9/24/2023
Five Flags Speedway
Pollard Wins Blizzard; Doss is Blizzard Champ; Ruggiero is SSS Champ
Official finishes on our web site:
https://www.5flagsspeedway.com/schedules/event/443484
Bubba Back on Top, Captures 24th Career Blizzard Win; PLMs Crown Champ in Dramatic Fashion
By Chuck Corder
5flagsspeedway.com reporter
Bubba Pollard’s standards are higher than any other driver’s.
They must be when you have won more than 100 Late Model races in your decorated career. Finishing second in Friday night’s American Welding Society 100 at Five Flags Speedway didn’t sit right with the Senoia, Ga., short-track racing icon. Where other drivers might’ve been tickled with a runner-up, it left a sour taste in Pollard’s mouth. He came back motivated and inspired Saturday on Night 2 of the Late Model Championship Weekend.
Pollard captured the Deep South Cranes 100 on Saturday in fitting style to close the regular season at Five Flags before the 56th Annual Snowball Derby in December. He added win No. 24 to his record for Blizzard Series victories and ended a nine-race Blizzard drought. Pensacola’s Hunter Robbins and Tennessee driver Jackson Boone finished second and third, respectively.
“We were terrible (Friday),” Pollard said. “We got behind in practice. So, we worked on it today and changed everything to find what we liked. Now, we’re back to where we’re used to being.
“It was a good race and a great weekend. I wanted this one bad. We haven’t won much here in recent years, and this is a place I love and call home.”
His legion of fans went wild with jubilation when the white-and-red No. 26 flew by the flagstand as the checkered flag wave. The excited crowd’s roar echoed like a stadium packed with crazed college football fans.
Pollard started third and sat second for 20 rotations of the famed half-mile asphalt oval until getting around Boone on Lap 63. He survived one caution with ease and let his fellow drivers battle it out with a pair of championship scenarios on the line Saturday.
“These races are giant chess matches,” Robbins said. “It’s tough. You don’t know if it’s gonna be green (flags) all the way or 10 cautions. We just needed a little bit more tonight.”
Both Jeremy Doss and Gio Ruggiero had enough to clinch titles.
Doss finished eighth. That was more than good enough for the California driver to lock up his first career Deep South Cranes Blizzard Series track championship at Pensacola’s high banks.
“This feels really special,” Doss said. “It’s our first time running the whole series. It’s cool to run consistent against the guys and pick up championship win. It means a lot. I’m looking forward to the Derby.”
Ruggiero finished fourth to secure the title for the Southern Super Series, which races at the south’s most iconic short tracks.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “These guys work so hard. It’s our first full year in a Super Late Model and we pulled off a championship.”
Allen Turner Hyundai Pro Late Models
Fans only needed the edge of their seats Saturday night at Five Flags Speedway.
Night 2 of the Night of Champions Late Model Weekend strapped the Five Flags faithful to a roller coaster in the form of the Allen Turner Hyundai Pro Late Models’ season finale. Two storylines played out throughout the 100-lap feature: The race itself, which was a doozy in itself, and the track championship.
Three different men held the track title in their hands throughout the 100-lapper until finally one driver separate himself seven laps from the checkered flag. Jackson Boone wasn’t one of them, but that didn’t matter to the 23-year-old Tennessee wheelman.
Boone slid past Dawson Sutton in the final five laps and recorded his second PLM victory this year at Pensacola’s high banks. It was also Boone’s fifth PLM win overall this season.
“Everyone has done a great job putting this rocket ship together,” an exuberant Boone said in Victory Lane. “We struggled in practice trying a bunch of stuff. But this team prevailed because this team is stubborn. That’s what makes you resilient.”
Sutton, the polesitter and led the first 95 ovals, finished a bittersweet runner-up. Sweet in the impressive result for another two-time winner at Five Flags in 2023. Bitter because Sutton was one of the aforementioned drivers who lost out on the crown unfortunately. He had to make up more than 25 points on points leader Dylan Fetcho when the sun rose Saturday and Sutton nearly pulled it off by night’s end after Fetcho crashed 24 laps from his second straight Allen Turner Hyundai PLM track championship.
Instead, Fetcho’s demise was John Bolen’s ascension. Bolen’s fifth-place finish clinched the crown by five points over Sutton. It marks Bolen’s first career track title at Five Flags.
“It feels great,” Bolen said. “We’ve been at it a long time. To finally put together a solid run and a solid season, it’s definitely special. We’re just a family team, but these guys put a lotta work into it.”
Gavan Boschele, Sutton’s teammate, came home third.
Fetcho led Bolen by 16 points after qualifying where Boone was fastest and the only driver to get into the 16s (16.957 seconds). Feature points are awarded in two-point increments, so Fetcho had to finish at least seven spots ahead of Bolen to secure outright two titles in a row, a feat only done by three other drivers at Five Flags (D.J. VanderLey, Casey Roderick, Chris Davidson).
However, Fetcho quickly began leaking spots after the halfway mark. He was ninth on Lap 75 when a line of cars, including, approached his back bumper. As they began to freight train him, Fetcho spun on his own between Turn Nos. 1 and 2, crashing into the outside wall.
With Sutton leading the race, he had to finish six spots ahead of Bolen to pull off the unthinkable and steal the championship.
It would’ve happened if not for Bolen’s agile move on Lap 82 when two cars spun directly in front of him. Seth Christensen and Paul Shaffer were battling door-to-door and roughed each other up, as they both went around less than three car-lengths in front of Bolen. Bolen woah-ed up, let the two cars split and darted to daylight.
“It was tight moment,” Bolen said of his championship move. “I would’ve got ’em anyway.”
Sutton was dejected in Victory Lane, but motivated to get redemption at the Allen Turner Hyundai Snowflake 100 in December.
“It’s crazy,” he said. “We led a buncha laps, which is great. We’ll come back for the ’Flake and go after that one.”
Modifieds of Mayhem
Quiet and reserved, Cody Stickler casts an unassuming shadow outside of the open-wheel car he pilots.
Get him behind the wheel of the No. 46 Modified, though, and the Pinellas Park driver is a stone cold killer. Stickler hasn’t lost in all six Modifieds of Mayhem races in 2023. A $1,500 bounty to dethrone him not only went uncollected Saturday night at Five Flags, but it was never in the picture.
Sticker extended his undefeated streak Saturday night at Five Flags, dominating both qualifying and the Beach Ball 50. That has been the hotshoe’s m.o. all year. But underappreciating this incredible ride would be doing a disservice to both Sticker and his dynamite team.
“The car has been great,” a subdued Stickler said in Victory Lane. “We’re fast anywhere we go.”
Veteran Jeff Letson finished runner-up and Jeremy Williams rounded out the podium in third.
Stickler, once again, left no doubt Saturday. He qualified fastest (17.746 seconds), but started second after the redraw. Stickler took the lead from polesitter Memphis Villarreal on the opening lap and sailed away from the rest of the 12-car field.
Stickler has now won four consecutive features at Five Flags, including the Modifieds edition of the Snowball Derby last December.
“He’s got an awesome car,” Letson said, “but we’ve got hard-working guys on my car, too. The car ran a lot better than it has in a while. We’ll keep working on it.”
