Is it safe to say yet that Bubba Pollard is back? After going through a slump that had many wondering if the end of his career was drawing near, Pollard has bounced back and gotten the preverbal monkey off his back after scoring the win in the Georgia Summer Nationals at Cordele Motor Speedway.
Pollard is fresh off a solid week in Berlin, where he finished second in the Battle at Berlin 250 on Wednesday night then followed that up another runner up finish in the Cleetus McFarlard race also held at Berlin that following Saturday.
In Cordele, Pollard used the high line to pass leader Spencer Davis before setting sail to the victory.
”I’m glad we won,” he said with a smile. “I would have been very disappointed if we didn’t. We’ve been very good and just been working on our stuff very hard. We’ve been close. We had speed at Five Flags… we’ve qualified good and we’ve run up front… Berlin, the same. We just needed a little more.
Once he got there, Pollard kept the lead for the rest of the race. Afterwards, he shared what lengths his team has gone through to find just a little more speed.
“I feel like coming here helped me find that little more,” he said. “We made a change today that really helped the car. We’ve been working on this package and I was scared to bring this package here because I’ve been so good here in the past that I’d hate to just abandon my other stuff. But this was good and feels like it’s better than what I’ve run here in the past. Just a really good start and I’m glad we could pick up the win.”
Behind him Spencer Davis finished in the runner up spot after having led the first half of the race. Davis quickly got by polesitter Jett Noland within the first couple of laps. Even after being passed by Pollard in the second half of the race, Davis showed that his car was still very fast, marching to an almost seven second lead over third.
“We fired off pretty good and I knew Bubba was going to be coming,” recalled Davis. “He’s the one to beat here… his record speaks for itself. Man we were just too free, all weekend and I was just hoping he was going to have an off day. Like I told Tim Bryant on the front straightaway if that man is going to have a slump, he’s still going to win here regardless, so a solid day for our No. 96.”
Beyond the solid result, Davis will assume the points lead in the Southern Super Series after lead coming into the weekend Tristan McKee was not in this race. McKee instead was making his debut in the NASCAR Truck Series, opening the door for Davis.
“Our goal this year was to chase the Southern Super Series title. It’s shook out good. We had little bit of bad luck due to them molding with ASA points at the first race, so we got behind on stage points, but in good old traditional points racing we prevail week in and week out. We’re here to win a championship and I think so far we’ve proved we can do it.”
In third, Colin Allman quietly ran an impressive race that has legitimately placed in league as a true contender in the Southern Super Series.
“The car fired off really well,” said Allman. “I think I could’ve hounded Noland and Davis for a little bit but I knew from running the Pro here about a month ago that these tires fall off quite a bit here. I knew we were going to be slipping and sliding around so I chose to save and didn’t save enough. We just got too free. I was kind of babying it all night and really didn’t get to drive it as hard as I wanted to. Proud of our night, it was just me and Dad this weekend so to come with a third place finish in this field means a lot.”
The series next visits Mobile International Speedway on September 5, 2026.
Finishing Results from the Georgia Summer Nationals at Cordele Motor Speedway on August 22, 2026:
1. #26 Bubba Pollard
2. #96 Spencer Davis
3. #67 Colin Allman
4. #69 Michael Hinde
5. #20 Jett Noland
6. #24 Jade Avedisian
7. #17 Hudson Bulger
8. #22 George Phillips
9. #33 Dustin Smith
10. #54 Matt Craig
11. #6 Brandon Lopez
12. #35 Luke Yarbrough
13. #10 George Gorham Jr
14. #51 Carson Ware
15. #51 Stephen Nasse
16. #30 Jesse Dutilly
17. #51 Jake Finch
18. #37 Michael Goddard
19. #33 Daniel Webster
20. #1 John Anderson
