The Florida young gun and ARCA rookie of the year began to chop Irvan’s gap down methodically as the laps wound down, closing to within two car lengths of the back decklid of the No. 28, but the man on the move was Peltier.
Driving Roger Lee Newton’s No. 33, Peltier ran down both Irvan and Sargeant from a half-straightaway back in third before a caution with 45 laps to go – for a spin in turn four by Trevor Noles – bunched the field up and set the stage for a spectacular run to the finish.
Sargeant lowered the boom on the restart, surging around Irvan’s outside to become just the second different leader of the event on the 81st round.
Once out front, however, Sargeant flexed his muscle, pulling out to and maintaining a six car length advantage over Irvan as the polesitter dueled with Peltier for second.
Peltier made the pass on Irvan with 29 laps to go in turn three, moving in on Sargeant seven laps later as the duo raced masterfully through slower traffic.
At the 15 to go mark, Peltier’s car began to run hot and push steam out of the overflow valve, but the wily veteran kept digging and stayed in the throttle. He clawed at Sargeant’s back bumper as the duo worked traffic in the final laps, passing both Lee Tissot and Trevor Sanborn as he worked for one last shot.
But despite his best efforts, Peltier could not get alongside Sargeant in the end, having to settle for the runner-up finish.
“We were racing hard,” Peltier said of Sargeant in the final laps. “He was trying to hold me down and I was trying to stay up underneath him … we were both trying to win the race and he did a good job.”
“Honestly, the biggest thing that held me back was the shifter falling off in my hand 30 laps into the race. If it wasn’t for that I think we probably could have had him.”
Irvan completed the podium after leading the first 80 laps of the race.
“I just spun the tires a little bit on that restart there,” the second-generation driver admitted. “The track had a lot of rubber on it today, and we just got a bit of rubber built up (on the tires) to where when I went to fire off … the car just didn’t have enough to stay out in front. Air’s important at this track and we just didn’t have that when it mattered.”
May Concord winner Ryan Moore finished fourth, while Clay Rogers completed the top five.
Matt Craig’s sixth place finish was enough to secure him the 2016 PASS South championship, while Ben Rowe came home 15th to clinch his fourth PASS National championship.
The 2017 PASS South Super Late Model Series season kicks off Feb. 3-4 at South Carolina’s Dillon Motor Speedway.
