April 12, 2014 — Audio, story and photo by Managing Editor Jacob Seelman for Speed77 Radio, Race Chaser Online and USCS Racing — GASTONIA, N.C. — Rick Goss likes Carolina Speedway. And Friday night, Carolina Speedway liked Rick Goss.
Goss, a native driver out of Charlotte, North Carolina, took off from the field and annihilated his competition during the USCS RockAuto.com 600 Sprint Car Series portion of the “Spring Speed Xplosion”, scoring his third career 600 class feature win at Carolina Speedway and his fourth overall USCS 600 Sprint Car Series victory.
“We just had a really fast hot rod this evening,” Goss said in victory lane. “It’s always special to win here at the Carolina Speedway, in front of my hometown fans. I hope they enjoyed the show tonight.”
Goss led Shreve, Ohio hotshoe Trevor Baker to the checkered flag by a full straightaway at the finish. Baker, who scored his previous career-best USCS finish of third at Carolina Speedway last October, improved that mark by one spot but came up just short of his first-career victory.
“We had a really solid night tonight; so proud of my crew for making this car better and better all night long,” Baker expressed following the event. “Just didn’t have what Rick did there at the end. He was bad fast.”
Dirk Miller, Coby Adams and 2013 Florida Mini Sprint Champion Nick Snyder completed the top five at the finish.
The rest of the top ten included defending Carolina Speedway 600 winner, from Linwood, N.C., Justin Lineman in sixth, Dan Jones running seventh, Bo Barber finishing eighth, female mini-sprint driver Raelynn Moss (DeLan, FL) in ninth and USCS 600 Sprint Series veteran Mike Magic rounding out the top ten.
Defending USCS RockAuto.com 600 Sprint Car Series national champion Sean Hosey struggled throughout the evening and was never in contention, finishing in 14th place.
Rick Goss started the event from the K&N Filters Pole Position and streaked to the lead on the opening lap, never looking back as Adams, Miller and Baker tussled behind him for the runner-up position. A pair of early race cautions slowed the pace during the first five laps, but on each restart, Goss was able to get away from the rest of the field.
Baker was finally able to wrest second away from Miller after the third and final caution of the night but from there was unable to mount a charge against Goss, who was already 15 car lengths clear with five laps to go and raced home unchallenged.
Goss kicked off the night’s action by winning the Hoosier Power Dash, Nick Snyder won the Engler Machine and Tool First Heat and Matt McCullough won the ButlerBuilt Second Heat.
14-year-old Brandon Taylor, out of Cumming, Georgia, had a scary moment in his heat when his motor began spewing boiling oil back into the cockpit, causing minor heat burns for Taylor. However, the young driver, who was celebrating his birthday Friday night, persevered and returned to start the feature, charging from 20th to 8th before the motor began to go sour again.
The USCS RockAuto 600 Sprint Car Series continues their 2014 campaign Saturday night at the East Lincoln Speedway for Round 2 of the mini-sprint portion of the “Spring Speed Xplosion”.
RESULTS: USCS Rockauto.com 600 Sprint Series Feature; Carolina Speedway; April 11, 2014
- 9R – Rick Goss
- 13 – Trevor Baker
- 68 – Dirk Miller
- 52x – Coby Adams
- 116 – Nick Snyder
- 54 – Justin Lineman
- 8 – Dan Jones
- 14 – Bo Barber
- 8M – Raelynn Moss
- 5M – Mike Magic
- 30 – John Crowder
- 42 – Tim Nye
- 3D – Robert Snyder
- 6 – Sean Hosey
- 07 – Brandon Taylor
- 67 – David Hall
- 14M – Matt McCullough
- 52 – Keith Granholm
- 20 – Jackson Wellman
- 98R – Joshua Rummage
Audio with race winner Rick Goss:
Audio with 2nd-place Trevor Baker:
Audio with Brandon Taylor post-race:
