This was one of those old fashioned ‘the race was for second’ kind of shows.
Matthew Craig was fastest in practice for the Rumble by the River 125 and followed that up in qualifying too. He selected ‘1’ in the pill draw and proceeded to lead every lap of the annual summer Southern Super Series race at Montgomery Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
This is the second year in a row that the JCR3 No. 54 won this race and snaps a Super Late Model winless drought dating back to this race in 2024.
“Nothing more I can ask for,” Craig told Short Track Scene. “Some days it just feels like it’s meant to be. It’s just one of those days for us. It’s been a long time, since this race last year, that we won. I don’t know, I think Montgomery suits my driving style a little bit. Just a flat track, kinda gotta let the car do the work, can’t really overcharge the corner, because there’s no bankng to hold ya in. So I don’t know, we got a good setup too, it just kinda all worked out for us.”
Outside of the halfway break, the race ran clean and green too with no incidents or crashes to speak of. It was just Craig setting a pace that no one else could touch. He needed at this point of his season too.
“It’s a good boost,” Craig said. “We’ve had a second, a third, a couple top 5s, and then we’ve had some outside of top 10-15 place finishes too and it’s tough.
“The competition is really tough. We’ve seen a lot of cars that have been really good all year have a bad night. It’s just tough. At any given race, I feel that there’s 10-12 guys that could win the race, and that just makes it hard to win. Makes it really hard to win. I wish we could get the tire figured out a little better, I think this tire is too hard, too slick, you just can’t race. All of the races just kinda get strung out. But it just worked out, I felt it was meant to be.”
Dustin Smith spent most of the first half in second but faded to sixth by the end. Stephen Nasse, still seeking his first Late Model win of 2025 ultimately put up the best fight and finished a half second back of Craig.
“He was able to get a pretty good lead on me when I was racing on the restart,” Nasse said. “I mean, he had a good car. We were pretty equal, but yeah, I couldn’t make up that ground. And me trying to make up that ground, I was running as hard as I could.
“I started that with like 35 to go, and it’s kinda hard to maintain that around a place like this. The right front just got really hot and I got really tight. I was using the brake to kinda yaw the car through the corner there, and I was able to make it work sometimes, and other times I wouldn’t be able to. You know it was a good weekend for us. A solid finish, but hungry to get that win for sure. I was thinking when I was closing in there that I might have a chance, but I knew it would be tough.”
Nasse called Craig ‘tough’ and congratulated someone who was also seeking his first win of the year
“He’s very good around here,” Nasse said. “I know they’re hungry for one after the last couple runs. They’re great guys. I enjoy racing with him, just would’ve liked to get up to his bumper there, but you know we were close.”
Fresh off his first career Super win, and in the ASA STARS race at Hickory no less, Colby Howard claimed a podium.
“I feel like we struggled in practice yesterday, all day today, better today,” Howard said. “It’s so hot here, you know we just couldn’t really figure out what the car was wanting and what we’re doing on the track. So I was really nervous going into qualifying and we didn’t qualify good. So I was pretty down about that, and I just didn’t think we were going to race that well.
“We started, and I just picked my way up through a few spots. I just saw a good opening. We were trying to ride, save some tires. I actually thought I burnt my stuff up when we got to lap 75, then when we restarted there the car came alive for a couple of laps.”
He just ‘absolutely didnt have anything for Matt and Stephen on Saturday night.
“Even if we had a restart, it probably would’ve hurt me honestly,” Howard said. “They were in a different zip code. I hung with Stephen for a little bit on the 75 restart, but I blinked and he was gone.
“I had absolutely nothing for them and I don’t think anything would’ve fixed that. Congrats to them, they built some really fast cars. Good points day for us. Should’ve gained a little bit on Cole, Bubba I think is right behind me. Good points day, yeah now we’ll go to Pensacola.”
To his point, Cole Butcher fell off the pace late and was scored with a 12th place finish. That allowed Bubba Pollard, even with a fourth place like, to take the championship lead by 10 points.
Howard is a manageable 16 points back of Pollard with five points races left to go. And remember, the Southern Super Series champion is automatically locked into the Snowball Derby in December.
SSS Rumble by the River 125 Montgomery Motor Speedway June 7 2025
Fin
No
Driver
Laps
Diff
1
54
Matthew Craig
125
—
2
51
Stephen Nasse
125
0.519
3
18
Colby Howard
125
7.539
4
26
Bubba Pollard
125
9.689
5
112
Augie Grill
125
11.148
6
33
Dustin Smith
125
14.927
7
50
Jett Noland
125
19.993
8
14
Chase Pinsonneault
125
20.450
9
23
Billy VanMeter
125
20.778
10
24
Gavan Boschele
125
21.586
11
20
Camden Murphy
124
1 Lap
12
28
Cole Butcher
124
1 Lap
13
91
Dylan Bates
124
1 Lap
14
2
John Bolen
75
50 Laps
15
71
Johnny Brazier
2
123 Laps
Updated Standings
Bubba Pollard Cole Butcher -10 Colby Howard -16 Stephen Nasse -37 Gavan Boschele -38 Matt Craig -47
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.
