Once Dylan Stovall assumed the lead on lap two he set sail, leading the rest of the way to win the Big Ass Lakes 75 at Berlin Raceway, becoming the Inaugural winner in the Cleetus McFarland Late Model Series.
For his efforts, Stovall takes home a $20,000 prize. Behind him, Bubba Pollard made a late race charge to get to Stovall, but had to settle for second, while fast qualifier Blake Rowe made his way up to third after starting the race in the middle of the field.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Stovall in victory lane on FRDM+. “We’ve had a lot of seconds [place finishes] this year and I knew I needed clean air on that restart and I was going to do whatever it takes.”
“This is like NASCAR back in the day,” he said looking up at the packed crowd in attendance. “Look at the crowd. This is insane. I love it here. I’m in shock. This is amazing.”
The clean air Stovall spoke of was a deciding factor according to second place finisher Bubba Pollard.
“You can’t do nothing in less you’re out front,” said Pollard. “Good job to Dylan, he did a great job and had a fast racecar. It’s just tough to pass.”
Pollard made similar comments after the Battle at Berlin this past Wednesday and expanded a bit in victory lane on Saturday.
“They’ve ruined what we do in short track racing with these bodies,” he added. “It’s part of it and we just have to learn to keep on. That would have been a great finish there side by side if did not have to worry about air, but that’s part of racing so we’ll go back and try again.”
Third place finisher Blake Rowe was the fast qualifier but after the dice roll invert, found himself starting from 11h. It was all he could do just to get back to the front.
“We had a really good racecar,” he said. “I feel like I used a lot of it up trying to get towards the front and claw some of our track position back early. Honestly, a really good racecar and I had a lot of fun today. Big congrats to the 24 team [Stovall].”
Cleetus McFarland ran a competitive race, running solidly in the second position during the first 30-lap segment of the race. From there, he began to drift back, stating that he used up his tires in that first run.
“Holy cow!!!,” McFarland said on social media after the race. “Ran second place the entire first stint of the race! Beat up my right rear tire badly on the second restart over driving it and fell off bad.”
His performance in this race was a sharp contrast to his effort in the Battle at Berlin just four days prior. In that race, McFarland struggled, and his night ended early with a crashed car.
“What a week,” he continued. “I love this thing, so much seat time!”
McFarland ended the event interviewing Late Model winner Stovall and Zack Walker, winner of the Michigan 100 Crown Vic race on Friday. Part of Walker’s winning prize was a spot in the Late Model race on Saturday. Walker started in 15th and finished 18th, the last car on the lead lap.
Finishing Results – Big Ass Lakes 75 – Berlin Raceway:
- 24 – Dylan Stovall
- 26 – Bubba Pollard
- 71 – Blake Rowe
- 5 – Seth Christensen
- 88 – Andrew Schied
- 33 – Daniel Webster
- 76 – Kole Raz
- 47 – Brian Campbell
- 14 – Michael Atwell
- 30 – Treyten Lapcevich
- 32 – Chris Shannon
- 53 – Boris Jurkovic
- 33 – Cleetus McFarland
- 57 – Justin Thomas
- 6 – Chet Monawek
- 82 – Tom Thomas
- 66 – Nate Walton
- 18 – Zack Walker
- 46 – Buddy Head
- 3 – Jon Beach
- 48 – Seth Moody
- 22. 27 – Ken Wobma
