Simply put, Michael Atwell and crew chief Mike Garvey in the Chris Davidson No. 14 completely dominated the UARA Rattler 250 on Sunday afternoon at South Alabama Speedway.
They led every lap but one.
It was a de facto perfect race.
“I can’t give enough gratitude to the guys behind me and the guys on this team for giving me a great car,” said Atwell. “We went out there, just did our job. It doesn’t get much better than this kind of weekend. Pole, win, led every lap. That’s all we can ask for.”
It bested the 242 laps led performance that Ty Majeski and Toby Nuttleman delivered with their TOBYcar in 2016. In doing so, they join a pretty extensive list of short track greats to have posed with the Opp Rattlesnake in Victory Lane.
“Well, that’s a pretty good name to beat,” said Atwell. “Like I said, I couldn’t do it without these guys behind me working their tails off the whole weekend. We had some bad luck last year. So far this year, it’s been nothing but sunshine and rainbows, so hopefully we can keep it rolling.”
Atwell adds the Rattler 250 to a resume that includes two Bill Bigley, Sr. Memorials.
“This has got to be right up there,” said Atwell. “Winning a Bigley, winning two of them is really special just because I’m from Naples, where the Bigley family is from. We’re all friends, so winning that is a big deal.
“Standing here with Chris Davidson who’s got one, Mike Garvey, and all those guys this is pretty damn cool. Hopefully we can come back next year and get the 50th, too.”
Right from the start, Atwell lost two of his biggest challengers as Tony Elrod drove into the back of Bubba Pollard who bowling balled into Casey Roderick. Both champion contenders drove away but their cars were never the same and were not around at the finish.
A head gasket failure ultimately derailed Pollard in his debut for VanMeter Racing in a VanDoorn chassis.
Colin Allman spent all race inside of the top-5 and got one more opportunity to challenge Atwell on a restart with 17 laps to go but simply didn’t have enough.
I just missed my line too many times at the end there,” said Allman. “I was trying to do too much. His car was really good, man, they were fast. We could match lap times once we got rolling there. They fired off a little better than we did. When the time came to hit my marks and start reeling him in, I blew it.
“Second’s good for us, man. You see it, it’s me, my dad, my buddy Jacoby. It’s an ’06 Lefthander Chassis. Huge thank you to Racecar Engineering. We had a big wreck a couple of weeks ago and had to get the Pro car back together. They had everything we needed. Just wish we could have had it, but we’ll try again next year.”
Stephen Nasse completed the podium.
“I hate it for my guys,” said Nasse. “We really struggled all weekend, so this, to be honest, is a really good finish considering where we started. We pretty much struggled all race, but we were able to keep good track position. We never quit trying.”
The only other driver to lead a lap was Canadian racer Cory Hall, in the King Competition No. 83, who led one lap on a side-by-side battle off a restart on Lap 53.
Atwell earned $25,000 for the victory in addition to the $1000 earned for scoring pole position on Saturday. Allman scored $15,000 and Nasse earned $10,000. The race is in its third season of UARA National sanctioning — the series owned by promoter and inspector Ricky Brooks.
Pollard received a championship trophy for his accomplishments last season.
49th UARA Rattler 250
South Alabama Speedway
March 16 2025
- Michael Atwell
- Colin Allman
- Stephen Nasse
- Dustin Smith
- Dylan Bigley
- Kendrick Kreyer
- Cory Hall
- Timothy Watson
- Gabe Sommers
- Steve Dorer
- Daniel Webster
- Jake Finch
- Austin Nason
- Casey Roderick
- Michael Goddard
- Tony Elrod
- Justin Mondeik
- Michael Hinde
- Bubba Pollard
- Brey Holmes
- Nick Neri
