Florida race fans were treated to a special Father’s Day weekend at Volusia Speedway Park with large car counts among four divisions Saturday night.
604 Late Models – featuring a $3,000 payday – 602 Late Models, 3/4 Modifieds and Thunder Stocks highlighted the night’s action and saw Bubba Roling, Timmy Hogan, Mark Whitener and Blake Clouser walk away victorious.
602 Late Models
Pole-sitter Bubba Roling brought the field to green with Brandon Yates to his outside and Kal VanSickle, the 602 Late Model Points Leader, behind.
Following a few cautions early in the race, Roling, on Lap 5, hit the hammer on the single file restart, creating some cushion for the lead. However, the gap Roling created began to close as Donnie Chappell cut tenths out of his lead lap after lap.
Chappell’s chase ended soon after, though, suffering an issue and having to retire from the race.
Roling looked to be on cruise control to the win with eight laps to go, before a caution brought the field back to his bumper on Lap 19.
On the green and white flag, Roling got a good jump and held off Yates long enough to take the checkered flag.
“The cautions really scared me,” Roling said. “I had my spotter telling me where I needed to be at, so I just tried to hit my marks and stay out in front.”
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 515-Bubba Roling[1]; 2. 53-Brandon Yates[2]; 3. 42-Josh Byrd[5]; 4. 28-Austin Leamon[7]; 5. 01-Fletcher Mason[11]; 6. 9A-Austin Lewis[14]; 7. 1T-Tanner Thomas[19]; 8. 71-Davey Cline[6]; 9. 35-Justin Dean[12]; 10. 31-Donnie Birdwell[23]; 11. 57-Chris Hunter[9]; 12. 44-Billy Rodriguez[15]; 13. 21S-Shayne Dayhaw[22]; 14. 3K-Kale VanSickle[4]; 15. 32D-Ty Dorn[21]; 16. 02-Sean Babcock[17]; 17. 25-Donnie Chappell[10]; 18. 17G-Nevin Gainey[8]; 19. 2B-Robert Brynteson[16]; 20. 32P-Jesse Powers[18]; 21. 44K-Troy Kidd[13]; 22. 3C-Cale Gilbert[20]; 23. (DQ) 15-Wyatt Gainey[3]
3/4 Modifieds
Colton Lane started pole in the 3/4 Modified Feature and charged ahead early on.
Tim Hogan chased him from second place but ended his chance for victory after spinning on his own and having to race from the back of the field.
After a single file restart with five laps to go, Lane recaptured a four-car length lead.
Behind him, Hogan was marching through the field, finding his way back into the top five. However, his mission was spoiled when Steven Powers overdrove Turn 3, spinning both cars and bringing out the caution with a couple laps remaining.
With two laps left, Lane missed a shift on the restart, giving Dustin Peterson a free pass on the inside. However, Lane caught a break as a yellow flag was brought out for an incident on the restart.
As the pace car turned off with two laps to go, Peterson was able to pass Lane with the checked flag in sight until he spun out in Turn 2. Hogan, who charged back to the front after spinning out, found himself sitting in first with two laps to go following another restart.
Hogan, after bouncing around the leader board, took home the checkered flag for the second straight week.
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 26-Timmy Hogan[2]; 2. 9-Logan Malone[7]; 3. 27-Steven Powers[3]; 4. 57-Ethyn Hwan[6]; 5. 23-Wray Shaffer[8]; 6. 57H-William Inabnett[9]; 7. 26L-Colton Lane[1]; 8. 51-Dustin Peterson[4]; 9. F5-Dustin Childers[10]; 10. 48-Rusty Young[5]; 11. 29-Nathyn Hwan[14]; 12. 117-Jesse Powers[15]; 13. 7-Chris Olmstead[11]; 14. 1-CR Hill[13]; 15. 59-Samara Hwan[12]; 16. (DNS) 32-Patrick Vareika
604 Late Models
With a $3,000 prize on the line, 24 drivers took their positions for a 25-lap duel around “The World’s Fastest Half Mile.”
Nevin Gainey got the jump at the start of the race but then found himself sandwiched between Bubba Roling and Mark Whitener going into Turn 1. Roling catapulted around Gainey on the outside of Turn 2 taking the lead.
Whitener, who was neck and neck with Roling, made a move on the inside to claim the lead on Lap 3.
With a two second lead over Gainey, Whitener found himself running into lap traffic just past the halfway point on Lap 13 before a yellow was brought out.
For the remainder of the race, Whitener led the field, unchallenged all the way to Victory Lane.
“The track widened out really, really, really good,” Whitener said. “I adjusted my race car the way I thought it need to … and I felt decent.”
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 5W-Mark Whitener[3]; 2. 25C-Donnie Chappell[9]; 3. 2-Trynt Lloyd[7]; 4. 74-Jason Garver[5]; 5. 5-Dustin Carter[8]; 6. 67-Garret Stewart[15]; 7. 721-Mikey Kopka[4]; 8. 44P-Kole Platt[12]; 9. 515-Bubba Roling[2]; 10. 29S-Cameron Saunders[6]; 11. 86-Kody Jett[23]; 12. 23K-Korbin Minchew[20]; 13. 07-Jeff Scofield[13]; 14. 23L-Lawton Minchew[16]; 15. 28-Austin Leamon[18]; 16. 07S-Tyler Scofield[19]; 17. 10S-Steve Shead[24]; 18. 139-Gordon Peck[22]; 19. 31S-Tim Swartz[17]; 20. 3K-Kale VanSickle[11]; 21. 71-Davey Cline[21]; 22. 07C-David Clegg[10]; 23. 54T-Tuck Trentham[14]; 24. (DQ) 17G-Nevin Gainey[1]
Thunder Stocks
The Thunder Stock Feature capped off the night and saw Tommy Hill in command for most of the Feature.
Blake Clouser became his fist challenger after Patrick Thomas and Jason Garver got together down the backstretch, allowing Clouser to dart by for second and close to Hill’s bumper once the caution came out.
On the restart, Clouser was caught in a battle for second with Thomas. But using the top side of the track, he rocketed ahead and set his sights on Hill. Diving low into Turn 1, Clouser snuck under Hill in Turn 2 and the two drivers drag raced down the backstretch. He moved Hill up the track going into Turn 3 and slid out of Turn 4 with the lead.
Once in the lead, Clouser stretched it every lap to the end, taking home the victory.
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 5-Blake Clouser[5]; 2. 25T-Patrick Thomas[3]; 3. 5H-Tommy Hill[1]; 4. 12-Curtis Spencer[6]; 5. 20-Justin Reynolds[8]; 6. 51-Kyle Peters[10]; 7. 00-Shaun Daugharty[9]; 8. 01-Jason Garver[4]; 9. 118-Ron Adams[14]; 10. 49-Josh Carter[7]; 11. 91-Nathan Peters[15]; 12. 6C-Corey Certain[11]; 13. 70D-Charlie Stone[18]; 14. 27-Jordan Strickland[16]; 15. 2E-Stacy Entwistle Jr[20]; 16. 32-Bradley Denham[12]; 17. 69-Derrick Wood[2]; 18. 12F-Danny Frye[13]; 19. 82D-David Cloer[17]; 20. (DNS) 118S-Donald Springer
UP NEXT: Racing at Volusia Speedway Park returns on Saturday, June 22, for Open Wheel Night. The weekend will feature Top Gun 360 Sprint Cars, DIRTcar UMP Modifieds, and 3/4 Modifieds. The pit gate and grandstand gate open at 4 p.m. (ET), with Hot Laps scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. EST.
Can’t make it? Watch all the action live on DIRTVision.
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