Bubba Pollard made the 2,212-mile trip from his hometown of Senoia, Ga. to Bakersfield, Ca. for the Winter Showdown at Kern County Raceway Park this past weekend, and he certainly made the trip worthwhile.
Pollard started second, but finished one spot better to take home the inaugural Winter Showdown trophy and the big $25,000 check.
"These big races seem to bite me," said Pollard. "This weekend I took a different approach and I didn't consider it a big race even though it was. I felt confident when we got here. I felt calm."
Pollard ran behind pole sitter Derek Thorn for much of the first half of the race, but he didn't feel any urgency to make a move until after the midway break.
"We followed him for the first half of the race," he said. "I wanted to see what it was going to take to pass him. Our car, when we tucked in right behind him, I feel like we had a better race car there but we couldn't make the pass. I felt like we had to make some adjustments at the break to make it possible."
It was clear that the changes Pollard and his team made during the break worked because he was able to get by Thorn for the lead and eventual win, even though he had to deal with a late-race caution.
"It's nothing new for me," Pollard said. "A thousand things start running through your mind. I knew I had to get a good restart."
Pollard said his life was made easy this weekend thanks to a fast race car right from the start.
"My guys gave me a fast race car when we unloaded," said Pollard. "I can't thank those guys enough. It's tough for them to come across (the country) and travel with us. It's all volunteer guys, so I can't thank them enough."
Dalton Sargeant finished in second, with Thorn in third, Blaine Rocha in fourth and Preston Peltier in fifth.
Kern County Raceway Park - Bakersfield, CA
Winter Showdown - March 1, 2015
1. Bubba Pollard
2. Dalton Sargeant
3. Derek Thorn
4. Blaine Rocha
5. Preston Peltier
6. Dustin Ash
7. Colby Potts
8. Linny White
9. Toni Mccray
10. Bobby Hodges
11. Jeremy Doss
12. Noah Gragson
13. Darrell Midgley
14. Dominic Ursetta
15. Christian Mcghee
16. Greg Voigt
17. David Mayhew
18. Tracy Bolin
19. Jacob Gomes
20. Will Gallaher
21. Brandon White
22. Jonathan Gomez
23. Donny St Ours
24. M.K. Kanke
25. Ryan Wells
26. David Ross
27. Chris Eggleston
28. Carlos Vieria
29. Jim Pettit
30. Johnny White
31. Jason Fraser
32. Darren Bucklen
33. Scott Walker
34. Mike Longton
35. Eric Schmidt
36. Keith Spangler
Thursday
April 24th, 2025
11:45PM
