Special from Pollard Motorsports
Bubba
Pollard Grabs CRA Win at Gresham and Turns Around for Top-Five at
Montgomery
In a Double-Header Weekend of CRA Racing
and the Alabama 200, Pollard Posts Strong Runs
SENOIA, GA
(September 19, 2011) – Bubba
Pollard accomplished a feat this weekend that only a handful of
drivers are truly capable of. Pollard went into a stacked weekend of
Late Model action against some of the best drivers in the country and
came out with a win at Gresham Motorsports Park in Georgia and a
top-five finish at Alabama’s Montgomery Motor Speedway.
Saturday,
Pollard took the checkers in the CRA Super Series Southern Six Pack
Second Annual George Elliott Memorial Easy Racers 100 at Gresham
Motorsports Park after holding off TJ Reaid on several late-race
restarts.
"Track
position is so important here and it’s so hard to pass," said Pollard
of the race at Gresham. "It’s tough down on the bottom and the car
just slides around. I knew we’d have to get out front. We were able to
get by TJ (Reaid) on a restart to get out front. We had a good car
that stayed with us all night long. We weren’t sure what it was going
to do, but it turned out good for us."
A series of
late-race restarts kept a hungry field of Super Late Model stars on
his back bumper, but Pollard held strong in the final laps.
"I wasn’t
worried (about the late restarts) because I knew we had a good
racecar. I’m okay with cautions. Our car comes up to speed pretty good
and the tires come in pretty quick. I’m used to cautions here lately
and it’s won us a couple races. I knew our car was real good on
restarts. I knew I couldn’t make any mistakes. It’s hard to get good
restarts here, but luckily I did tonight."
After two wins
this season at the Jefferson, Georgia half-mile track, Pollard now has
a strategy going into the track’s biggest race in November.
"Just being
out front and keeping our nose clean is the biggest thing," said
Pollard. "We’ve changed a couple things up the past few races, but we
also changed some things tonight so we were different tonight than we
were before. I think tonight was a good learning curve for us and
hopefully we’ve got something going into the World Crown."
Following
Saturday night’s win, Pollard headed home to grab a mere two hours of
sleep and then loaded up for Montgomery Motor Speedway’s Alabama 200
on Sunday. Pollard welcomed the challenge of starting at the back of
the Pro Late Model field after missing practice and qualifying the day
before and was looking make it two wins in a row for the weekend. A
late-race incident while leading sent him back to a fourth place
finish, but it was still a strong end to a decorated weekend.
"Really, not
having enough practice at a track we’ve struggled at because we don’t
have as good of a baseline setup kind of hurt us," said Pollard. "So
we had to change a couple things around for these last couple races
and I think we hit on something that we could contend with. With a few
more adjustments we can get better over there. So all in all I think
starting in the back for such a long race and not having any sleep
didn’t help either. It was just a long race with a lot of cautions but
overall a good run.
Many drivers
would have shied away from having to start at the tail end of a field
such as Pollard and other Southeastern Late Model stars such as Augie
Grill and Chase Elliott did after racing Saturday at Gresham, but
Pollard wasn’t one to back down from the challenge.
"I like things
like that," said Pollard. "Me, Augie and Chase, we’ve got our setups
and things together now and it’s pretty cool for the fans to get to
see people come from the back like that and I enjoyed it. I like doing
something that’s different. I had fun doing it, and that’s what
matters – as long as you can have fun while you’re doing it. We’ve
been running well enough lately that we can do things like that so
yea, I had fun. It was pretty cool."
Pollard will
be out to clinch the Sunoco Gulf Coast Championship this coming
weekend, as he will tackle both Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola,
Florida on Friday and Mobile International Speedway in Alabama on
Saturday. Points from both tracks are added for the big pay day in the
SGCC and Pollard enters the weekend with a 31 point lead in the
standings.
For more on
Bubba Pollard, please contact Elgin Traylor at 51 Sports at