Brandon Ward scored the victory in Saturday night’s SMART Modified Tour feature at Carteret County Speedway. Photo: SMART Modified Tour
Brandon Ward out-dueled NASCAR Cup Series veteran Ryan Newman over the final 10 laps of Saturday night’s SMART Modified Tour feature to score the win at Carteret Speedway in Swansboro, North Carolina.
It marked the second win of the season for Ward and the fifth of his tour career.
“Man, Newman’s tough,” said Ward. “That’s a good team and I knew when I got to him it was going to be really, really hard to pass him. I tried the outside and I tried every angle I could. He was getting a little bit free-er, but man, he did a good job hanging on to that thing. I was fortunate to get a good enough run to get by him. It’s a lot of fun to race with guys like him in this series.”
“It was a hard-fought battle, but I think he fought harder than I did because he got by me,” said Newman. “He raced me clean, he raced me hard. He used his bumper. I can’t complain, he was way faster than me in the end. I just go too loose. This is a pretty cool race track. It’s tight, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of these guys are used to that stuff.”
Ward now sits in second in the championship chase with six races left on the schedule.
“Our sights are set on winning races,” admitted Ward. “We won one at Caraway earlier this year and I came here wanting to win this one because I love this racetrack. I got to race here when I was a kid, when it was a go-kart track and now we got the win in the SMART Mods.”
Caleb Heady finished in third, with former NASCAR Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte in fourth, and current tour points leader Burt Myers in fifth.
Danny Bohn, Carson Loftin, Tim Brown, Dennis Holdren, and Justin Gumley rounded out the top 10.
The SMART Modified Tour returns to action on Saturday, September 9 at Dominion Speedway in Spotsylvania, Virginia. For more information, visit SMARTModTour.com.
SMART Modified Tour
Carteret County Speedway – Swansboro, NC
Carteret Clash – September 2, 2023
1. Brandon Ward
2. Ryan Newman
3. Caleb Heady
4. Bobby Labonte
5. Burt Myers
6. Danny Bohn
7. Carson Loftin
8. Tim Brown
9. Dennis Holdren
10. Justin Gumley
11. Jeremy Gerstner
12. Daniel Yates
13. Cody Norman
14. Jonny Kay
15. Gary Young, Jr.
16. Brian Weber
17. Joey Coulter
18. Riley Neal
19. Zach Brewer
20. Brian Loftin
21. Bobby Measmer, Jr.
22. Jason Tutterow
23. Dwight Sauls
24. Jimmy Wallace
25. Wes Gilbert
26. Jason Myers
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