WINSTON-SALEM, NC - It all comes down to this. One race, double points, 40-laps. The championship is on the line and it's Tommy Neal leading Zack Clifton by a scant 29 points. And it would be be an uphill challenge for Clifton starting deep in the field with Neal rolling of sixth.
The 75 car of Andrew Durham led the first half of the race with John Holloman IV in hot pursuit, both drivers getting aggressive with Durham blocking Holloman and Holloman vowing to take him out if he blocks again.
Zack Clifton got caught up in a mid race accident in turn 2 and had to rally from the back.
Tommy Neal hovered near the front of the race for the duration.
A multi-car crash in turn 3 with just a couple of laps to go set up the championship finish and the 81 car of Zack Clifton was able to drive through the mess setting up a close championship battle at the end.
Re-starting with a one lap shootout, John Holloman IV take the win with Tommy Neal in 2nd and Zack Clifton finishing 5th.
Tommy, the Tiger, Neal wins his first Sportsman Division Championship at the Madhouse for 2016.
WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The final race of the season for the Street Stock Division was riddled with story lines. Who would win the championship? Would Derrick Rice repeat, would Brian Wall be the people's champ again? And could Taylor Robbins pick up her 3rd win in the division, 3rd of the season and be the best driver in the division by virtue of win count.
The answers came after 20-laps of hard racing. Taylor Robbins started on the pole and held the lead for every single lap. Brian Wall moved up to 2nd and mad efforts to run her down several times. Derrick Rice formulated a plan to keep the 22 car of Wall in his sights to protect his margin in the points race.
Robbins won, Wall finished 2nd, and Rice finished 3rd and took the title for the 2nd consecutive year.
WINSTON-SALEM, NC - After the big crash in the first race of the night most of the cars in the 2nd Sportsman 20-lapper at Bowman Gray Stadium had major damage and looked a lot more like the modified division cars.
Jeff Garrison in the 3 car started up front but Zack Clifton in the 81 quickly took the lead.
John Holloman IV in the 4 car used what was left of his front bumper to let Garrison know he was coming through. Garrison spun off of turn 4 and Holloman was up to 2nd.
Holloman got to Clifton for the lead but Clifton was having none of it and muscled his way back to the inside of the 4 car. The bare front end of the 81 car hooked into the tire and read body work of the 4 car causing a flat tire for Holloman.
Holloman got a new tire and worked his way back up to 3rd place in a great fight with Billy Gregg in the 28 car.
Zack Clifton took home the win and says he'll drive just as aggressively for the championship in the final race of the season this coming Saturday.
Winston-Salem, NC - A huge pileup on the restart late in the first Sportsman Division race of the night brought out the red flag after the leaders crashed coming to the start finish line.
The 81 car of Zack Clifton got turned into the wall by the 7 car of Dylan Ward and at least four more cars piled in.
The car of Kevin Neal came to rest up on 2 wheels with the 0 car of Michael Adams underneath it. Taylor Branch, Tommy Neal, and Zack Ore were also left wrecked on the front stretch.
While no drivers were seriously injured in the heavy hits, Michael Adams was put on a stretcher in obvious discomfort but he raced in the second Sportsman Division race just an hour later.
Zack Clifton let Dylan Ward know he was angry about the incident by stomping on the hood of the 7 car and yelling at him through the window net.
WINSTON-SALEM, NC - It's probably a good thing caution laps don't count in the short features at Bowman Gray Stadium or the racing action this past Saturday night could've run well beyond the city mandated curfew of 11:30. As it was the final race of the night, the chain race, ended at nearly that time.
The drivers completed 200 green flag laps on the this racenight in 5 different divisions and had roughly 22 crashes.
It was a little of everything, from spins with no damage to wham bam thank you maam and into the wall. And for the most part, nobody got really mad.
WINTSON-SALEM, NC - They don't call Bowman Gray Stadium "The Madhouse" for nothing. It has a way of bringing out the tempers in even the nicest of guys.
Take John Holloman IV and Robbie Brewer for example, both very nice young men, great race car drivers, both with the will and want to win races. But you can toss that all out the window when, let's call it "Madhouse Fever" strikes.
They've had a few run-ins this season but the events that played out on July 23rd have garnered eyeballs across the nation, on Jalopnik, FoxSports, Reddit and probably more.
John Holloman IV was leading and seemed to have a car that could win except for the fact that Robbie Brewer was closing in quickly.
Brewer had intentions of winning the race himself but may also have had in mind getting payback for this wreck from June 11th.
Brewer hit Holloman in turn 1 to take over the lead but Holloman made it clear in radio chatter that the 68 wouldn't win the race.
He caught up with the 68 and spun him around causing the 68 to have a flat tire. Then the 2 drivers played demolition derby on the front stretch for 30 seconds or so before retreating to the pit area.
WINSTON-SALEM, NC - It's the last race before the 4th of July weekend off at Bowman Gray Stadium but the drivers didn't let that keep them from putting on a good show for the thousands of fans.
After a wild demolition derby type race the previous week the Street Stock Division kicked off the night and ran a race so clean Clorox should've been the sponsor. It could have been the result of a stern speech in the driver's meeting or maybe team owners are just tired of spending so much money. Either way, the only action was a spin here and there and only one real case of a driver getting mad at another when Zack Linville chased down Doug Wall after the checkered flag and gave him a moderate love tap at the start finish line. That move drew the ire of starter Randy Smith who was on the track handing the checkered flag to the race winner when the bump occured really close to him. He went to the Linville car and let the driver know that wasn't acceptable. The race was won by Brian Wall, the people's champ, who started on the pole and had a car that was the class of the field. Wall led every lap to win his first feature of the season and went to victory lane to celebrate with his sons.
The Modified Division ran 2 25-lap events. Jason Myers and Tim Brown started on the front row of the first race and Myers quickly grabbed the lead and led wire to wire to grab the win. The Madhouse scramble propelled the Joseph Brown and Ronnie Clifton to the front row for the 2nd race. Clifton and Brown tangled on the start sending Clifton into the turn 4 wall ending his chances for a good run and Brown had a transmission issue that may have contributed to getting turned around late in the race by Michael Clifton. Randy Butner ended a long winless streak picking up the win in the 2nd race.
The Sportsman Division ran a 60-Lap feature with Kevin Neal and Michael Adams pacing the field. A big wreck about halfway through the event took out Mike Robertson, Dylan Ward when Billy Gregg got spun around off the nose of the Ward car. Robertson didn't have any where to go and piled in making hard contact with the Ward car. Kevin Neal held off John Holloman IV on several late restarts to win the Sportsman Feature for the second week in a row.
The Stadium Stock Division saw a first time winner in one of it's 2 features. Robert Strmiska battle with Derek Sheets lap after lap in the closing laps of the first event making an impressive outside pass in turns 3 and 4. The two cars raced to the finish line trading paint and banging tires with Strmiska getting his first ever win at Bowman Gray Stadium.
In the second Stadium Stock race Billy Cameron Jr. grabbed his second win of the season in his Toyota Celica.
Racing will resume at Bowman Gray Stadium on July 9.
