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Brent
Nelson Winner, Todd Peck Champion in Night of Firsts at Motordrome
The
last event of the 2013 Super Cup Stock Car Series season had some
pivotal moments deciding the champion Friday night.
Smithton, Pennsylvania’s Motordrome Speedway hosted the
series finale for the second straight year for the running of the
Boschett Timepieces 50 presented by Croushore’s Championship
Demolition Derbies.
The
last two cars in the qualifying order set the stage for the fastest
time. Jody
Harrison looked to be on his way to another pole and five crucial
bonus points, but it was June Motordrome winner J.J. Pack that was
the last car to go out and claimed his first career pole award with
a time of 19.67 seconds.
The
invert was a five which gave Petersburg, West Virginia’s Brent
Nelson the opportunity to set the pace for the first time in his
Super Cup career.
In regards to the championship battle, it put Jim Crabtree
Jr. on the outside of the front row while Todd Peck had to start in
third position.
Jim
Crabtree Jr. cleared Brent Nelson from the outside, went on to lead
the early laps and gained five points toward the championship.
On the next lap Jody Harrison worked his way around the
outside of Nelson for second and set his sights on the leader.
Ten laps in, Harrison was all over Crabtree’s back bumper
and used the outside groove to work his way around him for the lead.
The
first caution of the evening flew on lap 18 when first-time Super
Cup racer Chris Wenzel looped his machine in turn one.
This minor caution set up the major turning point in the
race.
Harrison
was slow on the restart and bunched up the field.
By the time he got going, Crabtree was already there and the
two made contact sending Crabtree hard into the inside pit wall
before coming to a rest in turn one.
Both drivers were okay, but their cars and championship hopes
were done for the night.
Harrison admitted after the race that he made a rookie
mistake and missed a shift coming to the green.
Brent
Nelson would inherit the lead back and Todd Peck, who had been
riding in fourth, was now second and pretty much only needed to
finish the remainder of the race to capture the championship.
Nelson pulled ahead, while J.J. Pack pressured Peck for
second.
Shortly
after halfway Peck let Pack by for second, but there was a lot of
ground to be made up in order to catch the leader.
Pack did just that and caught Nelson in the closing laps;
however, he was never quite able to challenge for the lead and
Nelson held on for his first career Super Cup victory.
Nelson,
who has been competing with the series since 2010, explained the
closing laps:
“I
wasn’t nervous at all actually.
My spotter was telling me where to go and I knew they were
behind me. We
left them that way.
This was the first pole. First win.
It can’t get any better than this.”
J.J.
Pack finished second in a season where he didn’t finish worse than
third in four starts.
Todd Peck’s third place finish was more than enough to
claim his first Super Cup Stock Car Series championship.
When asked how much it meant to him to be champion, here’s
what he had to say:
“It’s
incredible.
We’ve run this series four or five years now and been so
close so many times, and we finally just got the job done this year.
It feels awesome to race with these guys and the caliber of
racers that the series has right now, to be the champion really
means a lot to me.
It’s big.”
Despite
his night ending early, Jim Crabtree Jr. managed to end the season
just one point ahead of Kevin Kromer in the final standings.
Kromer has continued his streak of consistency, which
includes top fives in the final finishing order in every race dating
back to the second event of the 2012 season.
Additional
awards handed out at the post-season banquet following the race
included the Rookie of the Year going to Codie Rohrbaugh, Charlie
Canterbury Hard Charger to J.P. Crabtree III, Most Improved Driver
to Kyle Kromer and Sportsman of the Year to Peck Motorsports team
owner Dr. Michael Peck.
For
the second year in a row, sponsor Boschett Timepieces provided
watches to each of the past series
race
winners in attendance.
Stay
tuned to www.supercupstockcarseries.com
and follow the Super Cup Stock Car Series Facebook page (facebook.com/SCSCSRacing)
for information regarding the 2014 season and more “Racin’ the
way it used to be.”
Click
here for Race Results
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