Bubba Pollard is still trying to figure some things out with his new look No. 26 program but everything is always straightforward for him when coming back home to race in the Southern Super Series at Mobile International Speedway.
Pollard delivered a dominant performance in the CraneWorks 100 similar to those from much of the past two decades. He needed it too because Pollard has underwent a lot of trial and error since swapping over to VanDoorn Racing Development chassis in March.
“You don’t have to sugarcoat it man; We’ve sucked,” Pollard said. “We’ve been working and it’s not easy. We’ve turned upside down our entire program, the engines, the cars, the shocks, trailer everything after the Derby.
“It’s been a learning process and everyone has stuck behind me, I told them it would take a year to be where we wanted to be. We won that race here last time and the car was okay and we went in struggled. … We tested at Pensacola on Thursday and it was fast off the trailer so I like where our program is headed.”
Pollard said he is ‘going to get going’ the second half of the year but Mobile is also just a place where he knows he can win if the car is remotely close on any given occasion.
On Saturday, it took Pollard just three laps to overtake Cole Butcher and they set sail together for much of the ensuing 97 laps. A caution for a stalled Chase Pinsonneault allowed Matt Craig, who spent much of the race in tire conservation mode to make a charge, but Pollard had the best car and a solid strategy.
It was largely no contest.
“Last (Southern Super Series race at Mobile), we saved too much and almost didn’t make it back through the field,” Pollard said. “We fired off like eighth with 50 to go and you see what Craig tried to do, couldn’t make it back up. Without the caution, he wouldn’t have been that close.
“The way the race played out, we felt like we had to be out front, and (Butcher) has been the fastest all year so I knew I needed to be up front ahead of him. I knew if I could pace with him, the car was good so I feel like I could save some riding behind him and seeing where he was good and where he wasn’t. When we fired off and took the lead from him, he kind of fell back, and that was the first queue where I needed to save too and be smart but we had a good race car.”
Craig inherited the pole via a positional redraw but falling to the back was more than his intended strategy.
“They wanted to go faster than I was going, so I got passed and then so they were train-ed up on the inside, so I had no chance to get back down in line,” Craig said. “So I was like, ‘well, I guess our strategy is now going to the back.’ We went to the back, stayed on the lead lap, and took off and made it back to second.
“I don’t know if we had anything for Bubba but we were definitely a second-place car. The car was good. This race track is just so strange. It’s like, do you go or not go, do you lose track position or get it. It’s so hard to pass but tonight was more of a track position race.”
To his point, the ASA Southern Super Series race here have been erratically unpredictable during the Hoosier ST era.
All told, this was a good night for Craig too because, like Pollard, any race where you can beat Butcher and the Wilson Motorsports group, that’s a good night.
“I think we’re as good as anybody,” Craig said. “I mean, I think we’re as good as Bubba and Butcher. Just as good. We just have to finish the races and maybe get a touch better but we’re just as good. I think we’re pretty good.”
For Pollard, who has more wins here than anyone else over the past two decades, any win at Mobile is special.”
“This place and Pensacola is what taught me to race you know,” Pollard said. “It’s taught me race craft over the years and how to save equipment and win races. I feel like if you can win here, you can win about anywhere. We have to get that confidence in our setup to be where we need to be and I feel like we’re getting that and looking forward to the next couple of weeks.”
Southern Super Series CraneWorks 100
Mobile International Speedway
August 3 2025
- Bubba Pollard
- Matt Craig
- Colby Howard
- Carson Brown
- Dustin Smith
- Gavan Boschele
- Cole Butcher
- Jade Avedisian
- Jett Noland
- Conner Sutton
- Jake Finch
- James Patrick
- Elliott Massey
- Chase Pinsonneault
- Connor Okrzesik
