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TJ Reaid Takes Southern Super Series Win at Five Flags Speedway
Reaid Inherits the Lead after Pollard Accident to Earn the Victory
TJ Reaid fought off two late re-start challenges from Chris Davidson to win the Rubber & Specialties 125 presented by Crane Cams at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL.
“That was awesome. We have had really good cars here before and wasn’t able to put one together for the win,” Reaid said in victory lane. “After coming down to the Derby and running so strong and getting wrecked past halfway, this means a lot. We are really looking forward to coming back the rest of the season.”
Reaid inherited the lead on lap 121 after Bubba Pollard, who was the leader, made contact with the lap car of Wayne Niedecken Jr. in turns three and four sending Pollard to the outside wall.
Pollard was visibly upset and walked back to his trailer after being the class of the field and leading most of the event along with setting a new track record earlier in the evening.
“This is a major disappointment,” Pollard said. “We had a strong car all night and to have this happen with less than five laps remaining, I don’t know what to say.”
With Reaid in the lead, he had Chris Davidson alongside him on the re-start. A lap after the green flag waived, Ross Kenseth made contact with the inside wall after he and Augie Grill made contact on the frontstretch.
Reaid and Davidson had to do it again after Augie Grill spun the next re-start.
On the final re-start, Reaid got a good jump on Davidson and pulled away to the checkered flag.
“We were pretty good at the beginning, but the car kept shutting off on me in the first half. We had a fuel pickup issue that we fixed at the break,” Davidson said afterwards. “The car got real tight in the second half. Second place is probably better than what we deserve.”
Davidson was asked if he thought he had anything for Reaid at the final re-start. “I thought we did, but we were so bad tight that if we weren’t going to beat him at the start, we weren’t going to beat him.”
Casey Smith came home with a third place finish.
“We just marched right to the front in the first half. The car was turning really good except for the drive off the corners,” Smith said. “We made a couple of adjustments at the break to try to get more drive off and it killed me in the center. I wish I didn’t do that because we could have probably ran second. Nobody had anything for the 41 (Reaid) and 26 (Pollard). “
Daniel Hemric, who was the leader at the lap 75 break, finished fourth.
With his fourth place finish, Hemric is now the Southern Super Series point leader.
David Rogers finished fifth.
Kyle Benjamin was sixth with John Hunter Nemechek finishing seventh. Mike Garvey was eighth and Augie Grill was ninth. Scotty Ellis rounded out the top ten.
Pollard got the night rolling as he shattered the old track record of 16.290 with a new record time of 16.145 on his first lap of qualifying.
Reaid also qualified under the old track record with a time of 16.213. Stephen Nasse was third with a time of 16.396. Hemric was fourth with a time of 16.412 with Davidson rounding out the top-five with a time of 16.413.
The field was separated by 0.865 seconds.
The Southern Super Series presented by Sunoco will be in action Saturday night, May 25, in the second half of the Gulf Coast Doubleheader weekend at Mobile International Speedway in Alabama. The 125-lap event will be a points-paying race for not only the Southern Super Series, but also the track’s Miller Lite Super Late Model series and the overall Sunoco Gulf Coast Championship, which combines track points from Mobile and Five Flags from the tracks’ eight combined events.
For more information on the Southern Super Series, visit SouthernSuperSeries.com. The Facebook page for the Southern Super Series is located at www.facebook.com/southernsuperseries and on Twitter it’s @SoSuperSeries. For advertising or sponsorship questions, please contact the track representatives. For media inquiries, please contact Matt Kentfield at 51 Sports via matt@51sports.net.
SOUTHERN SUPER SERIES
RUBBER & SPECIALTIES 125
Five Flags Speedway
May 24, 2013
Official Results
Pos.
No.DriverLaps
No.DriverLaps141TJ Reaid125
41TJ Reaid125214Chris Davidson125
14Chris Davidson125399Casey Smith125
99Casey Smith125498Daniel Hemric125
98Daniel Hemric125511David Rogers125
11David Rogers125671Kyle Benjamin125
71Kyle Benjamin12578John Hunter Nemechek125
8John Hunter Nemechek12581Mike Garvey125
1Mike Garvey1259112Augie Grill125
112Augie Grill1251083Scotty Ellis125
83Scotty Ellis125117Casey Roderick125
7Casey Roderick1251226Willie Allen125
26Willie Allen1251351Stephen Nasse125
51Stephen Nasse125142Donnie Wilson124
2Donnie Wilson1241510Ryan Crane123
10Ryan Crane1231625Ross Kenseth122
25Ross Kenseth1221726Bubba Pollard120
26Bubba Pollard1201899Wayne Niedecken Jr.118
99Wayne Niedecken Jr.1181921Scott Carlson88
21Scott Carlson882029Jeff Choquette88
29Jeff Choquette882198Russell Fleeman87
98Russell Fleeman872241Troy Grisaffi86
41Troy Grisaffi862347Allen Karnes61
47Allen Karnes612411Logan Boyett36
11Logan Boyett362516Brandon Odom19
16Brandon Odom192618Hunter Robbins7
18Hunter Robbins72786Chet Morrison7
86Chet Morrison72823Dalton Grindle4
23Dalton Grindle4May 25, 2013
