Dawson Sutton fended off Kevin Harvick on a restart with 34 laps to go and led the rest of the way to emerge victorious in the debut race for the CARS West Super Late Model Tour on Saturday night at Kern County Raceway.
The winning pass came on a restart with 34 to go when Sutton passed the 2014 Cup Series champion, both in cars prepared by Rackley WAR Racing and led the rest of the way.
It was an interesting finish, however, as Sutton hemorrhaged nearly a second of his lead over the final two laps to have both cars in the shot as they crossed under the finish line. Nevertheless, Sutton won the CARS Super portion of the ARCA West weekend at the Bakersfield, California short track.
“I just want to thank my whole team for this opportunity, and it was a good race at a really nice facility,” said the usually soft-spoken Sutton. “It was a tough race, and I expected that with Kevin Harvick as my teammate. He’s a great person and great mentor and I just want to go celebrate this moment with the team.”
Harvick offered nothing but praise for his 18-year-old protégé.
“I haven’t taught him much,” Harvick said. “He’s pretty on it.”
Harvick is the managing partner of Kern County alongside Tim Huddleston and they also operate this series together. Harvick has taken an increased role in growing Super Late Model racing in the region.
He led laps in the middle stages of the race.
“I just want to thank you fans for coming out,” Harvick said. “These cars are really fun to drive. I just want to thank Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Cars, Curtis Sutton and Rackley Roofing, Spears Manufacturing and Hunt Brothers Pizza. This was a really good day for west coast short track racing and these cars are really fun to drive.”
Harvick said this was an important night for west coast racing and thanked FloRacing for putting the opener on the streaming platform.
“We want to see these cars, racers and tracks succeed,” Harvick said. “I want everyone to see that west coast racing is going in the right direction.”
Derek Thorn, the six-time SRL Southwest Tour champion, claimed a podium in his own car. Interviewing him on the frontstretch, Huddleston said Thorn’s participation made this a really big deal and they were glad to see his entry come in for the event.
Thorn didn’t quite have enough for the Rackley cars but said he learned a lot about the new Hoosier tires that he will race on this year in the ASA STARS series.
“We went back to the shop last night to change springs, bump stops, spindles, axles, you name it,” Thorn said. “It worked out, thankfully. This tire is hard to get worked out February 11 is coming fast for the ASA opener. We had all our own guys here and it was fun to be on the podium with Harvick and these guys.”
Of note, Dylan Zampa broke on the first lap after starting fifth and stacked up the whole field nearly in his wake into Turn 1. Buddy Shepherd contended for the lead early before breaking 30 laps into the race.
The next CARS Super Late Model race is Colorado National on July 19. The bread and butter of the tour is the Pro Late Model and Legends divisions, which resume together on February 8 at Havasu Speedway.
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.
