LUCAMA, NC – While Doug Barnes, Jr. once again dominated at Southern National Motorsports Park on Saturday, his victory in the 100-lap race once again came down to a late race pass.
A caution with 16 laps remaining when Casey Kelley and Cassidy Keitt tangled erased Barnes’ lead over Fryar and bunched the field back up. Fryar got by Barnes on the ensuing restart and started to inch away until Barnes was able to close back in on Fryar and retake the lead with eight laps remaining to score his third consecutive win at the 4/10-mile track in Wilson County.
The victory also clinched the Speed Week championship for the driver who goes by ‘Air Doug’ on his viral YouTube channel.
“I just want to give a big shout out to Jared,” Barnes said. “He ran me really hard, exactly the way I expected him to, but neither one of us are going home with a torn up racecar. That’s what this is all about. He’s a heck of a driver. I’ve got a ton of respect for him and he gave me a lot of respect this week. It was fun.
“We both knew we were probably the class of the field when it came down to it so starting first and second was going to be exciting,” Barnes continued. “I think that buffer I got in the beginning lasted longer than he anticipated so he had to use it up to get to me, and then the caution came out, reracked them, and we went at it.”
Fryar was once again forced to settle for a runner-up finish for the third consecutive day after winning on Wednesday night.
“I got in front of him and stayed in front of him for a couple laps and I felt like I could hold him off,” Fryar said. “My car was really good at the time. He just got by me and he was obviously better than me. It was a great race. I enjoyed racing with Doug. We raced each other clean. We pushed each other around but didn’t wreck each other and we could get out, shake hands and laugh about it. It was a fun week.”
Michael Fose finished in the third position while Cody Kelley and defending track champion Ryan Joyner rounded out the top-five.
Michael O’Brien, a former track champion at Southern National, picked up his first win in Speed Week in the Charger division and it was enough to clinch the week-long division championship.
“I didn’t think we’d get the Speed Week championship,” O’Brien said after the race. “Lucky more so on that end. We worked on the car all week to make it better from the other weekend. My spotter made a chassis call this morning and it put this thing on sail. Thankful for everybody that helps out.”
Ryan Zima completed the Speed Week sweep in a chaotic Legends feature which was red flagged three times, two for on-track incidents and the third for a brief rain delay. Much like Friday night, Zima once again had to work his way through the field to pick up the win and was able to do just that.
“This is the first time I’ve done this Speed Week and I’ll definitely be back next year,” Zima said. “The Lord wanted me to stay humble and make sure I had my race craft under me so, I knew once I qualified back there, I would have to be smart and let it come to me.”
Robert Arch, who is also a former track champion, clinched the Mini Stock Speed Week championship with his victory.
“Anytime you can win, it’s pretty awesome,” Arch stated. “Anytime you can come out here and race, win, and put on a good show, nothing beats it.”
Rylan Speight won the race and Speed Week championship in Bandolero, holding off Landon Burbage, while Andrew Watson was victorious in Any Car – also winning a Speed Week championship.
Southern National Motorsports Park’s Ultra Racing Association season continues on Saturday, March 29 with Late Models, Chargers, Legends, Mini Stocks, Bandoleros, Any Cars, and an appearance from the Virginia Mini Cup Racing Association. Next Saturday, March 22, Catch My Drift (CMD) will invade Southern National Motorsports Park with an afternoon of drifting action.
For more information about Southern National Motorsports Park, visit snmpark.com.
Unofficial Results
Late Model Stock Car
Feature Race (100 Laps): 1.) #88 – Doug Barnes JR[1]; 2.) #14 – Jared Fryar[2]; 3.) #54 – Michael Fose[3]; 4.) #98 – Cody Kelley[4]; 5.) #15 – Ryan Joyner[8]; 6.) #63 – Tyler Matthews[6]; 7.) #16C – Casey Kelley[12]; 8.) #4F – Jonathan Findley[10]; 9.) #6 – Nathan Lyons[13]; 10.) #1 – Andrew Grady[11]; 11.) #8 – Cassidy Kiett[14]; 12.) #51C – Matt Cox[5]; 13.) #2 – Ryan Wilson[7]; 14.) #7 – Bradley McCaskill[9]
Charger
Feature Race (50 Laps): 1.) #61 – Michael O’Brien[1]; 2.) #41 – Austin Ferrell[2]; 3.) #54L – Thomas Lee[4]; 4.) #14 – Davis Renfrow[8]; 5.) #J12 – Wesley Johnson[6]; 6.) #42 – London McKenzie[9]; 7.) #50L – Blake Lothian[5]; 8.) #50 – Cody Griffin[7]; 9.) #21 – Sarah Whitesell[12]; 10.) #11 – Timothy Brown[3]; 11.) #16 – Brandon Head[10]; 12.) #21B – Gerald Benton[11]; 13.) #21D – Daniel Benton (DNS)
Legend Car
Feature Race (25 Laps): 1.) #4W – Ryan Zima[2]; 2.) #51B – Scotty Benford[3]; 3.) #27N – Nick Bulkeley[1]; 4.) #11 – Cody Carlton[7]; 5.) #9 – Brody Rhodes[6]; 6.) #117 – Nathan Williams[8]; 7.) #5X – Jesse Martinez[14]; 8.) #22C – Chase Burgeson[5]; 9.) #12 – Colton Hale[4]; 10.) #00C – Aaron Crumpler[17]; 11.) #34 – Trent Dillard[9]; 12.) #18 – Tony Arnold[21]; 13.) #19 – Maddox Hooper[12]; 14.) #28 – Oliver Missner[10]; 15.) #19H – Brandon Hooker[25]; 16.) #80H – Art Hahn[22]; 17.) #80 – Paityn Feyen[18]; 18.) #T2 – Camden Truett[23]; 19.) #00 – Josh Oomen[26]; 20.) #16 – Sam Macedo[15]; 21.) #14 – Bret Hicks[27]; 22.) #316 – Kaedin Ridenhour[24]; 23.) #00J – Ronnie Ray Jones[19]; 24.) #17P – Josiah Phillips[11]; 25.) #48 – Mason Weakley[16]; 26.) #27 – Diego Mendeztorres[13]; 27.) #36 – Guy Howard Moore[20]
Mini Stock
Feature Race (40 Laps): 1.) #16 – Robert Arch[1]; 2.) #81 – Chuck Wall[3]; 3.) #24 – AJ Sanders[4]; 4.) #48 – Duane Walker[5]; 5.) #1 – Shane Canipe[2]; 6.) #12 – Jay Hemenway[7]; 7.) #72 – Brandon Johnson (DNS)
Bandolero
Feature Race (15 Laps): 1.) #45 – Rylan Speight[2]; 2.) #3 – Landon Burbage[1]; 3.) #5 – Corbin Cannon[3]; 4.) #30 – David Bernier[4]; 5.) #07 – Brody Zacharias[6]; 6.) #38 – Penelope Carlisle[5]; 7.) #19 – Grant Hooker[7]
Any Car
Feature Race (15 Laps): 1.) #08 – Andrew Watson[4]; 2.) #82 – Dylan Page[5]; 3.) #08Z – Mark Hood[2]; 4.) #91 – Timothy Medeiros[9]; 5.) #43P – Sam Pacitti[8]; 6.) #75 – James Barbour[7]; 7.) #17L – Joe Lazarczyk[6]; 8.) #45 – Mike Sliger[1]; 9.) #22 – PJ Flowers (DNS)
