Stephen Nasse had the field covered every which way on Sunday afternoon in the inaugural Mobile 300.
The race was noted by frequent lead changes after Donnie Wilson, the polesitter, fell out of the lead suddenly after lap 130, losing three spots. Wilson would never regain the territory he had dominated for so many laps, finishing in eighth place after being lapped twice.
That opened the door for Stephen Nasse to control the pace, and hold the lead for the majority of the remaining laps. In fact, every car all the way up to sixth place finished at least a lap down or more.
“I think we could have lapped the whole field,” Nasse said after the race. “If we wouldn’t have had that competition caution.”
That competition caution bunched the field back up while Nasse had cleared second place Bubba Pollard by more than six seconds at one point.
Pollard curiously fell back as well, hitting the wall at lap 125 but working his way back up to fifth quickly. With just 32 laps to go following that competition caution, Pollard and Nasse were side-by-side with Nasse ultimately pulling away and Pollard sliding back to fifth again before working his way to a third place finish.
Casey Roderick also experienced a similar story, coming back from being lapped to lead at lap 160, ultimately unable to hold off the top five finishers.
It was a banner day for Grand Bay native Connor Okrzesik who finished second, tied with his best ever Super Late Model finish, which happened in Montgomery earlier in 2018.
“It was a really exciting race,” said Okrzesik, who led midway through. “It was a really, really long race.”
He said holding on was good, but felt with just a little more power that he may have been able to duel Nasse at the end.
Nasse got out of his racecar and was immediately handed a phone, where he was able to talk to his two nephews for a brief moment via Facetime.
Before the Mobile 300, Nasse wasn’t sure what his car had in store.
“We couldn’t get it figured out for practice, but we threw something at it and did really well in qualifying,” said Nasse. “At the end there, it was awesome.”
Nasse says it gives him added confidence going into next weekend at the All-American 400 at Fairgrounds Speedway. As for the “Nasty Nasse,” he said it’s something he embraced after hearing some of the guys saying it.
Sunday marked the first time since the 1970s that 300 laps were run at Mobile International Speedway in Irvington, Alabama. A total of 14 Super Late Models began the race and 10 crossed the finish line with Nasse leading the way.
The complete results from the inaugural Mobile 300 can be found below.
- Stephen Nasse
- Connor Okrzesik
- Bubba Pollard
- Chris Davidson
- Corey Heim
- Casey Roderick
- Chandler Smith
- Donnie Wilson
- Steven Davis
- Allen Karnes
- Ryan Herbert
- Kyle Bryant
- Colton Nelson
- Brandon Herbert
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