Stephen Nasse teams up with Anthony Campi to win Pensacola

Stephen Nasse had started to doubt himself a little bit.

A spring and summer that produced a ‘failed to qualify’ into the ASA STARS race at Madison and one that prematurely eliminated him from the championship mix, needing a provisional to start the Slinger Nationals and just a general lack of performance left the 28-year-old down on himself a little bit.

Thus, it was kind of a ‘prove it’ moment for Nasse in a one-off start for Anthony Campi Racing, one designed to validate some feeling from over the past six months.

That Nasse not only won the American Welding Society 100 on Friday night at Five Flags, but outdueled Bubba Pollard to do it took a great deal of self-imposed pressure off for the remainder of the season, while also keeping the door open for future collaboration.

“We really have been struggling, and when you struggle so much every weekend and you put in so much effort and not getting the results, you start to doubt yourself,” Nasse told Short Track Scene. “Even I had worries (about driving for ACR) because when I came here, there would really be no excuses because this car is so good.

“If I couldn’t win in these, I didn’t know what I was going to be able to win in.”

In winning the race, after a day that went so smooth from start to finish, it also means this might not be the last time we see the two famous Florida short track racing families join forces again.

“I’m blessed to be a part of it,” Nasse said. “Hopefully we can race some more for the rest of the year, maybe even The Derby. I think we’d have a really good shot at it.”

Bubba Pollard, who finished second, struggled throughout the day and felt generally satisfied that he was able to close out on a runner-up.

“We really weren’t good all day,” Pollard said. “I think we got a bad set of tires, and that put us behind in practice. All we could do was unload and go to baseline, and that’s pretty much how we raced tonight. But it helps us a lot going into tomorrow. I think we learned some things that we can carry into tomorrow that can be big. We were off, but we’ll be back tomorrow and we’ll see.”

Jackson Boone charged from eigth to round out the podium. Along his way towards the front, Boone made contact with both the left rear and right rear quarter panels of Hunter Robbins’s car in an instance of hard racing.

This maneuver is what moved Boone into third place with Robbins fifth and a little peeve at the Fathead Racing driver.

Some notable drivers’ nights ended prematurely after a few incidents. The biggest occurrence was in the case of a multi-car wreck with 18 laps remaining, which started after the no. 58 of Johnny Aramendia spun in Turn 4. This caused the cars of Sheflon Clay and Travis Braden to also spin. Augie Grill could not stop in time, and he made hard contact with Sheflon, ending both of their nights.

A fourth-place finish, alongside winning the originally scheduled opening race of the PepperJack Kennels Twin 100 weekend, Jeremy Doss won a combined contest that will provide him free registration for the Snowball Derby, eight free pit passes for the week of the Snowball Derby, four sets of Hoosier racing tires, up to 25 gallons of Sunoco Racing fuel and eight all-inclusive VIP PepperJack Kennel Club credentials.

For Nasse, and back to the continued potential partnership in December, he already is putting those pieces together.

“Maybe we can come back and take back that trophy they stole from us.”

Southern Super Series American Welding Society 100
Five Flags Speedway
September 22 2023

1. Stephen Nasse
2. Bubba Pollard
3. Jackson Boone
4. Jeremy Doss
5. Hunter Robbins
6. Travis Braden
7. Michael Hinde
8. Jace Hansen
9. Matt Craig
10. Jake Finch
11. Gio Ruggiero
12. Jesse Love
13. Daniel Webster
14. Colin Allman
15. Kole Raz
16. Jordon Riddick
17. Billy VanMeter
18. Eddie MacDonald
19. Johnny Aramendia
20. Tony Elrod
21. Dustin Smith
22. Michael Atwell
23. Augie Grill
24. Sheflon Clay
25. John Bolen
26. Lee Tissot
27. Jett Noland
28. Dawson Fletcher
29. Terry McMahan

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