Casey Smith scored his first career Southern Super Series victory Saturday night at Mobile International Speedway. Photo by Eddie Richie/Turn One Photos/Loxley, AL
When the Southern Super Series unloaded at Mobile International Speedway Saturday to wrap up the first Gulf Coast swing of the year, racing seemed like a long shot as torrential rains and thunderstorms battered the Irvington, AL track all afternoon.
But after the perseverance of race and track officials, it would be Austin, Texas speedster Casey Smith scoring the victory at the high speed, half mile speedway.
For Smith it was his first career Southern Super Series victory, and his first win at Mobile since 2007.
“We dominated here back in ’07, and ever since, Bubba (Pollard)’s pretty much had everyone covered,” said Smith. “This was the best car I’ve ever had here and it feels good to be back.
“You get to a point where you don’t know if it’s ever going to come again and so you’ve got to cherish it if it does. It makes it just that much more special.”
With the rains washing out qualifying, Smith, the current series points leader, started the race on the pole.
Not that qualifying mattered much, as only 12 competitors were on hand for the race.
With nothing but clean race track in front of him, Smith took advantage at the start and drove away from the field, opening up more than a four second, full straightaway advantage in the opening 50 laps.
“(My spotter) got on the radio and said you know this is a 100 lap race? I was trying to go slower,” said Smith. “Sometimes when you try to go slow and you back up your corner you have to get in the throttle sooner and it burns up your right rear. I couldn’t really go any slower than I was.”
Behind Smith, all eyes were on defending series champion Bubba Pollard, who started back in the ninth spot.
After moving all the way into the top three just 40 laps in, he set his sights on Donnie Wilson, who at that point had a three second cushion over third place. It took the Senoia, Georgia driver just over ten laps to catch and pass Wilson. From there he set out to catch Smith who still had a four plus second lead.
Pollard spent the next 30 laps tracking down Smith, with the two running nose to tail for several laps before the only caution of the night slowed the event with five laps to go.
“I figured Hemric and Bubba were saving their tires and I was afraid if we got a late race caution we might have abused (our tires) too much,” Smith said. “So that concerned me but luckily we were able to hold Bubba off.”
Pollard’s car had all but lost its handling after using up so much just to catch Smith. Despite starting alongside with the late restart, Pollard felt he had no chance to head to victory lane. He would have to settle for second.
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“Having to start that far back just killed us,” Pollard said after the race, “We had the best racecar. I ran him down from half a track back. We were just too free when I caught him to make the pass.
“I pretty much knew we were done. We didn’t have a shot, we were too free. That caution didn’t help us or hurt us.”
Daniel Hemric finished in third, with Kyle Grissom in fourth and Allen Karnes in fifth.
The next stop for the Southern Super Series will be another Gulf Coast swing between Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL on May 22 and Mobile International Speedway on May 23.
For more info, visit SouthernSuperSeries.com.
Southern Super Series
Mobile International Speedway – Irvington, AL
Race Results – April 25, 2015
1. 99 Casey Smith
2. 83 Bubba Pollard
3. 98 Daniel Hemric
4. 31 Kyle Grissom
5. 47 Allen Karnes
6. 7 Casey Roderick
7. 2 Donnie Wilson
8. 5 Dominique Van Wieringen
9. 88 Garrett Jones
10. 1M Tim Martin
11. 1 Mike Garvey
12. 22 Jeremy Pate
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