” Setzer said. “I think the track chanegd a lot after that rain. It was so hot earlier today. We fought it today so I’m happy to be here in second, to be honest.
“Matthew Craig was on rails so congrats to those guys. I just wanted to say thanks to my dad, Romeo Guest, the Jewelry Exchange and everyone on here. I appreciate it. We’ve had some bad luck so I’m really happy to just have a good run today.”
Complete Results for the CARS Tour Super Late Model Do The Dew 200 can be found below:
- Matt Craig
- Brandon Setzer
- Jake Crum
- Tate Fogleman
- Tyler Church
- Cole Rouse
- Tyler Ankrum
- Matt Thomas
- Nolan Pope
- Mike Speeney
- Hallie Deegan
- John Gustafson
STS’ Matt Weaver contributed to this report
