David Breazeale hadn’t had his race car for more than a week when he took the track Saturday night at Magnolia Motor Speedway.
But if qualifying was any indication of how he’d fare in the season’s first race, the veteran Super Late Model driver knew he wouldn’t be tested by the end of the night.
Breazeale started on the pole and briefly trailed Ronny Lee Hollingsworth before re-gaining the lead on lap nine and winning the RockAuto.com Super Late Model feature race. Breazeale led by as many as seven seconds before closing the 25-lap race with a five-second edge over Hollingsworth.
“We were going to come here (Friday) to shake it down and get a few hot laps,” Breazeale said. “We were still undecided, though, if we would come here tonight or go somewhere else. But since we didn’t practice, we came here. I’m glad we did.”
Saturday marked the first time Breazeale turned laps in his new Barry Wright car. The Four Corners native spent the last 10 years driving for Henderson Motorsports and Randy Thompson. He ran his final race for Henderson in mid-February. The former Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series points champion has since scrambled to start a team, which includes a new car, a new shocks package, a new crew, and a new role for himself: CEO.
“I had to start over from scratch,” Breazeale said. “I haven’t had any of my own stuff for 11 years. We’ve been busting our butts trying to get everything together to make it tonight.
“It’s a lot of money to run late models, and that’s the reason I got out of it 10 years ago. But we decided this was the right time. I enjoyed driving for Henderson, Randy, and Voodoo Motorsports, but I felt like this is what we needed to do. So far, so good.”
Breazeale was powerful on re-starts, which came on laps 12 and 16. On each re-start, Breazeale opened up a multi-second lead on Hollingsworth, Neil Baggett, Rick Rickman, and Jamie Tollison, who finished two through five. Breazeale said the restarts actually helped him because he didn’t have to navigate as much lap-traffic.
“That first couple of laps after the restart, I just kind of ran my own pace and then backed it off from there,” he said. “Being out in front was the biggest thing for us. We didn’t think anyone could hang with us on the restarts.”
Breazeale said the lower side of the track had a rougher surface than the top, and he was gaining better traction and turning faster laps up top.
“Even if it’s faster (on the bottom), it’s just so hard to make a consistently fast lap,” he said. “Then, two laps later, we hit the lap traffic, and that’s when I had to start moving around. I got scared that one of them would sneak up on me and get by me.”
Breazeale said he doesn’t know how many races he’ll run this year. He’ll compete in State Series races, but he doesn’t plan to chase points.
In other action, Scott Dedwyler won the NeSmith Late Models feature race. Jeremy Shaw, Chase Washington, Evan Ellis, and Casey Haney rounded out the top five. Forty-six cars attempted to make the field of 24.
n Ronald Dunn won the Street Stocks feature. TK King, Spencer Hughes, Kevin Whittington, and Lee Ray rounded out the top five.
n Patrick Easterling won the Factory Stocks feature. Justin Ross, Jason Byrd, Cliff Childers, and Brad Gable rounded out the top five.
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