Twitchy Race Reports

(BRISTOL, TN) The ASRS Sportsman Truck Series returned to action as the drivers made their way to the Bristol Motor Speedway for some short track racing. It would be a short shootout only being 100 laps. There were twenty-five drivers who made trip for the 2nd race of the season. In qualifying it would see Michael Atkins Jr. put his #44 on the pole of the event. The top 5 were Jake Greider 2nd, Michael Guidry 3rd, Tim Knott 4th, and Michael Cunic 5th. The race seen nine caution flag periods for fourty-five laps. There were five different lead changes between five different drivers. The race was much like the SMC Truck Series this past Tuesday where the race seen an average of 9-10 laps before the yellow flag would fly.

The race saw different drivers dominate and appear to be on their way to victory. Michael Guidry would lead the first 26 laps and appeared to be very dominate. He was going to be very hard to beat but when he decided to make a pit stop it would hand the lead over to Michael Cunic in his #34 Truck. Cunic would look to be the man that was going to drive to victory lane as he fending off a hard charging Jake Greider. A yellow flag that involved a lap car and the leaders would cost Cunic the race lead.

This chain of events would hand the lead to the #03 of Jake Greider. Greider who had a tough start to the Sportsman Truck Series at Charlotte was fast all night and once he got out front looked to be very hard to beat. However off a restart with roughly twenty-five laps to go Greider would spin the tires pushing him up the track. The officials deemed this to be a lane change before the start/finish line and as a result Greider would have to serve a black flag penalty under green flag racing conditions.

The misfortune for the #03 team would be the break that point leader and opening race winner John Kennedy was looking for as he would gain the lead following the penalty. The race would see three caution periods once Kennedy had his #89 Toyota out front but John would not look back. He would fend off a last lap last corner ditch effort from the #7 of Justin Vaughn to cruise on to his 2nd career ASRS Win and his 2nd win on the 2017 ASRS Sportsman Truck Series Season. We caught up with Kennedy following the Win and he had this to say about going 2 for 2 “Wow 2 in a row it feels good when we qualified in the back I thought we were in trouble. But after a few laps we were starting to make our way forward. We got in to a little trouble halfway through and I thought I was done but we were able to rebound from that and got the win. I can’t thank my spotter Jared Mogard enough for keeping me calm during the whole race. I also got to thank my teammates at Maxxed Out Motorsports. I would also like to thank my wife, Twitchy Race Reports, Maxxed Out Motorsports, and St. Baldrick’s Foundation.” There is no “playoffs” for the Sportsman Series so it’s an “old school” get the most point’s type of system. The current top 5 in the standings are as followed. John Kennedy has the point lead followed by Tristan Rodgers 2nd, Kris Titus 3rd, Jacob Cochran 4th, and Justin Vaughn 5th.

The ASRS Sportsman Truck Series is back in action in two weeks May 7th from the Chicagoland Speedway for a 67 lap event. Can Kennedy complete the hat trick to start the season off or can someone else cruise to their first ASRS Victory be sure to stay tuned in two weeks.