Chad Winkles hadn’t been to Columbus Speedway in nearly eight years.
“It had a bit more banking last time I was here,” Winkles said Friday.
It likely wouldn’t have mattered if Winkles had never been to The Bullring, as nothing has slowed his march toward a NeSmith Street Stocks points championship, except Josh Tomlin.
Winkles, of Hartselle, Alabama, entered Friday’s doubleheader points races at Columbus in second to Tomlin. Winkles was looking to sweep his second doubleheader this season after recently winning a pair of $1,000 races at Thunderhill.
He earned win No. 14 and a runner-up finish to Tomlin on Friday in the nightcap.
“The track was good and racy,” Winkles said.
In the first feature, Tomlin and Winkles raced door-to-door for the first three laps before Tomlin pulled away for the win.
“(Winkles) is a good racer,” Tomlin said. “We knew we’d have our hands full with him. I knew he’d drive me clean. I went to topside there, thought I had some momentum … looked like the bottom was a little bit better. But once I got him clear, I moved middle-bottom, and it ended up paying off.”
The win was Tomlin’s third in a row and fourth in his last seven. He debuted a new car after wrecking last week.
“It may have been a blessing in disguise … we got a fresh one that seems to be working better,” Tomlin said. “We’re back on a roll.”
Winkles said he lost a bit of momentum trying a higher line once Tomlin passed him.
“We got a bit of a bump and run, but that’s racing,” Winkles said. “We had a hell of a race first few laps, but then he got to the bottom and pretty much checked out on me. I tried moving up just a little bit, got in the black, and he pulled away even more. I got to the bottom and it seemed like we were running the same speed.”
Bryan Fortner, Michael Kirby, and Lee Ray rounded out the top five of the first feature.
Carroll wins eighth race of season
Hunter Carroll pulled away from Jeremy Shaw in the first few laps and won the NeSmith Late Model feature.
Carroll, who for 17 weeks led the NeSmith national points, said he’s now “racing for fun” after several weeks of low car counts bumped him out of the lead.
“If I can finish top 10 out of 350 cars, I’ll be happy,” Carroll said.
Carroll said he anticipated a close race with Shaw.
“The car is good some weekends, and some weekends it isn’t,” Carroll said, “but I figured we were going to run side by side. The top was kind of blown off and had a bunch of dust up there. I knew if I could get (Shaw) to start up there in that stuff, I could get away from him a bit. ”
Shaw took second, while Blake Koenigsberger and Matthew Brocato took third and fourth.
n In other race action, Kyle Shaw won the Late Model Stock feature. Jackson McCool, Corey Pennington, and Jimmy Anderson, Sr. rounded out the top four.
Justin Carter won the 602 Sportsman feature. Tony Shelton, Eric Mazingo, and Chris Rawson rounded out the top four.
Bill Sudduth won the Factory Stocks feature. Scooter Ware, Mike Shaw, John Beard, and Mark Thorne rounded out the top five.
Michael Butler won the Mini Stocks feature. Brandon Barnett, Carl Gray, Billy Yarbrough, and Ronnie Guin rounded out the top five.
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