Bubba Pollard Sweeps Rattler Weekend

There is no doubt still some lingering disappointment from Bubba Pollard after everything that transpired last weekend in the ASA STARS opener at Five Flags Speedway but a clean sweep of Rattler weekend at South Alabama Speedway at least cleansed the palette.

Pollard won on Saturday night in the Pro Late Model Baby Rattler for Jett Motorsports and then followed it up in his own Super Late Model in the $25,000 to win Rattler 250 promoted by the SRL National Tour.

It took three days to rebuild and reclip the iconic No. 26 after it was wiped out in an incident with Casey Roderick while leading the Sunshine State 200 at Five Flags Speedway last Saturday night.

“Senneker Race Cars are the truth,” Pollard said in Victory Lane. “Ain’t nothing better than a Senneker Race Car. We had a hard week. We had to clip this thing and put it back together in three days. It was a lot of damn work.”

It took some time, but the No. 26 didn’t come to life immediately, as it qualified 15th and ran around there throughout the first half.

“We weren’t riding,” Pollard said. We had a terrible car that first half. Maybe a bad set of tires but we kept coming in and made the right adjustments. We put some tires on it and were really good. The longer the run, the better it gets. It never loses turn, Keeps turning. Hell yeah.”

Meanwhile, seeking his fourth consecutive Rattler 250 win and fourth in a row, Ty Majeski started the race from the rear in pursuit of an extra $10,000 should he win the race, a practice referred to as The Ultimate Challenge.

That would have netted him $36,000 when accounting for his $1000 pole bonus too.

It took Majeski just 136 laps to get back to the front. He then drove away from Pollard on the final restart with 41 laps to go and looked to have The Ultimate Challenge completed. He ran into a bigger challenge in a pair of lap cars that held him up in different ways.

First came Brayton Laster with 22 laps to go, allowing Pollard to close the gap to the No. 91, and then came a stack-up behind Billy Van Meter that allowed the race to go side-by-side. Pollard completed the pass and held a stead lead over the remaining laps.

Majeski said only their respective cars decided the race.

“We weren’t quite as good as Bubba on the long run there,” Majeski said. “When he got into second, he was probably pushing pretty hard and he made his car last a little longer so congratulations to him. Disappointing. Wanted that Ultimate Challenge.

“Anytime we take the ultimate challenge, it seems like we always finish second. What a weekend to fly down from Atlanta, sit on the pole and lead the most laps.”

Majeski said leading so many laps from the rear of the field gave him a false sense of comfort. He didn’t make any significant changes to his car because he felt like he had the field covered.

“We were both going as hard as we could there and he just made his car last a little bit longer,” Majeski said. “I just needed to be better at the halfway break. I feel like I was just a little to gun shy on the changes we needed to make. I didn’t think anyone had anything for us at that point.”

Pollard knew though.

“Before that last restart, he could run a half tenth faster than we could,” Pollard said. “I knew that’s all he had and really, that’s all we had, but I knew our car would last. He got a good jump on the restart, but this car made it happen.”

Jeremy Doss finished third, with Jett Noland and Michael Atwell completing the podium.

It was a competitive race throughout the field on a lively American Racer tire. There were numerous lead changes early in the race as Majeski made his way towards the front. Justin Mondeik, Jeremy Doss and Hunter Robbins shared the lead early.

Robbins very well looked capable of racing for the win too before the engine expired on the Ronnie Sanders Racing No. 18.

There were not a lot of significant crashes in the event with most incidents being for one or two car spins and none towards the front of the field.

47th Rattler 250 presented by SRL National
South Alabama Speedway
March 18 2023

1. Bubba Pollard
   2. Ty Majeski
   3. Jeremy Doss
   4. Jett Noland
   5. Michael Atwell
   6. Gio Ruggiero
   7. Jesse Love
   8. Jake Finch
   9. Johnny Sauter
   10. Timothy Watson
   11. Colin Allman
   12. Michael Hinde
   13. Augie Grill
   14. Colin Garrett
   15. Billy VanMeter
   16. Brayton Laster
   17. John DeAngelis
   18. Tony Elrod
   19. Steve Dorer
   20. Justin Mondeik
   21. Michael Goddard
   22. Austin Nason
   23. Zach Telford
   24. Chris Davidson
   25. Hunter Robbins
   26. Nicholas Naugle
   27. Blaine Rocha
   28. Hunter Wright
   29. Dustin Smith
   30. Nick Neri
   31. Dusty Williams

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