- 2/18/2025 8:00 PM EST - Starting Grid - 1. #17 Dallas Pataska - 2. #94 Thomas Wolfe - 3. #*63 Henry Kallhoff(i) - 4. #23 Cody Leach - 5. #66 Ray Gill - 6. #56 Tommy Carrol Jr - 7. #97 John Connor - 8. #30 Mason Hoeffner - 9. #37 Joe Wright - 10. #*60 Zack Saunders(i) - 11. #19 Jim Mott - 12. #16 Nathaniel Campbell - 13. #69 Caleb Tipton - 14. #6 Stephen Menke - 15. #04 Cody Porter - 16. #28 Jonathan Leger - 17. #95 Pete Morales - 18. #18 Vince Mitchell - 19. #*89 Boyd Hoggan(i) - 20. #24 Noah Spaulding - 21. #22 Nic Vasquez - 22. #14 Cameron Albertson - 23. #00 Garth Griswold - 24. #29 Stewart Harding - 25. #9 Haden Higginbotham - 26. #51 Nim Silva - 27. #54 Cory Mott - 28. #45 Zach Johnson - 29. #57 Michael Deitch - 30. #5 Allen Phillips - 31. #81 Steven Carlile - 32. #*72 Caleb Begg(i) - 33. #20 Austin Runkel - 34. #88 Tyler Bellanger - 35. #2 Zander Short - 36. #35 Thomas Villano - 37. #3 Ben Lawson - 38. #11 Nishil Condoor - 39. #48 Logan Giesbrecht - 40. #1 Noah Hamilton
The highly anticipated 2025 Crown Jewel Racing Season commenced on a thrilling note Wednesday night in Lakeland, Florida, at the USA International Speedway. Despite the unavailability of Bowman Gray Stadium on the iRacing Service, CJR officials made a strategic decision to maintain the short track, bumper-to-bumper, and at times, chaotic competition at a similar track. The USA International Speedway certainly lived up to its reputation, delivering an electrifying start to the season.
Opening night can always have its issues, and CJR Officials had to adjust on the fly when four heats were scheduled, but iRacing said they would only do three. Three heats would race, with the top five advancing to the show. Then, those unlucky drivers would get one more chance to make the show in the last-chance qualifier, with the top seven keeping their hopes alive to win the clash.
Qualifying
The qualifying round saw a standout performance from newcomer Dallas Pataska, who secured the pole position in the #17 Majors Garage Esports Chevrolet with an impressive time of 20.886. His speed was nearly two-tenths faster than the reigning Season Champion Thomas Wolfe, who qualified second with a time of 21.081. Hollywood Motorsports also made a strong showing, with three out of their four drivers, Garth Griswold, Nathaniel Campbell, and newcomer Cameron Albertson, qualifying in the Top 10, promising an exciting main event.
HEAT ONE
The first heat of the night would be the cleanest race of the night. Dallas Pataska would lead the field to the green flag, but Saunders would get the lead-to-lead Lap 1 before the only caution of the heat would come out on the backstretch when Cory Mott and Garth Griswold would make contact and spin down the backstretch. Pataska would win the first heat, Saunders would finish 2nd, Diego Rodriguez 3rd, Haden Higginbotham 4th, and Logan Giesbrecht would hold off Griswold for 5th place.
HEAT TWO
The 2024 Season Champion, Thomas Wolfe, would lead the field to the green flag to kick off Heat #2. The second heat wasn’t as clean as the first heat and would have four cautions throughout the heat. WRL co-team owner and driver Cody Leach had his hands while trying to keep his car off of others throughout the heat, but Wolfe, Pete Morales, Stewart Walker, Stephen Menke, and Campbell would advance on to the main. Leach would finish sixth after being involved in 3 of the four cautions during the heat race and get another chance in the LCQ.
HEAT THREE
The final heat will start with familiar driver Cody Porter leading the field to the green flag. Porter, who signed with Moonshine Motorclub, hopes to run his first season in CJR. Heat #3 would clean the racing up with only two cautions occurring. The starting five would remain in the Top 5 when the checkered flag waved, with Porter taking 1st Place and Steven Carlile in his normal second-place position. Newcomer Cameron Albertson would finish 3rd, and Tyler Belanger would move up one spot to finish fourth. Nic Vasquez would secure the final transfer spot, moving back one spot from where he started to finish 5th.
LAST CHANCE QUALIFIER
The last-chance qualifier was a nail-biting affair. Griswold would be in unfamiliar territory at the front of the field to lead the flag to green for 40 laps around a 3/4-mile track. Completing this race would take more than 40 laps, with the caution laps not counting. You could tell it was the LCQ as the green flag runs came few and far between, with 11 cautions throughout the race.
Griswold would control the restarts and be able to check out from the carnage behind him multiple times. Griswold and his teammate Allen Phillips were in control of their destiny with two laps to go, and that was when their chance at the show started to slip through their grasp. Phillips would get loose off of two and would go around. He would catch a few licks from cars as they went by, and just like that, Griswold’s security blanket was gone.
Griswold would have to fend off Caleb Tipton on the outside with “Wreck-it Ralph” Leach of WRL pushing him from behind on the green-white-checkered finish. Griswold would lead the field to green and lead the first lap to take the white flag, but he would leave the inside door cracked open in 1 and 2. Tipton was able to get below the yellow line and get his nose in, but the door wasn’t open enough to get through without bumping into Griswold’s quarter panel and sending him spinning up the track. Tipton, Leach, Nishill Condoor, Zach Johnson, Mott, Vince Mitchell, Joe Wright, and Ray Gill would be the luckiest recipient, claiming that final transfer spot after the controversial move sent Griswold home after leading 38 out of 40 green flag laps.
“I’m not happy about it, but it’s racing. And that style of racing will be returned in due time.”
Garth Griswold #00 Hollywood Motorsports
The Show
The feature began with a bang. As the green flag waved, Pataska and Wolfe made contact down the front stretch, causing chaos and destruction that Floridians haven’t seen since it snowed three inches there two weeks ago. The front stretch became a disaster zone. It would take several laps to clean up and straighten the mess out, and the race would finally go back green on Lap 11.
Porter would take over as the front runner and hold that lead throughout the race’s first half. Saunders and Pataska would battle their way back to the front to secure the second and third-place positions before the competition caution came out on Lap 50. Cory Mott wouldn’t head to the pits and would stay out to take over the lead. Nathaniel Campbell and Vince Mitchell followed the same strategy and lined up second and third to start the race’s second half on Lap 55. Mott would lead the race for 34 laps until Pataska could return from the early destruction. Pataska would take the lead and hold onto that lead through the final 14 laps to claim victory at The Clash.
“USA is one of my favorite tracks and somewhere I have a lot of experience running Super-Late Modifieds. The carnage was tough, but I was lucky enough to make it back to the front and made some clean passes for the win.”
Dallas Pataska #17, Majors Garage Esports
