Original story from Speed51, posted with permission from Speed51
More than 20 top Super Late Model competitors are headed to Greenville-Pickens Speedway this weekend for a co-sanctioned race with the CARS Tour and Southern Super Series, with an intriguing list of entries taking part in the event.
A total of 22 cars are currently entered for the race at the South Carolina half-mile, bringing together racers from the Carolinas and the Gulf Coast alike. Leading the charge will be the two defending champions of the participating series, Matt Craig and Stephen Nasse.
A total of 22 cars are entered for Saturday’s race at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, including the defending champions of both the CARS Tour and Southern Super Series.
Craig won his second consecutive CARS Tour championship in 2020, while Nasse’s 2020 championship allowed him to join Casey Roderick as two-time Southern Super Series champions.
With the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series taking the weekend off, a pair of full-time competitors on that series will be dropping back into a Super Late Model this weekend at Greenville-Pickens. Chandler Smith will once again climb aboard a Donnie Wilson Motorsports No. 26 for Saturday’s race, while Zane Smith will make his debut in the Highlands Motorsports No. 96.
Chandler Smith will be joined out of the Donnie Wilson Motorsports stable by Sammy Smith, coming off his ARCA Menards Series East win at Five Flags Speedway. Sammy Smith was in contention for a victory in the Rattler 250 to kick off the Southern Super Series season before a mechanical issue in the closing laps sidelined him.
A pair of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competitors, Chandler Smith and Zane Smith, will join the Super Late Model field at Greenville-Pickens.
Craig won the lone CARS Super Late Model Tour event at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in 2016, but he is not the most recent Super Late Model winner at Greenville-Pickens in this weekend’s field. Kyle Plott won the 2017 Greenville-Pickens Meltdown and will be looking for another victory at the track on Saturday.
In the CARS Tour’s Super Late Model opener, Carson Kvapil outdueled Matt Craig in a photo finish at Hickory Motor Speedway. Kvapil will be on hand, looking to continue his success from the season kickoff.
A strong contingency of drivers from Alabama, Georgia and Florida will make the trip north for Saturday’s race. Those drivers include Nasse, former CRA SpeedFest and Southern Super Series winner Connor Okrzesik, Florida’s Jeremy Pate, Nick Neri, Jett Noland and T.J. Duke, and Peach State racers Jake Garcia, Hudson Halder and Mike Garrett. Nasse, Garcia, Pate and Okrzesik made up four of the top five spots in Southern Super Series points in 2020.
Palmetto State racers looking to defend home turf in the field include Randy Gentry and Jeremy Barclay. Drivers making the trip south from North Carolina include Justin Crider, Jeff Fultz and Jeff Batten. Fultz was a four-time winner at Greenville-Pickens in the NASCAR Southeast Series in the early 2000s.
-Story by: Zach Evans, Speed51 Content Supervisor – Twitter: @ztevans
-Photo credit: Speed51 Photo