It spoke volumes that Stephen Nasse qualified second in a Southern Super Series race at Five Flags Speedway on Friday night and it was no surprise that he drove away from Bubba Pollard at the start and led every lap of the Tibbetts 100.
That doesn’t mean there were not surprises along the way but when notoriously poor qualifier Nasse starts on the front row in an Anthony Campi car, that was an immediate statement.
The reigning Snowball Derby winner had even lapped his way through the back half of the top-10 when fourth-place Spencer Davis cut a right front tire on Lap 61. Nasse again drove away from his closest pursuers but managed his tires over the second run to win 1.13 seconds.
With that said, Nasse wasn’t entirely pleased with the car.
“It’s still not quite where I wanted to be,” Nasse told Short Track Scene after the race. “The handling, it was a little bit on edge, but I’m always going to have something to complain about when it comes to the handling of the car and could never be a hundred percent happy. But I was never super comfortable there until the end.
“And then obviously a little worried about the late caution coming out there before I get to the white. So just focus on getting there. But yeah, no, Anthony Campi and Preston (Peltier), they’ve done a great job with these cars and I think Carson (Brown) has showed that, and I was happy that I could show it today in a pretty dominant fashion.
“It’s a little bit boring for me leading flag-to-flag, but it does keep you on edge, just all the what ifs.”
But again, the fact that this was a Campi car, given that this pairing won the Snowball Derby in December, is what had him a little miffed.
“That’s kind of why I’m not the happiest with the way the car is because I was kind of looking forward to that race, and I definitely know that I’m going to have to be better than what I was handling wise tonight,” Nasse said of the upcoming Snowball. “But I also haven’t tested this car, haven’t practiced it. So this is the first time I’ve ever been in; today.”
If he can sweep both races, it would earn him an extra $5000 bonus to earn a combined $25,000 on the weekend.
The biggest what-if that Nasse could have had to deal with is Davis, who was allowed to take a scuffed right front because he had a puncture and was three to four tenths faster than the leaders in open track.
“Had a really, really good long run car like we’ve shown all year,” Davis said. “I don’t think we had anything for (Nasse). Maybe if we could have started heads-up there … but we ran over something, cut the right side tire down, pulled the fenders and got everything as straight as we could and had to start at the back.
“I felt like traffic played us a tick tougher than they should have in the corners, but man, we came home third and I can’t say enough about our NEXUS GMS Race Cars machine.”
And then there was Robbins, the runner-up, making his first Super Late Model start in several years in a substitute role for Hudson Bulger, who was elsewhere occupied with a high school assignment. Robbins matched Nasse in traffic but was more than pleased with a runner-up.
He mentors Bulger behind the scenes.
“Yeah, we had a really good car,” Robbins said. “I felt like we had a really good car in practice and mock run and qualifying. We ended up fifth. I actually thought we’d be actually a little bit better than that, but started off the race really good. I was kind of glad there weren’t a whole lot of cautions, just one.
“It’s been almost two and a half years now and not just when you do it all the time, you get so used to it and build the muscles that you need for this. But car was, it was really good. Just really just didn’t know really how hard I could probably have pushed it there at the end. I think, maybe if I stayed a little closer to him, and not let him get quite so far away, we might have been able to run him down.”
This was the first half of a Coca-Cola Twin 100s on Friday and Saturday that count for points in the track’s annual Blizzard Series and ASA Southern Super Series standings.
Southern Super Series Tibbetts 100
Five Flags Speedway
June 12 2026
- Stephen Nasse
- Hunter Robbins
- Spencer Davis
- Bubba Pollard
- Dustin Smith
- Cole Butcher
- Michael Atwell
- Tristan McKee
- Colin Allman
- Timothy Watson
- Jake Garcia
- Jake Finch
- Dylan Fetcho
- George Phillips
- Jett Noland
- Matt Craig
- Augie Grill
- Zack Dixon
- Brandon Lopez
- Dylan Bates
- Nicholas Naugle
- Michael Goddard
- Harrison Halder
- Bobby Good
- TJ DeCaire
- Josh Adkins
- Friday Hassler Jr.
