HAMPTON, Ga. — Story by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — JD Laird/ASCORS photo —

Mitchell Hunt played out the equivalent of high-speed highway robbery Wednesday night during round two of the ASCORS SegPay Truck Series presented by Garrett Smithley Racing at the virtual Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Hunt saved his tires to perfection and charged forward late in the race, passing Chase Cabre with 19 laps to go and leading the balance of the event en route to his first career ASCORS Truck victory in his first series start, after having missed the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway.

The iRacing veteran circled the strategy of conserving early and charging late as his ticket to victory lane after the race.

“Saving your stuff was huge tonight, with as quick as the tires burned up,” Hunt said. “Luckily for us, we had the longest green flag [run] of the night at the very end of the race, and all night long I had felt like that’s where I was best — being able to conserve my tires for the first 15 or 20 laps.”

“After not racing Daytona [a week ago], this is definitely helpful and a big boost for me. These mile-and-a-half tracks that get hot and slick as the run goes on play out well for me, and I think tonight is actually pretty telling of how the rest of the season will go. Who you saw in contention tonight will be the guys that will likely run up front for a lot of the season, so we’re excited about this one tonight and look to get a few more wins as the season goes on as well.”

Polesitter Adam Gilliland led off the start of Wednesday night’s event but was hounded early by fourth-starting Cabre, who worked his way into the runner-up spot on lap two and overhauled Gilliland for the lead on lap four. As the Pro-level veteran and NASCAR PEAK Antifreeze Series powered by iRacing regular dropped back to fifth in the early going, Cabre and Alex Monteferrante ran out to a one-second advantage over a star-studded field that included NASCAR on NBC analyst and Camping World Truck Series veteran Parker Kligerman.

Cabre held a consistent half-second advantage over Monteferrante until lap 21, when he had a huge slide off turn two and lost all his momentum down the straightaway — allowing the runner-up from the season-opening event at Daytona by to the top spot. Monteferrante would have to fend off the advances of Dustin Lengert until lap 25, when the first caution of the event came out for Daytona winner Doy Woods’ hard crash in turn three.

That yellow would send all the front runners down pit road for the first time, and a slow stop by Monteferrante would see him cede the point to Hunt, who took the lead off the pit exit, for the first time. Hunt would lead the field back to green at lap 31, but give up his lead after just one lap when both Lengert and Cabre blasted by in turns three and four.

Quickly, the battle would return to how it was on the first run, as Cabre and Monteferrante went to positions one and two by lap 34 — but the star of run number two would be Alan Elwood’s No. 5 Performance Powder Coating Toyota. Elwood would power around the outside of Cabre on lap 40 and lead six circuits before he was overhauled by first Justin Fuller and then Hunt for the top spot.

By the time Hunt’s No. 71 Chevrolet assumed command at the 47th round, he was prepared to make a statement — and make one he did.

Hunt would roll out to a 1.6 second advantage before the night’s second yellow flew at lap 54 for an incident exiting turn four. Garrett Smithley was tagged by the No. 19 of Tyler Dalton, collecting Leighton Sibille in the process and sparking a second round of early stops for the race leaders. Lightning pit work for Lengert’s crew would put him out front for a restart at lap 59, but he would see Cabre charge back to the point a lap later.

The ensuing run would see Kligerman sneak into the picture for the first time all night, moving to second on lap 62 and hovering in the top three along with teammate Byron Daley before he took the point for the first time on lap 72, but Cabre wasn’t done. The No. 39 stormed down the inside and shuffled the Focus-sponsored duo back on the outside lane and the next time by the stripe, Daley and Kligerman made contact and crashed down the frontstretch to unfurl the yellow flag for the third time on the 76th circuit.

As both Daley and Kligerman took their machines to the house and fell out of the race, Cabre held the lead through pit stops and for the first time all night, brought the field to the restart box as he led on the lap 81 green flag with Hunt to his outside. While Hunt would fall back in a hurry, Monteferrante would return to the conversation and renew his battle with the young Floridian for the third time on the night.

Appearances would have given Cabre about 10 laps before his main challenger would swallow up the lead — but this time, the race leader was ready.

