January 20, 2024

A bitter end to 2023 left a bad taste in Bubba Pollard’s mouth, but that taste was much sweeter this weekend – about as sweet as the watermelon that Pollard smashed after emerging victorious in this year’s SpeedFest at Watermelon Capital Speedway.

After having a Snowball Derby victory taken from him just barely over a month ago, Pollard rebounded to start 2024 off with a victory in the Southern Super Series season opener. Pollard’s win came after a late-race pass on Stephen Nasse, who opted to stay out during the final wave of pit stops in which Pollard took fresh tires.

With the triumph, Pollard now becomes the winningest driver in SpeedFest history, with four wins overall. Pollard has also won the last three runnings of the race consecutively. With his many years of success at Cordele, Pollard has grown a special relationship with his home track away from home.

“I’ve been racing here for 24 years,” Pollard told Liberty Racing Review. “Signing in at the ticket booth, the same lady signed me in when I was 12 years old, so that’s pretty cool. The biggest thing here is that you can run multiple lanes around this place and it makes some great racing.”

Pollard now kicks off his 2024 Southern Super Series campaign with the points lead, and with his momentum and attitude right now, he is going to be a hard man to beat. Pollard is hopeful of more success but knows the competiton will be stout along the way.

“I feel like we ended the year strong at the Derby. We got fast race cars, we just gotta keep it going and keep working hard. Everybody’s so close nowadays, it’s hard to get an edge over somebody. The little stuff that you’ve got, you don’t want to give it away. We’re fighting tenths and thousandths of a second.”

SpeedFest ’24 Super Late Model Results:

1. Bubba Pollard
2. Stephen Nasse
3. Casey Roderick
4. Dawson Sutton
5. Gio Ruggiero
6. Michael Hinde
7. Jett Noland
8. Cole Butcher
9. Matt Craig
10. Timothy Watson
11. Michael Atwell
12. Billy VanMeter
13. Derek Kraus
14. Jake Finch
15. Daniel Webster
16. Dustin Smith -1 lap
17. Brandon Jones -1 lap
18. Steve Dorer -1 lap
19. Stuart Dutton -3 laps
20. Tony Elrod -3 laps
21. Michael Goddard -15 laps
22. Hudson Halder -30 laps
23. Collin Allman -48 laps
24. Anthony Cataldi -91 laps
25. Dave Farrington -117 laps
26. Josh Berry -125 laps
27. Connor Okrzesik -126 laps
28. Jake Garcia -138 laps

In addition to the ASA Southern Super Series / ASA CRA Super Series event, the JEGS CRA All-Stars Tour held a 100-lapper for the Pro Late Models.

After a mid-race crash that took out then leader Augie Grill, Stephen Nasse would take the lead from Ross Chastain and never look back. Chastain would cross the line in 2nd, with young gun George Phillips rounding out the podium in 3rd.

With Stephen Nasse’s victory, his year-long struggles with his family racing team have seemed to dispersed. Nasse has found solid success with his partnership with Anthony Campi Racing on the SLM side of things, but it will be interesting to follow his family program and see how it fares in 2024.

Ross Chastain was by far one of the premier stars of the weekend, with his sponsor, The Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, helping to sponsor the event as well. Chastain stated earlier in the weekend that he “had no clue what he was doing”, but after a 13-year gap in his late model resume, a 2nd place finish can’t feel too shabby.

Other SpeedFest feature winners:

Bandoleros – Gerald White III

Legends – Cale Hall