Charlotte, NC 3/11/12- Last
season Preston Peltier didn’t win a
single race after being crowned the
PASS South Series champion at the
end of 2010. Saturday night as the
PASS South Series kicked off their
2012 season schedule at the Dillon
Motor Speedway in Dillon, South
Carolina that didn’t seem to matter
much, as he and his #26 Johnson
Motorsports team got back to victory
lane winning the 2012 South Carolina
Clash 150 and setting the tone for a
season long points battle.
Peltier, who took the green flag
from the fourteenth position, had
his work cut out for him early on
having missed out on the series
redraw of the top ten fastest cars
in qualifying to decide exact
starting positions. It was former
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
and new PASS South Series competitor
Craig Goess that set fast time
during qualifying, but managed to
pull #10 in the redraw, putting Jay
Fogleman and Brandon Ward on the
front row for the drop of the green.
The tough turn four at the
Dillon Motor Speedway quickly took a
bite out of the field just four laps
in with a six car incident just in
front of eventual winner Preston
Peltier, involving fast qualifier
Craig Goess, teammate Gray Gaulding,
Kevin Floars, and Clay Rogers; all
were done for the night. Ken Lilley
and Garrett Campbell were also
involved but managed to continue.
“You have no idea how close the
wreck at the beginning of the race
was for us. I could see it happening
because a lot of those guys were
racing really hard early on and you
just can’t do that especially off of
turn four. When it happened I saw a
hole open up and mashed the gas
hoping to make it through and we
did,” said Peltier.
Besides a
debris caution just a few laps
later, the field stayed clean and
green over the next seventy laps
allowing drivers to settle into race
mode. Brandon Ward in his #62
KPmoto.com Chevy Impala paced the
field early on before youngster
Steven Nasse took the top spot away
on lap thirty-two. Initially, the
quickest car on the move was the #66
of Steve Wallace after brake
problems plagued the team during
qualifying, resulting in a twentieth
place starting position. Wallace had
made his way inside the top ten just
as a lap eighty-eight caution for a
solo spin by Ken Lilley bunched the
field back together. During the
caution period Johnny Sauter’s #5
machine went up in smoke while in
the fourth position, ending what
could have been a good night in his
PASS South Series debut. The
double file restart allowed Ward,
Fogleman, Ben Rowe, and Peltier to
challenge Nasse for the top spot and
that’s exactly what they did, as a
bad restart by Nasse sent Ward to
the front. It didn’t take long for
the yellow to wave again for what
ended up being the final time of the
night. The final restart on lap 101
allowed Peltier to take the lead and
cruise to victory by nearly one
second over second place finisher
Jay Fogleman. Steven Nasse, PASS
North regular Ben Rowe, and Kyle
Grissom rounded out the top five.
“We gave away so many races last
year and I really felt bad for my
team. We all work so hard to get
this car ready every week. So to be
able to get a win in the first race
of 2012 feels awesome,” stated
Preston in victory lane.
Next
up for the “BAD BOYS WITH THE BAD
FAST TOYS” PASS South Super Late
Model Series will be the SoBo 150 at
the South Boston Speedway located in
South Boston, Virginia on Saturday
March 24th. For more information on
the PASS South Series or any of the
PASS sanctioned series visit
www.proallstarsseries.com.
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