Batesville Motor Speedway
Rebounding McRee tops Bronson at Batesville
BATESVILLE, Ark. (Aug. 30) — Justin McRee of Cottondale, Ala., overcame a series of tough luck to win the 40-lap NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series main event Friday at Batesville Motor Speedway. McRee and his High Roller Race Cars crew overcame a wreck in hot laps to comeback for his third series victory of the season.
“We wrecked the car in hot laps and had to replace the radiator and a lot of other pieces, but we overcame that to win the race, so I’ve got to thank my crew for this one,” McRee said. “This track was awesome tonight and we could race just about everywhere we wanted to. I hope we put on a good show for the fans so we can come back here.”
McRee did use all of the race track to run down early race leader Kyle Bronson of Brandon, Fla., and like the name of his race car, J-Mac was a High Roller as he stepped to the outside to pass Bronson for the lead on lap nine. Bronson caught McRee late in the race in heavy lapped traffic, but that went away with a lap 36 caution flag.
Bronson settled for second and was busy in the five-lap dash to the finish trying to hold off Tait Davenport of Benton, Ky., who finished third.
Two-time series champ Eric Cooley of Fulton, Miss., started 10th and finished fourth to earn the Hedman Husler of the Race award while Hall of Famer Ronnie Johnson of Chattanooga, Tenn., padded his point lead with a fifth-place finish.
With four races left in the 2013 season, Johnson now holds an 82-point lead over Ronny Lee Hollingsworth of Northport, Ala., who finished 22nd. With his second-place finish on Friday night, Bronson moved to within two points of Hollingsworth.
NeSmith @ Batesville: (1) Justin McRee, (2) Kyle Bronson, (3) Tait Davenport, (4) Eric Cooley, (5) Ronnie Johnson, (6) Wendell Wallace, (7) Eric Hughes, (8) Chris O’Connor, (9) Brent Barrett, (10) Johnny Stokes, (11) Chandler Petty, (12) Robby Moore, (13) Michael Blount, (14) Josh Adkins, (15) Travis Ashley, (16) Troy English, (17) Marcus Minga, (18) Gavin Landers, (19) Joey Smith, (20) Roger Witt, (21) Cody Kierre, (22) Ronny Lee Hollingsworth, (23) Bobby Skinner, (24) Joe Forman. Fast qualifier (among 30 cars): Bronson, 15.221 seconds. Consolation race winners: Stokes, Blount.