He would maintain a third of a second advantage over Monteferrante all the way until lap 102, when the latter would charge to the inside in turn three and assume the race lead with 22 laps to go, but Cabre would stalk Monteferrante’s tire tracks for the next three laps before resuming command with 19 laps remaining.

However, Cabre didn’t count on the No. 71 of Hunt spoiling the party.

Hunt would blast in on the bottom lane to steal the lead away at lap 106, never looking back en route to a 2.5-second win over Gilliland after leading by as much as four seconds in the closing stages.

For the polesitter, who attempted to chase down Hunt but came up short in the end, the result was still a solid cap on his night — which saw him sit right on the edge of the top five for much of the race before his late surge.

“Pretty good night for us,” Gilliland said. “Yeah, I started on pole, but I knew tires were going to be a pretty big factor in the end. I tried to be really conservative with my pace the first three runs or so, and then the last one I think I just waited a bit to long to get on the button. Unfortunately because of that, I wasn’t able to get to Mitchell and battle for the win, but it was still a great night for our SpillFix-JEGS.com Toyota Tundra team nevertheless.”

“Always better to finish second than burn the equipment up and finish back outside the top 10, so I’m not complaining about our performance tonight at all.”

Lengert rounded out the podium, followed by Cabre and Monteferrante, who faded to fourth and fifth at the checkered flag.

“Tires got us tonight,” Cabre, the driver of the No. 39 UTI/NTI Chevrolet admitted. “I just used up my stuff way too soon. I’ve never been a good strategy guy, but overall I had a lot of fun — against the field that we had tonight, I’ll certainly take a fourth and push forward into the next race at Martinsville.”

Chad Coleman, Bentley Glaser, J.D. Laird, Richard Beasley and Michael Guest made up the balance of the top 10.

In SegPay Pole Qualifying, Gilliland led the way with a lap around the 1.54-mile quad-oval of 29.588 seconds (187.373 mph) for his first career series pole.

The ASCORS SegPay Truck Series presented by Garrett Smithley Racing returns to action for round three of their 2016 season on Wednesday, March 2 at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway, with action kicking off at 9 p.m. ET on LSRTV and iRacing Live.

RESULTS: ASCORS SegPay Truck Series presented by Garrett Smithley Racing; Atlanta Motor Speedway; Feb. 24, 2016

1. Mitchell Hunt
2. Adam Gilliland
3. Dustin Lengert
4. Chase Cabre
5. Alex Monteferrante
6. Chad Coleman
7. Bentley Glaser
8. J.D. Laird
9. Richard Beasley
10. Michael Guest
11. Justin Weaver
12. Tyler Dalton
13. Scott Mitton
14. Paul Nicholas Cooper
15. John Wilcko
16. James Shipman
17. Justin Fuller
18. Rich Jette
19. Davey Scovel
20. Tommy Rhyne
21. Mason Baker
22. Alan Elwood
23. Leighton Sibille
24. Allen Krier
25. Luis Calderon
26. Jesse Atchison
27. Steven O’Rourke
28. Corey Deuser
29. David Krikorian
30. Parker Kligerman
31. Byron Daley
32. Garrett Smithley
33. Brent Sweet
34. Doy Woods
35. James Craig Taylor

Lead Changes:  17 among 10 drivers

Lap Leaders:  Gilliland (1-3); Cabre (4-20, 34-39, 60-70, 75-101, 105); Monteferrante (21-27, 102-104); Hunt (28-31, 47-55, 106-124); Lengert (32-33, 57-59); Elwood (40-45); Fuller (46); Mitton (56); Daley (71); Kligerman (72-74).

Laps Led:  Cabre (62); Hunt (32); Monteferrante (10); Elwood (6); Lengert (5); Gilliland (3); Kligerman (3); Fuller (1); Mitton (1); Daley (1).

About the Writer

Jacob Seelman is the Managing Editor of Race Chaser Online and creator of the Motorsports Madness radio show, airing at 7 p.m. Eastern every Monday on the Performance Motorsports Network. Seelman grew up in the sport, watching his grandparents co-own the RaDiUs Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series team in the 1990s.

The 22-year-old is currently studying Broadcast Journalism at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., and is also serving as the full-time tour announcer for both the United Sprint Car Series and the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.

Email Jacob at: speed77radio@gmail.com

Follow on Twitter: @Speed77Radio or @JacobSeelman77

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