By DAVID MILLER
Special to The Dispatch
Chase Washington is getting used to the winner’s circle.
The Houlka native won his third NeSmith Crate Late Model feature of the season after leading 25 uncontested laps of the main event Friday at Columbus Speedway. The win marked Washington’s second this season at Columbus and fifth finish of second place or better, regardless of track.
“It’s been a while since we’ve been on a hot streak like this,” Washington said. “We really haven’t done anything different … we just started off like we did last year.”
The early slate of races at both Columbus Speedway and Magnolia Motor Speedway have featured car counts between 10 and 15, and Washington said part of his blazing start to the season has been “luck.” But he also attributes the early-season form to starting up front. Despite rough track conditions, Washington started on the pole for the second straight race at Columbus.
“In crates, that’s a big part of how your night is gonna end up,” Washington said. “In the first couple of races, we’ve set fast time or been second fastest. You have to be on that front row – it’s not easy, but it makes things a lot simpler. You just don’t have to worry as much.
“Our program has stepped up, but most of it has been me. I’ve learned to adjust to the track faster than I’ve used to.”
Washington weathered a pair of cautions, the last of which saw Aaron Cummings’ rear axle break and lose a left-rear wheel.
Ben Brocato held off Hunter Carroll for second place, while Bryant Marsh and Justin Carter finished in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Shelton remains perfect at Columbus
Tony Shelton won his third straight race at Columbus and notched his fifth top-3 finish of the season.
Shelton dominated a bottom-dominate track Friday, easily pulling away from Mitchell Holloway on a late restart.
“The track got to be real racy along the bottom,” Shelton said. “I came out there with a certain setup for the hot laps and heat race, and of course I had to change it for the feature because it started slicking off on the bottom, but the car was perfect.”
Friday marked the first time track promoter Rod Taylor allowed two 602 features, one for NeSmith 602 Sportsman drivers — which requires a sealed 602 motor — and one for built motors. Shelton won the Nesmith 602 race, while Chad McCool won the “Stock Late Model” race.
Prior to this season, NeSmith took control of the division and mandated that competitors in the now “602 Sportsman” class use sealed Crate motors, and many tracks in the area, including Magnolia and Columbus, both of which use NeSmith rules for other divisions, adopted it. Of course, tracks can allow both divisions, but the Stock Late Model finishes will not count toward NeSmith points series.
“Rod had a lot of requests from some of the drivers, so he had both,” Shelton said. “I really expected more of the guys who ran in the division last year to buy the engine for [the Sportsman] class. I don’t know how our division will do this year, but we had half of each last year and was up to 18 or so cars last year.”
The average car count for the 602 Sportsman division between both Columbus and Magnolia this season is seven.
Kody Holland, Allen Simmons and Chance Duckworth rounded out the top 5.
In other race action:
n Lee Ray won the Street Stocks feature. Jamie Sudduth, Brent Mitchell, Doug Dodd and Bryant Fortner rounded out the top 5.
n Chad McCool won the Late Model Stock feature. Ray Mauldin, Johnny Kelly, Felix George and Chris Moreland rounded out the top 5.
n Jason Byrd won the Factory Stocks feature. Tyler Castle, Kevin McWilliams, Robert McCann and Todd Gentry rounded out the top 5.
n Matt Meadows won the Mini Stocks feature. Tracy Terrell, Nick Deese, Sam Ramsey and Tony Yarbrough rounded out the top 5.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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