Stephen Nasse drove his Rowdy Manufacturing car to victory lane(Photo: @StephenNasse on Twitter)
The World Series of Asphalt continued on Wednesday night with action again taking place in the Super Late Model division at New Smyrna Speedway. After an off-season switch to a Rowdy Manufacturing chassis home state driver Stephen Nasse collected his first win of the 2020 season as he took the checkered flag and the winner’s trophy away from the Florida track.
Jesse Love was quickest in time-trials after he posted a lap of 17.894 seconds around the half-mile paved oval. That effort beat out Tuesday night winner Derek Griffith, Sammy Smith, Augie Grill, Stephen Nasse, Jett Noland, Jake Garcia, Gus Dean, Trey Bayne and Todd Stone.
The post-qualifying draw called for an invert of the top-4 positions which place Grill on the pole for the feature with Smith, Griffith and Love lining up in order on the grid.
At the start of the 35-lap feature Grill jumped to the early lead followed by Smith, Nasse, Griffith and Love. On lap 2 Nasse asserted himself by wresting second away from Smith and then set his sights on the race leader.
A lap 3 restart allowed Love to move up to the third spot as Nasse ran just off of Grill’s rear bumper. Nassse moved to the inside to contest the race lead on lap but Grill was able to fend off the charge. At the same time, Love closed quickly on the lead duo from third.
Ten laps into the event, Noland, Dean, Garcia and Stone engaged in a hotly contested fight for positions 6-9.
Grill appeared to be building an advantage as the race approached the 20-lap mark but Nasse then quickly closed the gap. As the cars raced into turn three on lap 21 there was just enough contact to send Grill’s No. 112 machine up the banking which allowed Nasse to assume the lead.
Under a lap 22 caution Grill pulled alongside Nasse and rolled beside the new leader down the backstretch.
When the race returned to green flag action Griffith was able to move around Grill to grab the runner-up spot. Grill then fell back into a three-way tussle for positions 3-5 with Dean and Love. Eventually, Love was able to pass by both of those cars to move into third.
But in the end, it was Nasse who would sail under the checkered flag to claim victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Stephen Nasse, 2. Derek Griffith, 3. Jesse Love, Jr., 4. Augie Grill, 5. Gus Dean, 6. Sammy Smith, 7. Jake Garcia, 8. Brad May, 9. Todd Stone, 10. Justin Mondeik, 11. Austin MacDonald, 12. Jerry Artuso, 13. Trey Bayne, 14. Max Calles-McDonald, 15. Ryan Moore, 16. Joe Valento, 17. Colin Garrett, 18. Patrick Thomas, 19. Kyle Sieg, 20. Jett Noland, 21. Vincent Staggs, 22. Steve Weaver, 23. David Rogers, 24. Kevin Ingram