BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Four more Crate Racin’ USA 604 Late Model features were run during night two of the Sunshine Nationals Friday at Volusia Speedway Park with 20 drivers locking into Saturday night’s finale.
Those drivers are Bubba Roling, Pearson Williams, Hayden Cardwell, Justin Williams, Ross Bailes, Ty Giles, Kyle Hardy, Logan Bradford, Trent Ivey, Daulton Wilson, Mario Gresham, Jeremy Steele, Corey Neil Jr, Trynt Lloyd, Deisel Jones, Austin Yarbrough, Matt Henderson, Bubba Whitener, Austin Bloodworth and Michael Page.
604 Late Model Feature No. 1
In the first trip to Volusia Speedway Park for Sunshine Nationals, Pearson Williams has found immediate comfort in the 604 Late Models.
Jared Delk led the field to the green flag with Williams to his outside. He attempted to take the lead on the opening lap by attempting a crossover move in Turns 3-4, but Delk held off his first chance to control the field.
Delk found his rhythm through the first four laps by keeping his No. 118 late model to the bottom while Williams followed suit.
On Lap 5, Delk began to lose control of his car through Turns 3-4 by losing his ability to keep the car on the bottom lane. Williams took advantage of the opportunity for the lead by keeping his car as low as possible to cut the distance between the two leaders.
On Lap 8, Delk’s handling struggled while defending the top spot from Williams through Turns 3-4, opening the door for the No. 121 late model to sweep under the Jamestown, Tenn., driver.
As Delk faltered from his handling, Bubba Roling and Koulten Herbert entered the picture as the biggest challengers to Williams in the feature’s second half.
As lapped traffic came in view of Williams, Roling picked up the effort to shorten the bubble by arcing his No. 515 to the bottom, then sliding up to the cushion off of each turn.
When Roling attempted to pass Williams with two laps remaining, the sole caution waved to give the drivers a final dash for the win.
Williams nailed the restart perfectly as Roling slipped to the cushion in Turns 1-2. Though Roling mustered a final slide job, Williams sped away to his first career win at Volusia.
“Oh my God, God is good,” Williams said. “I wish my wife was here. I can’t thank everybody enough. I’m speechless. It took a long time to get back here, and I mean, we go to the race to win. I just never expected to be here. We got an awesome race car.”
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 121-Pearson Williams[2]; 2. 515-Bubba Roling[3]; 3. 611-Koulten Herbert[4]; 4. 18BY-Austin Yarbrough[14]; 5. C02-Daulton Wilson[7]; 6. 16S-Sam Seawright[5]; 7. 41-Derike Bennett[8]; 8. 25-Derrick Stewart[6]; 9. 8-Josh Henry[17]; 10. USA1-Jimmy Thomas[9]; 11. 118-Jared Delk[1]; 12. 26-Jack Brown[13]; 13. 2S-Layton Sullivan[21]; 14. 7T-Tyler Thomason[10]; 15. 94-Holden Allen[11]; 16. 28-Austin Leamon[25]; 17. 17-Austin Storm[16]; 18. 55-Kyle Courtney[18]; 19. 17X-Brett Gray[20]; 20. 14W-Jake Whitehead[12]; 21. 4F-Rye Faulk[26]; 22. 125-Mark Underwood Jr[23]; 23. 3B-Billy Boyd Sr[22]; 24. 6B-Hunter Boyd[24]; 25. 6-Clay Harris[19]; 26. (DNS) 257-Skylar Marlar; 27. (DNS) 3-Caleb Gay
604 Late Model Feature No. 2
After spinning in Thursday’s 604 Late Models Feature 2, Deisel Jones left Volusia on Friday as a first-time Sunshine Nationals winner.
The Alabaster, AL driver began the 20-lap Feature from the pole as Trent Ivey and Bubba Whitener followed in tow through the bottom lane.
Ivey kept his distance from the Crate Racin’ USA Winter Shootout Series points leader by a one-second interval, but found it harder to gain ground on Jones.
When the lapped traffic occupied multiple lanes, Jones kept the No. 46 glued to the bottom of the track while the slower cars used higher lanes of the half-mile track.
In the final laps, Ivey took his No. G4 late model to the cushion in a last-ditch effort for victory, but Jones’s ability to stick to the deep end of the track proved the winning strategy, as he earned his first career win at the track on his first visit.
“We spun out yesterday, I heard it about 300 times today after we went fastest,” Jones said. “They’re like ‘Don’t spin out!’ and I was like ‘Yeah, that sounds good.’ So, I thought we were gonna get the win then, so this makes my confidence come back.”
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 46-Deisel Jones[1]; 2. G4-Trent Ivey[2]; 3. 8W-Bubba Whitener[4]; 4. 99-Kyle Hardy[5]; 5. 09-Ross Bailes[10]; 6. 18X-Michael Page[8]; 7. K7-Keaton Smith[3]; 8. 23V-Matt Henderson[6]; 9. 7A-Corey Almond[16]; 10. 15M-Mason Massey[7]; 11. 56-Christian Schneider[11]; 12. 5-Wil Herrington[9]; 13. 85-Corey North[14]; 14. 87-Jake Rainey[18]; 15. 12C-Chase Giddens[19]; 16. 15N-Nevin Gainey[13]; 17. 2P-Terry Poore[15]; 18. 15-Marty Massey[12]; 19. 36H-James Haynes[26]; 20. 33-Gavin Johnson[17]; 21. 7-Slate Jones[20]; 22. 59-Brandon Catto[21]; 23. 18-Josh Vinyard[23]; 24. 18B-Todd Brewster[25]; 25. 27W-Rob Westergard[24]; 26. 18I-Jason Intoppa[22]
604 Late Model Feature No. 3
In Logan Bradford’s first visit to Volusia, he will leave the weekend as a Sunshine Nationals Feature winner.
