April 28, 2024
In a wild ending to an already wild race, Cole Butcher bested his competitor Jake Finch by beating him to the checkered flag by a margin of only 0.002 seconds.
Butcher’s victory in Saturday’s ASA Southern Super Series feature at Mobile International Speedway concluded the Gulf Coast Doubleheader, which saw Stephen Nasse take the victory in Pensacola the night prior.
While the latter half of Saturday’s race had no shortage of spills and thrills, Butcher commended Jake Finch on a clean drive to the end on the final restart.
“I wasn’t sure what Jake was going to do,” said Butcher. “I wouldn’t be mad at all if he had ran me up the race track, but he didn’t. So thank you to him, it will be returned to him in the near future.”
“I didn’t have a really good race car, I probably had a seventh place race car honestly. Everything just went my way. Can’t thank Wilson Motorsports enough. We’ll move on to Hickory here in a couple weeks.”
Tire management proved to be crucial for Super Late Model teams on Saturday. Several competitors purposefully made only one qualifying lap to minimize wear, with Jeremy Doss not even putting forth a lap at all.
As a result, the first half of the Battle on the Bayou saw several comers and goers, with drivers intentionally falling back to save their Hoosier rubber for the end. While Jake Finch initially pulled away at the start, Billy VanMeter found himself up front at the lap 50 competition caution before ultimately becoming a victim of the harsh tire falloff.
“This place is so abrasive and the tires are so soft,” said Cole Butcher. “Just how it goes at these race tracks. We have so much horsepower with such little tire. Hoosier brought us a great tire and we can’t thank them enough.”
With several drivers making late-race charges, calamity was a frequent sight in the closing laps. With nine laps remaining, a Michael Hinde spin would be the catalyst for several more incidents.
Contact from Jeremy Doss would spin Stephen Nasse on the following restart, which would then be followed by a Bubba Pollard spin after contact from Jake Finch.
Stephen Nasse had rebounded from his earlier spin, working his way up to second position and once again being in contention for the win, but a shot from Casey Roderick would usurp Nasse’s run and set up the final restart.
The Southern Super Series moves on to Hickory Motor Speedway for the Tar Heel 250 in conjunction with the ASA STARS National Tour on Thursday, May 23rd.
Battle on the Bayou 100 Results:
- Cole Butcher
- Jake Finch
- Michael Hinde
- Jake Garcia
- Matt Craig
- Dustin Smith
- Billy VanMeter
- Casey Roderick
- Bubba Pollard
- Jett Noland
- Sean Hingorani
- Stephen Nasse -2 laps
- Connor Okrzesik -5 laps
- Jeremy Doss -5 laps
- Conner Sutton – DNS
Liberty Racing Review 
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