MARNE, Mich. – A perfect restart led local favorite Brian Campbell to a $20,000 payday during the second annual Money in the Bank 150 on Monday night at Berlin Raceway.
Campbell shot past Bubba Pollard, who was going for his third victory in four days, on the inside of turn two when the green flag waved with four laps left and never looked back. He went on to take the twin checkers by .421 of a second to end Pollard’s weekend winning streak in front of a frenzied crowd.
“I will race against that man any day of the week,” Campbell said of Pollard in victory lane. “We beat him today. He’s beat us before. I cannot say enough about Bubba Pollard. What an amazing battle we had at the end there. That was so much fun.”
A native of Wyoming, Mich., Campbell’s victory was made even more impressive by the fact that he spun to avoid the stalled car of Preston Peltier in turn two with seven laps left, leaving the state of his Hoosier tires in doubt over the closing stages.
However, Campbell left no doubt about his will to win by the time the race was over, after his white No. 47 super late model shot forward like a cannon when it mattered most.
“I was a little nervous after the spin … but you have to put all that out of your mind,” Campbell later added. “I guess those yellows helped us, though. I was complaining about the yellows. I did not expect that, I’ll tell you that.”
Though Pollard was the fast man in time trials earlier in the day, a six invert put Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series star Kyle Busch on the pole for the 150-lap feature, and Busch wasted no time asserting his dominance for much of the night.
He led the first 95 laps virtually uncontested, unfazed by a competition caution after the first 50 circuits went uninterrupted and only challenged after a second yellow on lap 95 for the spinning car of Nate Walton.
On the restart with 55 laps left, Pollard put up a brief attack and actually led the 96th circuit by .004 of a second, but Busch used a quick crossover off turn two to reclaim the top spot and continued leading until his No. 51 Mobil 1 Toyota began to fade inside of 40 to go.
As Busch faded, Pollard and Campbell began to rise. Pollard had lurked in the runner-up spot since passing Terry Senneker on lap 80 and finally made his charge to the point with 36 to go. He sailed to the outside and drove around Busch for the lead exiting turn four, bringing Campbell with him and creating a three-horse race for the winner’s check between three titans of short track racing.
The trio danced masterfully through traffic in the closing stages, sometimes only inches apart and nearly touching, but never making any significant contact and all keeping their cars straight in their pursuits of the victory.
Finally, the pressure cooker burst with seven to go, when Peltier looped his car in the middle of turns one and two and Campbell skidded in with nowhere to hide, narrowly avoiding slamming into Peltier’s stopped machine and able to resume his position for the ensuing restart.
Pollard elected the outside lane and held Campbell at bay, while Johnny VanDoorn pushed past Busch to briefly assume a spot on the podium before another yellow flew with four laps left and set up an additional restart.
From there, a crash involving Chris Koslek and Senneker on the waving of the green set up the final dash to the finish, in which Pollard stumbled and Campbell pounced.
Pollard won the Master of the Pros 200 at nearby Birch Run Speedway on Friday, worth $12,000, and added another $10,000 check for winning Saturday’s CARS Tour/Southern Super Series combo event at Anderson Motor Speedway in South Carolina before flying back to Michigan for Monday’s Berlin race.
Had he been able to complete the triple, Pollard would have pocketed $42,000, but he circled the flurry of late-race restarts as his undoing at the seven-sixteenths-mile oval.
“It was a good weekend,” Pollard said. “That last restart was just really tough. I got some good restarts on the first couple, but he finally got a good one when it counted the most. When you have that many restarts at the end of one of these races, you’re bound to fumble one eventually and we got bit.
“This is a tough way to lose one. That’s part of racing though. We’ll come back and try again. It’s hard to beat Brian around this place. He’s good shoe around here and he’s got a lot of laps. I’m glad we could run up front with him and have a good race.”
After leading 113 of 150 laps, Busch rallied back around VanDoorn on the final restart to complete the podium. His NASCAR Camping World Truck Series protégé Harrison Burton finished fifth.
The finish:
Brian Campbell, Bubba Pollard, Kyle Busch, Johnny VanDoorn, Jeff Choquette, Casey Roderick, Carson Hocevar, Stewart Friesen, Terry Senneker, Michael Simko, Boris Jurkovic, Jordan Dahlke, Preston Peltier, Dave Lake, Steve Dorer, Stephen Nasse, Aaron Hulings, Nick Murgic, Matt Crafton, Hunter Jack, Ben Welch, Chris Koslek, Tim DeVos, Nate Walton, Logan Bearden, Lee VanDyk, Evan Shotko, Lauren Bush, Kyle Jones, Tristan Van Wieringen.
