Twitchy Race Reports

(CONCORD, NC) Sunday Funday tonight was the debut of a new series called the Sportsman Truck Series. This series was created to give lesser experienced drivers a chance to race for a championship and for wins. With the amount of new drivers coming to ASRS and the level of competitiveness that the officials have seen in the Sam Maxwell Customs Truck Series in 2017 and multiple drivers not being able to make the starting fields of the SMC Truck Series events this Sportsman Series was just thing for these drivers. Tonight the Series opener took place from the Charlotte Motor Speedway and would see a full thirty-two Truck field show up to compete for the first checkered flag on the series.

Leading qualifying would be Michael Atkins Jr. grabbing the pole, James Hobgood 2nd, Justin Vaughn 3rd, Nick Indelicato 4th, and Jamie Vaughn 5th. The race seen eight lead changes. Also would see eight caution flag periods for twenty-nine laps. Justin Vaughn would lead the most laps leading thirty-one laps. The race was as mentioned before a yellow filled event. The first wreck was a big pile up that took out multiple different drivers.

The race seen a pattern it would go roughly 5-7 laps before a caution flag would fly for various different reasons and wrecks. A couple key turning points would be a few penalties that were accessed during the event. Both of them would be off restarts. James Hobgood who would restart 2nd on a restart would change lanes before the start finish line and would end up having to serve a black flag penalty under green flag racing conditions. The other notable penalty would again be off a restart for the leader Jamie Vaughn who changed lanes also and would have to serve a black flag penalty under the green flag. The race would see a lot of good racing action.

Late in the race things got good off a restart with 11 laps to go. Jacob Cochran was the leader and John Kennedy who restarted 2nd got a good restart. Kennedy would run down Cochran and would pressure Jacob. The pressure would cause Cochran to make a slight mistake that would sent him into the turn 4 wall giving Kennedy the opening he was looking for. John Kennedy would take the lead with 3 laps to go and would go on to grab the Win. The race ended under yellow when Jacob Cochran would come down across Kris Titus’s nose and caused a big pile up on the back stretch. As mentioned John Kennedy took his Maxxed Out Motorsports #89 Toyota to victory lane grabbing his 1st Career ASRS Win.

We caught up with Kennedy following the win and he had the following to say “It feels good to finally get a win in the season opener. It was a real up and down race for us but was fun all around. I would like to thank my spotter Jared Mogard, my teammates, Maxxed Out Motorsports, St Baldrick’s Foundation, and Twitchy Race Reports” The top 5 looked like this John Kenned 1st, Michael Atkins Jr. 2nd, James Hobgood would rebound from his penalty to finish 3rd, Jesse Curry 4th, and Matthew Mitchell 5th. The ASRS Sportsman Truck Series is off until April 23rd when they will head to Bristol Motor Speedway for 100 laps of short track racing action.