- Xfinity 250 - Martinsville Speedway - 1. (#91) Zack Saunders - 2. (#1) Cory Mott - 3. (#29) Steward Harding Walker - 4. (#69) Caleb Tipton - 5. (#94) Thomas Wolfe - 6. (#22) Nic Vasquez - 7. (#6) Stephen Menke - 8. (#3) Ben Lawson - 9. (#37) Joe T. Wright - 10. (#16) Nathaniel Campbell - 11. (#57) Michael Deitch - 12. (#00) Garth Griswold - 13. (#11) Nishil Condoor - 14. (#7) Steven Carlile - 15. (#8) Zach Johnson - 16. (#99) Justin Bell - 17. (#74) Caleb Sheets - 18. (#30) Mason Hoeffner - 19. (#96) Vince Mitchell
The Team Conti Sim Performance Cup Series raced at Atlanta Motor Speedway last Wednesday night to open the first Round of the Playoffs. The Jr. Superspeedway track brought excitement in the first Round, with wild moments lasting all 163 laps; the final lap would come down to a photo finish at the line.
Quick Race Stats
- Atlanta Motor Speedway
- Weather: 77 Degrees, Mostly Cloudy Skies, Wind SW @ 2 mph
- Race Length: 250 Miles, Stages: 40-80-163
- Race Time: 1hr 39mins
- Cautions: 6-16 Laps
- Lead Changes: 16
- Thomas Wolfe: 74 Laps
- Ben Lawson: 52 Laps
- Zack Saunders: 10 Laps
- Caleb Tipton: 10 Laps
- Stephen Menke: 6 Laps
- Zach Johnson: 4 Laps
- Steven Carlile: 3 Laps
- Cody Leach: 3 Laps
- Nic Vasquez: 1 Lap
The #3 Ben Lawson claimed the pole position in a fiercely competitive qualifying round, narrowly edging out Uber Motorsports driver the #96 Vince Mitchell. The closeness of the qualifying times, with the pole position to the fifteenth position staying within a tenth of a second of each other, set the Stage for a race where every second would count.
Lawson led the field to a green flag, but the race took an unexpected turn when Mitchell, in his eagerness, jumped the gun and beat the green flag. This premature start led to a series of unfortunate events for Mitchell, including a drive-through penalty and a speeding violation, turning his hopeful start into a challenging race.
Lawson would lead all 40 laps, and the Stage would run green the entire Stage even though a controversial accident occurred on Lap 25 with playoff points leader Cory Mott getting turned after Joe Wright would get loose coming out of Turn 2. Mott wasn’t the only one heated about the incident; fans were booing CJR Officials for not throwing the caution for the incident.
“By the time we noticed the incident had occurred, Mott was already off the racing surface, and the damage he had sustained was race-ending. It’s an unfortunate incident so early in the race, but we stand by our decision to let the drivers keep racing.” Said an anonymous CJR Official who did not have the authority to speak on the matter.
STAGE 1 Results
STAGE 2
Cody Leach would take the lead off pit road and lead the field back to green for Stage 2. Stage 2 would also run green from start to finish, with multiple lead changes occurring down the stretch as fans were thrilled to see some green flag racing in the first Round of the playoffs. Thomas Wolfe would start to show that he was a contender to lock himself into the Round of 12 by leading the most laps in Stage 2, working with his teammate Zack Saunders. Saunders would lead the final lap of the Stage to capture the stage win at Lap 80.
STAGE 2 Results
Racing Heats Up in Final Stage
The final Stage would show that the drivers were done being patient and didn’t want the packs to split again like they had in the previous stages. Steven Carlile would have the lead to start Stage 3 and would lead three laps before Thomas Wolfe would recapture the lead on Lap 86. The race’s first caution would come out on Lap 90 when the outside line would get checked up. That check-up would be felt back to the midpack, where the #00 Garth Griswold would clip the outside wall, enter the trioval, and get bumped from behind by the #66 Ray Gill. Griswold would spin to the infield grass, and the rest of the field avoided the disaster. Griswold and Gill would get an EOL and moved to the back for the incident.