The Huntsville, Ala., driver worked from ninth at the drop of the green flag as polesitter Austin Bloodworth took a one-second advantage over Tim Clark through the first half of chasing a $1,500 payday.
Behind the leaders, Bradford maneuvered through the pack by reaching the top five by Lap 7, then moved into the podium with a three-wide dive into Turn 3 on the bottom for the positions on the next lap.
On Lap 12, the caution was thrown for a slowing Mikey Kopka in Turn 4. On the ensuing restart, Clark got loose through the middle of Turn 1 and clipped the right rear of Hayden Ownby, sending Clark into the Turn 2 wall and out of the race. He was able to drive away, but his chances of winning ended.
The final restart of the Feature saw the “Rocket City Kid” take a slide job against Bloodworth in Turns 1-2. While the two drivers narrowly made contact, Bradford took the lead and grew the gap to 2.7 seconds in the final seven laps for his first Sunshine Nationals straw hat.
“This is my first-ever CRUSA win, and to be at this place, it’s probably one of the biggest things I’ll do in my career,” Bradford said. “I just can’t thank everybody enough for helping me. I felt like if we got some green flag laps in, I felt like I would have been one of the contenders. After we got going, I knew I had the car to win.”
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 67-Logan Bradford[9]; 2. 51-Mack McCarter[5]; 3. 24-Austin Bloodworth[1]; 4. 44O-Hayden Ownbey[6]; 5. 9-Nick Johnson[4]; 6. 14AJ-AJ Miller[16]; 7. 13-Landon Mathews[8]; 8. 721-Blake Clouser[14]; 9. 17J-John Winge[12]; 10. 67C-Gregory Carrico[17]; 11. 19P-Matthew Porter[10]; 12. 44P-Kole Platt[7]; 13. 1A-David Showers Jr[15]; 14. 28W-David Williamson[11]; 15. 43-Jarrett Edwards[23]; 16. 4-Kale Green[18]; 17. 54T-Tuck Trentham[13]; 18. 58-Trent McLeod[19]; 19. (DNF) 22T-Tim Clark[2]; 20. (DNF) 96-Mikey Kopka[20]; 21. (DNF) 32K-Kimber Crooms[25]; 22. (DNF) 23S-Toby Sims[3]; 23. (DNF) 4M-Billy Boyd Jr[21]; 24. (DNF) 16G-Austin Gonzalez[22]; 25. (DNF) 91A-Matt Adams[24]; 26. (DNS) 00R-John Ruggiero Jr
604 Late Model Feature No. 4
In the first visit to Volusia since 2022, Justin Williams completed Friday night’s 604 Late Model racing with his first trip to Sunshine Nationals vctory lane.
Williams began the feature in sixth as 602 Late Model winner Hayden Cardwell set the early pace in his No. 17c machine. Then, racing slowed on Lap 4 with the first caution of the Feature.
On the restart, Williams caught momentum on the outside line while Cardwell struggled to gain race-leading speed.
The Lynchburg, Va., driver gained clearance across the backstretch, then cut to the bottom of Turn 3. In doing so, Cardwell’s late model was disrupted by the dirty air and sent him out of the groove.
While Cardwell kept the forward momentum, it left a gap for Jeremy Steele and Thursday winner Ty Giles to move into the podium positions.
With Williams at the front, he paced the field to a 1.1-second lead over Steele until a near-scare on Lap 13 with a slowing lapped car forced him to move up into the wall. Fortunately for Williams, no damage hurt his chances as he led to the restart.
Steele gained the outside momentum against Williams to set up for a pass, but Williams defended by moving to the high side. Steele reached the left quarter panel of the No. 7w, but the two made contact at the bottom of Turn 3, forcing Steele to shift to the high side exiting Turn 4.
After securing the lead, Williams drove to a 1.4-second lead to set the stage for him to prepare a chase for $10,000 on Saturday night.
“Man, this is an awesome racetrack,” Williams said. “I thought that lapped car screwed me up there, and I thought I was going to let it get away. Luckily, the caution ended up coming out and I got my spot back. Like I said, what an awesome racetrack. This is my second time coming down here, and this time was a lot better than my first experience.”
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 7W-Justin Williams[6]; 2. 22S-Jeremy Steele[4]; 3. 97T-Ty Giles[8]; 4. T99-Mario Gresham[5]; 5. 17C-Hayden Cardwell[1]; 6. 1*-Mavrick Davidson[13]; 7. 2L-Trynt Lloyd[23]; 8. 66-Jody Knowles[7]; 9. 7N-Corey Neil Jr[2]; 10. 57-Landen Zakalowski[18]; 11. 30-Curtis Glover[3]; 12. 00W-Ethan Wilson[9]; 13. 2-Zack Carley[17]; 14. 14-Cade Brookshire[16]; 15. 25C-Donnie Chappell[20]; 16. 44-Kam Boyd[12]; 17. 131-Matt Herlong[19]; 18. 23D-Tim Damron[14]; 19. 07B-Baily Cardwell[11]; 20. 31S-Tim Swartz[21]; 21. 4D-Trey Davis[22]; 22. 18G-Ricky Greene[10]; 23. 71C-Davy Cline[24]; 24. 26B-Adam Bedenbaugh[15]; 25. 07-Ivedent Lloyd[25]; 26. 47-Ryan West[26]
