SOPHIA, N.C. — Audio, photo and race report by Managing Editor Jacob Seelman for Speed77 Radio and Race Chaser Online —
There simply is no stopping Bradley McCaskill in the Southeast Limited Late Model Series in 2014.
McCaskill, who came into Caraway Speedway’s North/South Shootout weekend leading the SELLM Pro division points after his win at Caraway on July 2nd, returned to the track on a mission and did not disappoint. McCaskill powered around Buddy Alfred on lap 47 of Saturday night’s 100-lap feature and never looked back despite a flurry of cautions in the final quarter of the event.
McCaskill led 57 laps en route to the victory, his second of the season and second consecutive series win.
“The car was awesome — a lot of guys worked really hard on this piece,” McCaskill said in victory lane. “When we show up, we give nothing less than 110 percent. That’s what we gave tonight and I think it showed. About halfway, the car really came to me and it just never seemed to fall off any while everybody else was dropping back a little bit, and you know — here we are in victory lane again.”
McCaskill and Alfred exchanged the lead three times between each other in the first ten laps, but a red flag on lap 18 for the spectacular engine expiration of Danny Willis’ No. 23 machine put a 20-minute hold on the racing action for cleanup in turns one and two.
A 60-lap green flag run followed that stoppage, but yellow fever bit late, with nine cautions flying in the final 22 laps of the event.
The race’s two most spectacular cautions occurred during that stretch — one saw the No. 21 of Jimmy Wallace spin going into turn three and clip a fire extinguisher, ending his night in a misty haze, and the second occurred with two laps to go when the No. 50 of Boo Boo Dalton and polesitter Ryan Shattuck got together in turn four, resulting in Shattuck pounding the inside wall in an impact that sheared the door panel off of his No. 51 machine.
Both drivers walked away from the incident and Dalton went on to finish sixth, but Shattuck’s championship hopes took a serious hit as he dropped to 26 points behind McCaskill in the title fight.
Jason Tutterow claimed the victory in Friday night’s Challenger division race over Christian Eckes, who pulled double duty and finished seventh in Sunday’s Pro race after his runner-up Challenger result. Garrett Marchant completed the podium.
With the win, Tutterow took over the championship lead in the Challenger division from Michael Kitchins by six points (or three positions on the race track) with one race remaining. Kitchins finished fourth in Friday’s event.
The season finale for both classes in the Southeast Limited Late Model Series will be November 14-16 at Myrtle Beach Speedway as part of the lead-in weekend to the Myrtle Beach 400 for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series.
For more information, visit http://www.southeastllm.com/.
Audio with Pro division race winner Bradley McCaskill:
