SATURDAY, JULY 14TH |
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Motor Mile PASS South SLM Top 3: 3rd
#31 Kyle Grissom (left),
1st #4
Jay Fogleman (middle), 2nd #26
Preston Peltier (right).
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Jay Fogleman Breaks
Through at
Motor Mile for His
First Win of 2012 |
Charlotte, NC 7/16/12- After dodging
rain showers during the day’s
practice session luck finally ran
out on PASS South Series officials
as showers came and washed out the
afternoon’s qualifying session. This
set up a rare occurrence for PASS
South competitors to take the green
based on current series points
standings, and scraped the normal
redraw of the top ten qualifiers to
take the green flag. This put leader
Brandon Ward on the pole with second
place man Kyle Grissom to his
outside for the initial start. Ward
picked up right where he left off at
Anderson two weeks earlier taking
command of the lead on lap one.
While it was Ward who took the lead
young John Hunter Nemechek, son of
NASCAR driver Joe Nemechek, was the
car on the move through the first
portion of the 150 lap event. The
fourteen year old driver making his
PASS South super late model debut
picked up five positions moving from
thirteenth to eighth in just the
first twelve circuits around to high
banked Virginia track.
Ward
lead the next fifty-four laps with
Grissom glued to his bumper often
making contact with his #62 machine
through the tight turns. Finally
with the pair hitting lap traffic
Grissom gave the nudge to the two
time winner Ward and then ducked to
the bottom to take the lead. Grissom
spent the next eighty laps opening a
straightaway lead over the rest of
the field picking his way through
lapped traffic. Ross Kenseth who has
struggled as of late looked to be on
his way back to the top five
finishing order when smoke began to
puff from the rear of his Blain’s
Farm & Fleet machine through the
turns beginning on lap sixty-one
while running fourth. The problem
then went from bad to worse as he
was forced off the pace several laps
later and then went slipping through
the field before eventually
finishing in the seventh position.
As the lap counter hit triple
digits Grissom looked to be on his
way to another win as the field
stayed clean and green allowing his
lead to grow with each passing lap.
Finally on lap 104 a fading Brandon
Ward forced several drivers doing
all they could to get around him for
the fifth place position to check up
hard. The result was a blown tire
for John Hunter Nemechek that sent
him hard into the outside wall
coming out of turn four ending the
streak of green flag racing. The
yellow wiped away Grissom’s lead and
put both Fogleman and Peltier on his
rear bumper battling for the lead as
the field resumed green flag racing.
That was all that Jay needed to
put his machine on the apron of the
turn at the Motor Mile Speedway
where no one else could which lead
to the Durham, North Carolina driver
taking over the lead on lap 136.
Veteran Preston Peltier made things
interesting in the closing laps
after following Fogleman’s pass
around Grissom moving from third to
second, and attempting on several
occasions to take his #26 Johnson
Motorsports owned machine to the
high side for the win before
settling for the runner up spot.
Grissom held on for a solid third
place finish that was good enough
for the super late model rookie to
regain the championship points over
fellow contender Brandon Ward.
Next up for the “THE BIG BOYS
AND THEIR BAD FAST TOYS” PASS South
Super Late Model Series will be the
return to the always popular Orange
County Speedway located in
Rougemont, North Carolina for the
Southern Sizzler 150 on Saturday
night July 28th. |
OFFICIAL PASS SOUTH SLM
RESULTS
Motor Mile Speedway - 7/14/12 |
1)
#4 - Jay Fogleman
2) #26 - Preston Peltier
3)
#31 - Kyle Grissom
4) #29 - Landon Cling
5) #2 - Gray Gaulding
6) #19 - Nate Caruth
7) #25 - Ross Kenseth |
8)
#62 - Brandon Ward
9) #70 - Steven Burgh Jr.
10) #18 - Bill Catania
11) #12 - Scott Hensley
12) #48 - John Batten
13) #8 - John Hunter
Nemecheck
14) #42 - Tim Pinion |
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Entries Received - Motor Mile - 7/14 | |
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