COLUMBUS, Miss. — Topping a mid-race battle with Ethan Dotson for the lead, Spencer Hughes went on to bank the $5,000 COMP Cams Super Dirt Series Super Late Model win on Friday night at Johnny Stokes’ Magnolia Motor Speedway during the opening round of the 2024 edition of the Clash at the Mag.
“I’ll have to go back and watch that one, I can only imagine what all was going on behind me there,” Hughes said. “We got the lead there and it was really good, but just more of that lapped traffic and stuff that we really didn’t know where to be (on the track). I just kept down there watching (crewman) Caleb (Todd), and I think at times, I needed to be up higher.”
California’s Dotson led the first eight laps from the outside front row before the fourth-starting Hughes jumped to the lead on the ninth circuit. Hughes led the way until lap 14 when Dotson inched ahead to once again lead. However, Hughes wouldn’t be denied, taking the lead back on the 15th circuit en route to his third-career CCSDS win.
Dotson saw his bid for the win come to an end after a slider from Ashton Winger resulted in heavy damage to his nose. Dotson retired on lap 17 to a 23rd-place finish.
Ninth-starting Ashton Winger finished second 0.747 seconds back with the eighth-starting Freeman in fourth, sixth-starting Chad Thrash in fourth, and 10th-starting Stormy Scott rounding out the top five.
Jon Kirby earned the MD3 Hard Charger award for advancing from 25th to 15th.