HICKORY, N.C. – Hickory Motor Speedway opened the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series season on Saturday, with Ryan Millington and Josh Kossek taking victories in a pair of 40-lap late model stock car features.
The first 40-lap feature saw Landon Huffman and Millington wage a race-long war for the lead. Huffman led most of the race, but Millington was able to get alongside Huffman and challenge him for the lead in the final five laps.
The pair made contact several times as they raced for the lead, with Huffman briefly pulling ahead of Millington down the backstretch as they raced towards the white flag. Huffman was the leader at the white flag, but out of turn two Millington ran Huffman up the track to take the lead.
Huffman was able to pull the crossover and used the bumper to get back under Millington through turns three and four. The pair made contact again, with Millington able to beat Huffman to the line by half a car length as Huffman slid into a tire barrier in the first turn just past the start/finish line.
The end of the first @NASCARRoots @AdvanceAuto Weekly Series late model stock race of the year at @hickoryspeedway was wild as @LandonHuffman & @Ryan_M_Racing17 battled for the win! You can watch it all On Demand now at https://t.co/xMQJz9yaSo! pic.twitter.com/gtcNpurKWO
— SPEED SPORT TV (@speedsporttv) March 7, 2021
The two traded words post-race in victory lane, with Millington saying he did what he had to do to win the race.
“He knows how racing at the top of this place is,” Millington said of Huffman. “You’ve just got to do what you’ve got to do. I didn’t run through him. If you look at these tires, I took some white off of them, but I didn’t completely drive through him. I pushed him up the track, I got him out of the way, I did what I had to do.
“That was completely his decision to let off and come back there and try boosting me out of the way going into turn three. It wasn’t my fault and he’s the one who drove through my left rear.”
Huffman had a different opinion of how the last lap played out.
“There was only one way to beat me there and that’s use me up for 10 straight laps,” Huffman said. “I come up here my whole life and I don’t race anybody like that. If he’s going to race me like that, we’ll put this thing back together and he won’t beat me in the next one.”
The second 40-lap feature was dominated by Kossek, but all eyes were on the battle for second between Huffman and Millington in the closing laps as they picked up where they left off in the first feature.
Huffman was able to get around Millington earlier in the feature, but was unable to challenge Kossek for the lead. Millington was then able to get alongside Huffman coming to the white flag, but Huffman held him off to finish the race in second behind Kossek.
The victory by Kossek was his first in the headlining late model stock division at Hickory after he captured the Hickory Motor Speedway limited late model track championship last season.
“During the first race we were a little too tight. I just really didn’t want to use my stuff up then so I just kind of laid back and saved a little bit,” Kossek said. “I ended up grabbing the lead on the top, a move I’ve done plenty of times here and it just worked out in my favor that time and I led all 40 (laps).”