Jason Myers has had a great season so far at Bowman Gray Stadium, but he hadn’t picked up a win in the Brad’s Golf Cars Series. And Junior Snow jumped all the way from the Q104.1 series to the Modified Series this season and had not picked up a win.
However, that all changed Saturday night during the twin 25-lap Modified races. Myers sat on the pole and withstood a push by Chris Fleming to pick up his first win of the season. Snow started fifth and came around to win his first race in the Modified Series, holding off runner-up Dean Ward in the second 25-lap Modified race.
“(Fleming) had a heck of a race car there at the end,” Myers said. “He gave me a shot, let me know he was there. I want to thank him for running me clean. I had a really good race car until about five (laps) to go, and the car started to get a little tight. I can’t thank my guys enough.
“We work on this thing day and night just to get here. You know what I mean. This is what we do it for right here.”
Myers’ father Gary joined the celebration in Winner’s Circle. Myers won his 36th race, moving him just two wins behind father Gary Myers for ninth in the all-time wins list in the Modified Series. Tim Brown is the all-time leader with 94 wins, and Burt Myers, the son of Gary and the brother of Jason is second with 84. Burt Myers finished eighth Saturday night in the first race.
“I want to thank my family, my little man right here,” said Jason about his son Max, who joined him in Winner’s Circle. “He’s a big Chris Fleming fan. And Chris has won two here, so I had to step it up and win one for him.”
Brandon Ward finished third and Jonathan Brown was fourth.
Myers drew 16th in the Madhouse Scramble for the second 25-lap race, meaning the field was inverted at No. 16.
“It’ll kill you in the points if you don’t do well… It’d be nice to pick up a couple positions if we can. You know, we’re right there in the points, so we don’t want to lose them tonight.
“You want to win the race, but you don’t want to lose points. We’ll just keep our eyes open.”
Snow made the big jump from the Stadium Stock Division to Modified, but before Saturday night his best finish was sixth on April 30.
Snow was able to weave his way through a big wreck on turn 1 of lap 1 after Lee Jeffreys ran into the fence as a result of a collision with Austin Pack.
Snow took the lead and maintained it through the restart and through the remainder of the race, defeating Dean Ward.
“It’s crazy. Three years ago, I was qualifying for this 50-lap race (in the Q104.1 Stadium Stock Series), and then now in two years I’m in the Modified racing against Tim Brown and Burt Myers,” Snow said. “It’s crazy.”
Zack Brewer was third and Burt Myers was fourth. Jason Myers finished 12th.
“First, I want to thank my mom, my dad, my Uncle Keith, my Uncle Bart because without them I wouldn’t even have the opportunity,” Snow said. “…I haven’t really had much success in the qualifying, but in the race…we usually encourage each other to get better.”
A.J. Sanders continued his winning ways by capturing the Thunder Road Grill 50 in the Q104.1 Stadium Series, which turned out to be 58 laps after going to overtime due to caution. It was his fourth win of the season, and it was also his fourth win in the 50-lap featured race in the Stadium Stock Series.
Joel Stewart was third and Grayson Keaton was fourth.
“This is an honor to win this race,” Sanders said. “You just come and you try to win all you can win, of course. I’m just the lucky one to sit in that seat. There’s a lot of people that’s behind the scenes that don’t get seen like I do. I’m just in the seat.”
In doing so, Sanders had to fight off runner-up Levi Holt on the last two green-white checkered finishes. Sanders was upset at Holt’s aggressive driving style.
“These young kids now, I don’t know. They just think, I think they’ve got the mentality that they (own it over here),” Sanders said. ‘You know, you’ve just to come back and show them they can’t do that, and I will.”
“I went over and talked to him,” Sanders said. “He said he could’ve spun me out. Well, I think he did everything but spin me out. I think if anybody has eyes at all they saw that. He says that he could’ve. Well, you don’t keep a man plum sideways down the straightaway and I say I could’ve.
“I just kept driving through it. We came out on top.”
Holt had two chances in the final six laps to overtake Sanders, but Sanders blocked him.
“The last two laps, I didn’t overdrive,” Holt said. “I kind of held my line. I gave A.J. some slack because he showed me throughout the year. He’s the one that made me who I am in racing. It’s Bowman Gray and you never know what to expect.”
Holt confirmed that Sanders spoke to him after the race.
“I think he’s just going to be mad for a little bit,” Holt said. “But if I wanted to wreck him I would’ve pushed him through the infield.”
On lap 52, Chuck Wall was spun out by Holt around turn 2. Wall took offense to it and drove around the track and went side-by-side with Holt.
“It was chaotic,” Holt said. “A lot of people are saying I spun Chuck Wall, but I got pushed. I wouldn’t have spun him out. I hate it for him because I didn’t want to do it. But I got pushed into him.”
Sanders started sixth and worked his way into the lead after the first caution on lap 7.
“We took that cone on the outside. And the car from lap 1, I knew it was going to be good,” he said. “And I knew Chris Allison was going to be inside at that point. And I knew he would run me clean on the inside. We may rub, but I knew he would run me clean. I got lucky.
“I got out about a half-car length in front of him and a caution came out, and that saved me and put me in the lead. That put us up front and that put me in control then.”
There were seven cautions during the 58-lap race, and through the first five cautions, there were double-file restarts with a cone. That changed with five laps remaining, meaning the final two cautions were single-filed restarts.
“You just keep starting the same way and don’t worry about who’s behind you, and just go,” Sanders said. “If they’re faster than you they’ll get around you. And you just have to do that. You just have to go.”
The first 20-lap race in the McDowell Heating & Air Sportsman Series, Dylan Ward won in just his third start of the season. And he won after filling in for Jacob Creed.
“I just filled in for Jacob. I’ve got to thank Jacob for letting me drive this car. Jacob’s out this week,” Ward said. “It looked like we had a pretty good run.”
Tommy Neal finished just behind Ward for second, Wesley Thompson was third, and Kyle Southern finished fourth.
In the second 20-lap race in the McDowell Heating & Air Series, Zack Clifton passed pole-sitter Amber Lynn on the eighth lap and cruised on for his first win of the season.
Lynn finished second, Tommy Neal was third, and Justin Taylor was fourth.
“It’s been a minute,” Clifton said of the length it had been since his last win. “…It’s my third car in the last five weeks. We just haven’t had any luck. I finally got a good piece tonight.”
In the Law Offices of John Barrow Street Stock Series, Brad Lewis held off Billy Gregg for his first win of the season. It’s also the sixth different winner in the six races in the series this season.
There were five cautions during the race, the last coming on Lap 17. On the final lap, Gregg was just behind Lewis, but Gregg tried to slip by on the outside. However, Lewis fended off Gregg.
“He had a better car than I had,” Lewis said of Gregg. “I knew he was going to run me clean. We’re family. He’s my cousin. He ran me clean. He could’ve dumped me at any time.”
Nick Wall finished third and Bryan Sykes was fourth.
Next week’s racing will feature the Thunder Road Grill Modified Twin 50s presented by News Talk 94.5, which are twin 50-lap races in the Brad’s Golf Cars Modified Series. There will also be twin 20-lap races in the McDowell Heating & Air Sportsman Series, a 20-lap race in the Law Offices of John Barrow Street Stock Series, and one or two 15-lap races in the Q104.1 Stadium Stock Series. In addition, one lucky fan will win a $1,000 jewelry shopping spree from Davie Jewelers.
BGS PR
