It wasn’t pretty, but Casey Roderick wrote a fresh page of racing history in winning the inaugural ASA National Tour asphalt Super Late Model event on Saturday night at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida.
The Lawrenceville, Georgia native survived a slew of caution flags and led the final 28 laps to record the victory and pocket a $20,000 payday.
“We weren’t the greatest tonight, but we got better as the night went on,” Roderick said. “The car was really good in the last segment.”
The 200 lap feature was divided into three stages and awarded bonus points for stage winners, individual laps led and most laps led among other achievements.
Roderick finished fifth in the first two stages, saving his best for last. However, the win didn’t come without some controversy. Roderick was battling Senoia, Georgia’s Bubba Pollard, who had won the second stage of the event, for the lead.
Roderick fell in line behind Pollard on the restart and stayed glued to his bumper as they barreled into turn 3. Roderick admittedly got too close exiting turn 4 and nudged Pollard enough to send him spinning in front of the start-finish line.
“I owe him a big apology,” a shaken Roderick admitted in victory lane. “It was not intentional. I don’t like winning like that. I wanted to race him for the win the last few laps. It’s a bad deal. I had a good run off fourth and I just misjudged it.
“I hate winning ’em like this. I would’ve much rather race him and put on a good show for the fans than something like that.”
The excitement bled over to the tech shed, when fisticuffs broke out between Pollard and Roderick. They were quickly separated by track and series officials.
Roderick qualified fourth, but started eighth after the redraw. He quickly climbed into the top-five and stayed there all evening, running his best laps as the race wore on and watching contenders fall by the wayside because of attrition — the second stage alone saw 10 cautions.
“We’ve got a good program and got some momentum,” Roderick said. “But I hate it went down like this. It’s over and done with it for now.”
Jeremy Doss finished in second, with Ty Majeski in third, Cole Butcher in fourth, and Carson Hocevar in fifth.
Gabe Sommers, Austin Nason, Jacob Gomes, John Bolen, and Matthew Craig rounded out the top 10.
The race was plagued by yellow flags, with 16 caution periods coming out during the event. Of the 35 starters, only 17 were still running at the end.
The ASA STARS National Tour takes a month off before the next race on Sunday, May 7 at Wisconsin’s Madison International Speedway. For more information, visit STARSNationalTour.com.
ASA STARS National Tour
Five Flags Speedway – Pensacola, FL
Sunshine State 200* – March 11, 2023
1. Casey Roderick
2. Jeremy Doss
3. Ty Majeski
4. Cole Butcher
5. Carson Hocevar
6. Gabe Sommers
7. Austin Nason
8. Jacob Gomes
9. John Bolen
10. Matthew Craig
11. Michael Hinde
12. Dan Frederickson
13. Blaine Rocha
14. Billy VanMeter
15. Gio Ruggiero
16. Jake Finch
17. Albert Francis
18. Hunter Robbins-DNF
19. Bubba Pollard-DNF
20. Preston Peltier-DNF
21. Derek Kraus-DNF
22. Dakota Stroup-DNF
23. Derek Thorn-DNF
24. Timothy Watson-DNF
25. Ryan Moore-DNF
26. Jett Noland-DNF
27. Tony Elrod-DNF
28. Stephen Nasse-DNF
29. Michael Bilderback-DNF
30. Connor Okrzesik-DNF
31. Grant Enfinger-DNF
32. Boris Jurkovic-DNF
33. Dustin Smith-DNF
34. Ryan Luza-DNF
35. Kyle Bryant-DNF
*Unofficial Results
http://accesswdun.com/article/2023/3/1172916/roderick-takes-inaugural-asa-stars-win-at-five-flags