BRISTOL, Tenn. — Darrell Wallace Jr. took the lead prior to the end of the first segment and didn’t relinquish it again on his way to winning the RustyWallace.com 100 Super Late Model feature of the Short Track U.S. Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Travis Braden led the field to the green flag at 7:27 p.m. The lead went from him, to Chandler Smith and then to Darrell Wallace Jr., who took it from Smith exiting Turn 2 on lap 32 and held it through the end of the first segment on lap 51.
Nobody had anything for him in the final 49-lap segment as he drove into victory lane at Thunder Valley.
“I should start running these more often,” Wallace said. “This is a cool event put on by everyone at Bristol, Jerry (Caldwell) and his whole staff here. Just a really fun couple of weeks. Got to come up here and test last week and I think I was still catching my breath coming into this weekend. So these things are just so fast around here. We were just on a rail tonight. So that’s just hats off to everyone at Fathead Racing and JBL Racing.”
Jake Crum finishes second and Smith rounds out the podium.
Stephen Nasse and Stephen Wallace round out the top-five.
Garrett Jones, Cole Rouse, Tyler Ankrum, Chase Purdy and Kyle Plott round out the top-10.
In the Pro Late Model 100, Cole Williams outlasted a wreck-fest of a race to win.
“Man this is freaking awesome,” Williams exclaimed with joy. “This is definitely our biggest win for our career. These boys worked their butts off all weekend long and I knew that if we kept this nose clean, we’d have a shot at it. Of course we had to have flawless restarts, and we ended up having them.”
The most significant wreck was a nine-car wreck on just the second lap of the race in Turns 1 and 2.
The second major incident occurred on lap 46 when Eddie Fatscher dumped race leader Dillon Oliver going into Turn 1, who’s car got loose, then veered up into the outside wall and then hit inside pit road wall head-on. Oliver walked over to Fatscher’s pit stall, where a member of Fatscher’s team punched him in the face.
Myatt Snider closed out the evening winning the Late Model Stock 100 feature.
“It’s awesome,” Snider said of his victory. “I feel like we’ve been close to a CARS Tours win for the longest time now. Ever since we’ve started running this, we’ve been competitive. It’s been a tough road. We’ve had a lot problems, freak accidents. Stuff that just gets in the way. What better place for it to come at than Bristol.”
