There were a lot of things to unpack after the Five Flags half doubleheader weekend. Friday night’s race was run and cars were on track on Saturday before the rain came and ended the weekend. Here are some of the notes from the weekend.
Record Maker: Bubba Pollard holds a stranglehold on almost every stat category in the Southern Super Series. He added to his records by taking his 34th Engine Builders fast time award. It’s his first fast-time award of the season and his first at Five Flags since 2020.
New Points Leader: For a second-straight race the points lead has changed hands. Gil Ruggerio’s runner-up finish was enough for him to come past Matt Craig who had trouble and finished outside the top 10. The margin is unofficially only three points with three races to go.
California Rules: The ASA Southern Super Series draws attention from all around the country. Five Flags Speedway is of course the home track for the series and the Snowball Derby. With the Jeremy Doss victory on Friday, that marks three wins for California drivers in the last six Super Late Model races at Five Flags. That includes the SSS win by Derek Thorn and his Snowball Derby win last December.
A Streak is Started: Tony Elrod has done a fine job this season in his first full season in the series. He started the year with back-to-back top 15 finishes. Now he’s stepped it up and now he’s got back-to-back top 10 finishes after Nashville and Five Flags. The team has also done a solid job with their finishes being almost nine spots better than their starting positions.
Six for Six: So far in the six points paying races this season there have been six different winners as Jeremy Doss won for the first time in his career in the series. This is nothing new for the Southern Super Series as the series posted 10 different winners in 2020 and 2021. We won’t reach those numbers this year because of the number of races that have been washed off the schedule due to rain.
Not so Proud Moment: Early on in the race on Friday night contact sent cars spinning and collected what the announcers said was a 17-car wreck in turn one. We don’t keep stats on multi car wrecks, but we doubt you’ll find a bigger wreck in series history. Thankfully, all drivers were ok and that was the most important thing.
Noland is Rolling Again: Jett Noland posted another top 10 finish after starting 28th on Friday night. That marks an improvement of 21 places during the race to finish seventh. He also did this at North Wilkesboro where he improved 19 spots just days before he imposed 11 grid spots at Hickory. He is likely going to be a top candidate for the season hard charger award.
(DanielVining.com Photo)