The following incident occurred on Lap 101 when Cody Leach and Nishil Condoor battled through the tri-oval. Leach made contact with Condoor, causing Leach to get loose and make contact with Stephen Menke. Menke and Leach went sliding through the infield grass. Neither sustained any severe damage, but the caution flag flew, and Leach and Menke were sent to the back for the incident.
The 5th caution of the night would come out on Lap 118. This time, the inside row had an extensive check-up, and the midpack would again pay the price for it. Tommy Carroll Jr. would get the short end of the stick when he would get sandwiched between Nic Vasquez’s rear bumper and Mason Hoeffner’s front end. Carroll Jr. would go into the outside wall and collect the #16 Nathaniel Campbell and Griswold when coming off the wall.
Wolfe would take the lead on Lap 123 and would retain that lead until the final caution would come out on Lap 148 when the #86 Ryan Taft would hit the outside wall out of the tri-oval, and the wall wins that battle 100% of the time as Taft would bounce off of it and collect Leach sending him spinning into the wall. Leach would head to the garage, and that playoff drivers night was over.
Wolfe decided to stay out and hold onto the lead during the caution and would lead the field back to green with 12 laps to go. Vasquez would be battling Wolfe for the lead but would lose the battle when he had to yield to Taft coming back onto the racing surface as he would stick to the low line, causing Vasquez to break his line up by moving to the middle line to miss him. Tipton, who was pushing Wolfe, would drift high, allowing Wolfe’s teammate Zack Saunders to slide underneath for position. Saunders would glue his front bumper to Wolfe to keep him out front.
The Race to the Line
The inside line, led by Nic Vasquez, tried their best to get to the front but was unable to get it working. Coming to the line with two to go, it disintegrated, causing the midpack to pay the price once again as Tipton would get sent into the wall in the tri-oval.
Saunders and Wolfe stayed together as the #5 Allen Phillips took his chance coming to the white flag and tried to complete the run off the bottom, but he didn’t have enough help to get around the BBR boys. Phillips was left out to dry and fell back to 7th before the #3 Lawson turned down into Phillips, causing the big wreck on the final lap.
As the rest of the field dealt with the mayhem behind them, Joe Wright would have the run heading into Turn 3 and get outside of Saunders. Wolfe would slide up in front of Wright, but Wright’s run was too good to be slowed down with that as Wright would move to the inside. They would go almost door to door entering the tri-oval, but Wright’s run would lose the pace as Steven Carlile would make contact with Wright’s left quarter panel, making Wright get a bit squirrely at the line. Wolfe’s nose would inch across first with a margin of 0.015.
“I had 70-lap old tires, and I wouldn’t have been able to win that if it wasn’t for Saunders pushing me at the end.”
#94 Thomas Wolfe, BBR, Chevrolet
“This was a statement finish for WRL, giving us more knowledge that we’re on the path to success. A few more results like that will set us up for a great off-season and carry that momentum into 2025.”
#37 Joe Wright, Co-Owner WRL, Ford
Playoff Update
With the win, Wolfe automatically locks himself into the Round of 12 in the Team Conti Sim Performance Cup Series Playoffs. Zack Saunders would follow behind in the point standings in 2nd place. Steven Carlile is in 3rd in front of almost the entire Factory Motorsports Team, with Team Owner Stephen Menke sitting in 4th, Vasquez 5th, and Lawson in 6th. The other member of their team, Zander Short, did not make it to the race and sits below the cutline with two races to go.
“I am not sure what’s going on with Zander. We lost communication with his hauler after Daytona and haven’t heard from him. The only silver lining is that he had accumulated a decent amount of playoff points, and with that, he could still make it above the cutline if he makes the next two races.”
#6 Stephen Menke, Owner of Factory Motorsports, Ford
Ben Lawson was the week’s biggest mover, moving from 15th place to 6th with his stage win and 7th-placed finish. Regular Season Champion Cory Mott would fall back to 8th place with his early race departure after his wreck on Lap 25.
With two races left in the Round of 16, Vince Mitchell, Griswold, Carroll Jr., and Short sit below the cutline. The TCSP Cup Series will go bowling at The Glen on Wednesday night. Please tune in to see who can leave their mark on the road course and bowl the perfect race for a win on the Crown Jewel Racing Network.
