Casey Roderick came out with the win at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida on Friday night in an event largely dominated by Jeff Choquette.
This was only the second time in the past 16 months that Choquette had raced at the Florida half mile but he hadn’t lost the touch that once made him a perennial Snowball Derby threat each December.
But ultimately, the defending Five Flags track champion just wore him out. He attributed his success to having good overall speed and his tire conservation strategy.
“I think it was just me saving my tires early on but you still gotta have a really good car.” Roderick said. “No matter how much you save tires, you still have to have a car that has the right balance and feel. I’ve had a terrible car and saved at the beginning and it still runs just terrible. You can’t fix that. But we’re racing more this season and that’s allowed me to get in a zone and know what I need out of these cars every week.”
Roderick is only running a partial schedule for the Graham Trucking No. 7 Super team but has added a full slate of Pro Late Model events in the legendary Ronnie Sanders Racing No. 18 team.
Choquette had speed too but said the car simply went away after Lap 100 — which would have been fine last season when the races at Pensacola ended at the century mark. Choquette appeared to be glued to the inside line during the early part of the event and that allowed him to guard the position.
But a caution on Lap 102 changed that and Choquette was unable to hold the top spot when Roderick was able to make the outside work on a restart. The final World Crown 300 winner would never look back.
Southern Super Series championship leader Donnie Wilson suffered through a myriad of mechanical issues on Friday night with an alternator failure ending his night. With three races remaining, he still holds a sizeable lead and the small car counts ensures his likely championship.
“We feel pretty good and we still have a pretty good point lead,” he said after the race.
Only one Super Late Model race remains at Five Flags Speedway prior to the 49th Derby in December. Roderick hopes his continued success on the Gulf Coast this season will translate to the Super Bowl of Short Track Racing.
“Being as good as we were after 125 laps, that’s a huge plus for the derby,” he said. “You’re running 300 laps and may run 150 laps on one set of tires.”
Results
- Casey Roderick
- Zane Smith
- Chandler Smith
- Jeff Choquette
- Noah Gragson
- David Rogers
- Bubba Pollard
- Kyle Plott
- Chris Davidson
- Ryan Luza
- Harrison Burton
- Scotty Ellis
- Matt Craig
- Donnie Wilson
- Logan Boyett
- Dennis Schoenfeld
- Augie Grill
- Brad Tilton
- Allen Karnes
- Wayne Niedecken Jr
- Casey Smith
- Kenzie Ruston
- Ron McDonald
- Cole Anderson
