Jeff Choquette avoided trouble, including nine cautions in the final six laps that saw the leaders taken out of contention, to score the victory Sunday night in the SpeedFest 200 at Watermelon Capital Speedway. Photo by Brandon Reed
The SpeedFest 200 at Watermelon Capital Speedway in Cordele, GA rolled off at 4:45 pm Sunday, but it didn’t really begin until lap 195 – when the caution flag waved for the 17th time.
At that point, Chase Elliott led Erik Jones, Donnie Wilson, John Hunter Nemechek and Kyle Benjamin. None of those drivers finished in the top five.
In the end, Jeff Choquette outlasted 24 cautions and 31 competitors to win the second leg of SpeedFest. Only 13 of them were left running at the finish.
“We fought — that’s the main thing,” he said in victory lane. “Never give up, that’s our motto. We were down and out. I mean, we were on pit road changing shocks.”
Choquette wasn’t a factor when the field first tried to run the final five laps of the race. With caution laps not counting, one crash after another reset the field and the lap count at 196.
On one of those restarts, Jones tagged the back end of Elliott in turn 1, shooting him up the track. But just as Jones took the lead, his car spun in turn 2 and collected Benjamin and Wilson.
Elliott rejoined the pack in third place behind Nemechek and NASCAR driver David Ragan, but he moved to second on the next restart before the caution flag waved again for a spin in turn 3.
On the next restart, Nemechek held his lead as Mike Garvey, Scott Ellis and Randy Gentry tangled in turn 1. With 196 laps still showing on the scoreboard, Elliott jumped ahead of Nemechek on the restart before the caution flag waved yet again for a crash in turn 4.
During the caution period, Nemechek’s car ran out of gas, moving Ragan to second and Choquette to third. On the following restart, Choquette found his opening.
After completing a green flag lap for the first time in more than 30 minutes, Ragan made his move on Elliott in turn 1. Ragan moved Elliott up the race track in turn 2 and pulled even before the two began leaning on each other. By the end of the backstretch, Elliott had spun while Ragan was in a grass field outside turn 3 – there are no exterior walls from turn 1 to turn 4.
And Choquette had a lead he wouldn’t give up. After one more restart, Choquette crossed the line first, followed by David Odell and Scott Heckert.
Afterward, Elliott said his contact with Jones was rather incidental, but he didn’t feel the same way about his run-in with Ragan.
“I don’t know what his thoughts are,” Elliott said. “I felt like he pretty well just wrecked me. I don’t know.”
As for the racing in general, “It was pretty rough,” he added. “You had a lot of guys who had some cars that were really close to each other today, and everyone was trying for a good run, and you ended up with guys running into each other. It’s short track racing.”
All results are unofficial until certified by race officials.
ARCA/CRA Super Series
Watermelon Capital Speedway – Cordele, GA
SpeedFest 200 (Unofficial Results) – Jan. 27, 2012
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2. David Odell
3. Scott Heckert
4. Anderson Bowen
5. Bubba Pollard
6. Mike Garvey
7. David Ragan
8. Chase Elliott
9. Donnie Wilson
10. Randy Gentry
11. Brandon Oakley
12. Scotty Ellis
13. Austin Theriault
14. John Hunter Nemechek
15. Erik Jones
16. Kyle Benjamin
17. Hunter Robbins
18. T.J. Reaid
19. Stephen Nasse
20. Travis Sauter
21. Jake Griffin
22. Zak Hausler
23. Jay Niewiek
24. Spencer Davis
25. Brandon Hermiller
26. Travis Braden
27. Wes Burton
28. Johnny Sauter
29. Andrew Morrissey
30. Jimmy Garmon
31. Eddie Van Meter
DNS Allen Karnes
DNS Russell Fleeman
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