GAFFNEY, S.C. – Chris Madden bested a stacked field to win the 29th annual Blue Gray 100 at Cherokee Speedway Sunday, which served as the inaugural Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Series event.
Madden, again driving for Scott Bloomquist Racing, collected his sixth victory in the Blue Gray 100, which was co-sanctioned by the Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series.
“It’s pretty awesome to come here in front of our home crowd,” said Madden, who was a regular at Cherokee Speedway for years. “I have a huge fanbase here, and a lot of people don’t get to travel the road and watch us race, so it means a lot to be able to pick up a win whenever we do get to come here and race.”
From his seventh-place starting spot, Madden began his charge to the front in the early stages. Polesitter Zack Mitchell led through the first eight laps before Owens, piloting the Tommy Pope-owned No. 22 Longhorn Chassis, began working the high side of the speedway and drove around Mitchell on lap nine.
Madden kicked it into high gear, passing Mitchell for second on lap 20, and began his chase for Owens’ rear bumper. It didn’t take long for the Team Zero pilot to track Owens down, passing him on the high side less than 10 circuits later. Madden said there was no time to waste once he found his groove and caught sight of the leaders.
“I knew I needed to get to the front as quick as I could with the racetrack widening-out, just in case it one-laned,” Madden said. “I used up a little bit of tire there, but I knew I needed to get to the lead and get the [clean] air on my car to set my own pace.”
From that point on, it was lights out for the rest of the field. Madden set it on cruise control and went virtually unchallenged for the lead through lapped traffic and several caution flags to score his ninth Super Late Model win of the year in the Sweet-Bloomquist No. 0M, capping off a terrific season since changing teams more than five months ago.
Throughout his storied career, Madden has graced Cherokee Speedway victory lane numerous times in various special events. He’s raced on several different track conditions at Cherokee, and said Sunday’s racing surface was just right for a race of this caliber. That, and his great experience level gave him all the advantage he needed to get the job done.
“It had a top and it had a bottom that stayed there for quite a while,” Madden said. “I was able to roll through the middle of the racetrack pretty good.”
Contained within that Cherokee Speedway mental notebook Madden has developed over the years is a section on how to overcome its biggest obstacles. Especially in these 100-lap races, with no caution laps being counted, Madden said a great skill to have in the cockpit is how to save some of the racecar for the end.
“Tire management is always a big thing here,” Madden said. “That was another factor that’s not been a factor here with some of the other series, with them counting caution [laps] and all that. So that put some of those other guys back in play, but when we run 100 true green flag laps around this place, you’ve got to have some tire management, some throttle control and a well-balanced racecar, and we had it all tonight.”
Just a few days removed from his spot behind the wheel of the Barry Wright Race Cars house car, Ross Bailes came to Gaffney with a fire of determination burning inside as he drove fellow South Carolinian Johnny Pursley’s No. 9 to a solid runner-up finish.
Bailes said he had to play the waiting game for a bit once he reached the head of the field. Passing Mitchell for third just before halfway, Bailes was consistent in the low groove and held his position over the next 40 laps, setting himself up on Owens’ bumper for the final restart.
“I feel like if you start up front, the objective is to get to get out front quick. But if you start sixth like I did tonight, you’ve got to ride and wait for them to use their stuff up and then try to go after it,” Bailes said.
Into turn one he dove, swiping the runner-up spot away from Owens down low. With tire wear on his mind in the late stages, Bailes said he took caution, but not before pulling the biggest move of his race on the 2007 Blue Gray winner.
“That last restart with 10-to-go, I was just riding,” Bailes said. “I wanted to make sure that I got into one in front of Jimmy, and after that I just stayed on the bottom and just tried to make it to the end.”
Owens finished third to complete the podium. He led laps early but faded just a few spots as the race wore on, citing setup inaccuracies for his difficulty in the late stages.
“It was just way too tight,” Owens said. “The longer the race went, the tighter we got. Couldn’t turn.”
The finish:
1. OM-Chris Madden [6][$10,000]; 2. 9-Ross Bailes [1][$5,000]; 3. 22P-Jimmy Owens [4][$3,000]; 4. 24D-Michael Brown [5][$2,000]; 5. 76-Brandon Overton [2][$1,500]; 6. 88-Trent Ivey [10][$1,300]; 7. 2-Dennis Franklin [15][$1,200]; 8. 91-Derrick Ramey [11][$1,100]; 9. 17-Logan Roberson [13][$850]; 10. 79-Kyle Hardy [20][$800]; 11. 57M-Zack Mitchell [7][$750]; 12. O3-David Yandle [23][$700]; 13. 51M-Joey Moriarty [22][$650]; 14. 4-Matthew Nance [19][$600]; 15. 5-Corey Gordon [12][$550]; 16. 18-Brett Hamm [16][$500]; 17. 70-Jeff Smith [18][$500]; 18. 8-Kyle Strickler [21][$500]; 19. 77-Brian Connor [9][$500]; 20. 22-Chris Ferguson [3][$500]; 21. 42K-Cla Knight [8][$500]; 22. 2X-John Henderson [14][$500]; 23. 43A-Tyler Bare [17][$500]; 24. 421-Anthony Sanders [24][$500]