Bubba Pollard (left) scored the victory in Friday night’s Southern Super Series feature at Five Flags Speedway, while Jeff Choquette (right) was the series winner on Saturday night at Mobile International Speedway. Photos by Eddie Richie/Turn One Photos/Loxley, AL
It was a weekend for racing veterans in the Southern Super Series, as Bubba Pollard and Jeff Choquette collected wins on a Gulf Coast double feature weekend.
Pollard scored the Friday night victory at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida, while Choquette drove to the Saturday night win at Mobile International Speedway in Irvington, Alabama.
On Friday night, Pollard dominated the latter half of the Rubber and Specialities 100 at Five Flags Speedway, snapping an unusual drought in the early part of the 2017 season for the Senoia, Georgia speedster.
Prior to Friday, his only victory on the season came in January at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway.
Pollard acknowledged the difficulties his team has been having and the impact it’s had on all of them.
“We’ve been struggling and it’s been tough on us,” Pollard admitted.
Despite the misfortune, Pollard set fast-time in qualifying and after the invert, started third. At lap 51 of the feature, he left the competition in the dust.
“We’ve been working, and we haven’t given up,” Pollard said. “I can’t thank my guys enough. We had to come here and prove something. We had a good race car from the time we unloaded. Everybody has been counting us out, but we’re just getting going.”
Pollard’s words to the nonbelievers were simple.
“We’ve proved you can’t count us out. We may get down for a little bit, but we’ll be back.”
Donnie Wilson finished in second, with Marietta, Georgia’s Kyle Plott in third, Chase Purdy in fourth and Stephen Nasse in fifth.
On Saturday night, Jeff Choquette took the lead from Purdy just under a quarter of the way through the feature, and drove away to score the victory.
“We struggled yesterday over at Pensacola, but it’s good to come back here and rebound,” Choquette said. “We knew we had a good car when we unloaded and we tweaked on it a little bit more.”
While the majority of drivers were wishing for a caution, Choquette was running circles around them. At the end of the race, only four cars had evaded Choquette long enough to stay on the lead lap.
“We put a little too much gear to it for qualifying but it ended up paying off in the race,” he said. “I can’t thank these guys enough for sticking it out for two hot days. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going.”
Stephen Nasse stared at the back of the Choquette’s machine until it faded out of view. Despite working his way up from eighth to second, the Choquette’s machine was too strong to reel in.
“I was able to get up front pretty early and I had a really fast piece,” Nasse said. “When I was able to get to second, there was a little over a half a straightaway ahead of me.”
Strategy was the name of the game, and Nasse knew that the leader would be conserving as much of their tires as possible.
“I didn’t want to burn my stuff up trying to catch([Choquette),” Nasse explained. “I knew if I was able to catch him, it would be harder to get by him. He’d be saving his stuff.”
Third-place finisher Chandler Smith had little idea what to expect when the green flag flew. The Jasper, Georgia native had never visited the Alabama half-mile before. With limited experience, a spot on the podium was nothing short of a victory for the 14-year-old racer.
“I’m speechless right now,” Smith said. “This is like a win for us. We’ve been working our tails off trying to get our Super program pretty good. This is the first time I’ve been to the race track and I’m really loving it. I’m looking forward to coming back for the next race.”
Donnie Wilson and Chase Purdy rounded out the top-five finishers.
Next up for the Southern Super Series presented by Sunoco is a trip to Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway for the inaugural Short Track U.S. Nationals on May 21.
For more information, visit SouthernSuperSeries.com.
Southern Super Series
Five Flags Speedway – Pensacola, FL
Rubber and Specialities 100 – April 28, 2017
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1. 26 Bubba Pollard
2. 2W Donnie Wilson
3. 19 Kyle Plott
4. 97 Chase Purdy
5. 51 Stephen Nasse
6. 26S Chandler Smith
7. 7 Casey Roderick
8. 88 Garrett Jones
9. 9 Jeff Choquette
10. 54 David Gilliland
11. 98 Paul Kelley
12. 83 Scotty Ellis
13. 14C Connor Okrzesik
14. 95 Derrick Griffin
15. 25 Cole Williams
16. 11 David Rogers
17. 47 Allen Karnes
18. 15 Austin Thaxton
19. 43 Dennis Schoenfeld
20. 11B Logan Boyett
21. 5 Jerry Artuso
22. 92 Jeremy Pate
23. 28 T.J. Duke
24. 33 Daniel Webster
25. 99 Casey Smith
26. 14 Chris Davidson
27. 79 Kyle Bryant
Southern Super Series
Mobile International Speedway – Irvington, AL
KSJ 95 – April 29, 2017
1. 9 Jeff Choquette
2. 51 Stephen Nasse
3. 26S Chandler Smith
4. 2W Donnie Wilson
5. 97 Chase Purdy
6. 98 Paul Kelley
7. 83 Scotty Ellis
8. 19 Kyle Plott
9. 26 Bubba Pollard
10. 88 Garrett Jones
11. 14D Chris Davidson
12. 99 Casey Smith
13. 14 Connor Okrzesik
14. 15 Austin Thaxton
15. 17 Kurt Guillott
16. 5 Jerry Artuso
17. 43 Dennis Schoenfeld
18. 47 Allen Karnes
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